Nigeria-based fintech OneFi announced on Friday (March 8) that is has secured $5-million in debt financing from Lendable, which is also a debt platform based in Nairobi and New York. OneFi said the investment will be used to deploy more loans on its consumer facing mobile platform Paylater, which enables…
Author: Charity Mbaka
Popular ride-hailing company Taxify has announced a brand overhaul and move to the new name Bolt. The move was made in line with the firm’s vision of the rapidly evolving transportation industry. Taxify, now Bolt, CEO and co-founder Markus Villig said, “Taxify launched five years ago with a mission to…
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has partnered with Safaricom as it embarks on a push to fully adopt cashless payments. Under the initiative, NSSF will implement an entirely cashless system at all its branch network across the country. The Fund seeks to increase the convenience and efficiency of its…
Brazilian-based cryptocurrency ponzi Velox Global has collapsed after less than two years since launching colorfully in Kenya. The company has gone down sinking millions of shillings belonging to Kenyan investors. The firm billed a membership fee of USD 200, and promised investors eye-watering monthly returns between 30% & 50%. Ms…
South African startup Aweza in partnership with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) elite Human Language Technology Research team have launched a medical text-to-speech pilot dubbed AwezaMed. Awezamed is a build up on their original Aweza app, which was developed in 2014 to help South Africans overcome language…
Kenya’s tel-co giant Safaricom announced that it will be deploying a 400G network link. The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain. This move puts Safaricom among the first globally to commercially deploy the solution to the masses. The 400G link will see Safaricom’s network…
An Amazon Prime cargo jetliner crashed in Texas claiming all three lives onboard. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, the aircraft, which was being operated by Atlas Air Inc., was flying from Miami to Houston when it crashed at around noon Central time on Saturday. Investigators are still working…
Pesapal yesterday announced the integration of Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, FitBit Pay and Google Pay payments on its new tap-and-go, contact-less Sabi M010 terminals. Business owners across East Africa will now be able to conveniently accept digital wallet payments from their customers as more consumers look for cashless options for…
Kenyan Internet Services provider, BRCK, has acquired its rival Surf, in a move that makes it one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest public networks. The details of the deal remain undisclosed as of the time of writing. The company said in a statement on its website that the acquisition will enable…
Egyptian online grocery service, GoodsMart, has secured additional funding from Algebra Ventures ahead of its upcoming Series B round. Pioneering unattended delivery in the MENA region, GoodsMart offers clients an effortless and hassle-free shopping experience using the GoodsMart box, a sleek app, a wallet system for easy payment, and an efficient…
Chinese eCommerce billionaire Jack Ma selected Nailab to run its $10 million Netpreneur Prize for African startups mid last year. The Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI) will officially call for applications starting from the 27th of March 2019. For the next decade the ANPI will host pitch competitions in Africa.…
Ethiopian state-owned telecommunications company, Ethio–Telecom is set to be privatized; being the first of state-owned companies to be so. This was confirmed by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance Communication Director, Haji Ebsa. The director explained that the telco will be prioritized in order to set the pace for others. Four other…
South African AI startup Cortex Logic has raised funding as it gears up to expand into Europe and the United States (US). Cortex Logic, which was founded in 2015, help businesses solve strategic and operationally relevant problems by mobilizing data science, the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data analytics…
This past Friday, Kenyan telcos Airtel and Telkom announced their signing of a binding agreement that sees the two companies merge their mobile, enterprise, and carrier services to form a single joint venture company; Airtel-Telkom. A statement said that as per the deal, Telkom Kenya’s real estate portfolio and specific…
Kenyan telecommunications giant Safaricom is the newest entrant into the competitive and lucrative digital revenue collection space. The firm has now launched a platform allowing motorists to pay for paring at malls or hospitals via M-Pesa. Safaricom has signed a new deal with Kenya Airports Parking Services (KAPS) to launch…
Facebook is opening its first sub-Saharan Africa content review centre in Nairobi. It is expected to provide jobs to a diverse group of 100, who speak several languages, including Somali, Oromo, Swahili and Hausa. Facebook’s Public Policy Director, Ebele Okobi, expressed his excitement about the new review center in a…
CEO and founder of BitPesa, Elizabeth Rossiello, has been elected by the World Economic Forum to co-chair the Global Blockchain Council at the WEF annual meeting in Switzerland. She will join the 30 member council of industry experts that includes ministers, heads of regulatory agencies, CEOs and representatives from leading…
In 2018 Taxify faced a lot of backlash from users, particularly women, several of whom reported they had been sexually abused and/or robbed by Taxify drivers. Taxify rebuffs majority of these claims as fake news. The report states that Taxify user Gloria Nyaruai tweeted that her Taxify driver had attempted…
Uber’s research into the health and wellbeing of Britons discovered that almost half of Brits surveyed say their lifestyle is making them feel stressed. They carried out the survey on 2,000 adults currently residing in the UK. The same research also found that 43% of people made a New Year’s…
Kenya’s M-PESA Global has been shortlisted for the Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO Awards) 2019 under the Best Mobile Innovation for Commerce category. The service, which was launched last November, allows all M-PESA users to send money anywhere across the world. In partnerhip with Western UNion, MPesa global provides its users…