Author: Staff Writer

Mercy Corps Ventures, the impact investing arm of Mercy Corps, has just launched their Crypto For Good Fund. The objective of the Fund is to drive global financial inclusion through a series of pilots, building an evidence base to prove the scalability of blockchain-enabled solutions in making a positive impact on…

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), in conjunction with theIndependent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) raided some digital lending firms allegedly violating consumer rights over the weekend in Lagos, Nigeria. The joint operation…

South African digital bank, TymeBank, in conjunction with the National HealthCare Group, has launched a new medical insurance product named TymeHealth . The Patrice Motsepe-linked bank aims to tap into the market not covered by medical schemes. The product comes in three different plans – costing R139, R299 and R399…

OkHi, a smart addressing startup, announced that it has secured a $1.5 million extension to scale its operations across Africa. Coupled with $1.5 million raised earlier, this brings total seed funds raised to $3 million. Investors in this seed extension include Chapel Hill Denham, Flutterwave’s founder and executives and EXFI,…

Antler East Africa, the East African office of global Venture Capital and Builder Antler announced that it has closed $13.5 million in a funding round to invest in startups in the region. Participants in the raise include Baillie Gifford, a well-known Tesla backer; family offices such as Canica. IFC invested…

Apple unveiled some of its latest innovations in devices at its “Peek Performance” event held virtually – the Mac Studio, M1 Ultra, Upgraded iPhone SE, Upgraded iPad Air. Here is a summary of the event activities: The Upgraded iPhone SE This iPhone SE makes a comeback at $429 to compete…

Ghanaian fintech startup, Dash, announced that it has raised $32 million in a seed round led by New York-based private equity and venture capital fund Insight Partners. Other investors in the round include Global Founders Capital and 4DX Ventures. They participated alongside ASK Capital, Techstars, Guillaume Pousaz’s Zinal Growth Partners, Jitendra…

Today, leading blockchain company Bitmama, announces its latest product – Physical Crypto Cards. This comes three months after Bitmama has successfully launched virtual crypto cards which allow users to spend crypto directly without having to first convert to fiat. Bitmama’s physical crypto cards come on the heels of another recently…

In the wake of Visa and Mastercard’s suspension of operations in Russia, Russia is looking to China’s UnionPay to enable Russians carry out card transactions overseas. Two of the biggest banks in Russia, PJSC Sberbank and Tinkoff Bank said on Sunday that they are considering the possibility of payment cards…

South Korean tech giant Samsung confirmed that it was hacked and the Galaxy source code was stolen. However it did not mention the name of the company responsible. News of the breach filtered out earlier this month, with a hacking outfit named Lapsus$ claiming responsibility. The group claims to have…

Africa’s leading travel company, Wakanow, has launched a new customer loyalty program, WakaPoints, powered by ThankUCash, a leading loyalty and rewards company. WakaPoints is Wakanow’s customer loyalty program and is set towards charting a new course in the Africa travel space. It is an innovative approach to reward loyal travelers…

Naqla, an Egyptian logistics platform announced that it has raised $10.5 million in a Series A funding round to invest further in technology and digitization The fundraise was led by by major investors El Sewedy Capital Holding (SCH), Hassan Allam Holding (HAH), and the Sallam Family. Establishing the business in…

Glovo (South Europe’s largest unicorn) in partnership with Esade Business School is organizing a competition for Early-Stage Tech-Based Startups based in Kenya that deliver value to SMEs. To participate in the competition, the startup must not have raised up to USD20,000 in funding. The aim of the competition is to…

Stablecoins are an essential part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They allow investors to protect their portfolios from the high volatility of the market. Moreover, they provide a clean approach for entering and exiting trading positions. You can do this without having to convert your holdings into fiat currencies and suffer…

Uganda’s healthtech startup, Rocket Health, announced that it has raised $5 million to scale its telemedicine service across Africa. This funding was led by Creadev; an evergreen investment firm backed by Mulliez family, with participation of early-stage African investors Grenfell Holdings and LoftyInc Capital Management. Founded in 2012 by Dr.…

Global payment companies Visa and Mastercard have suspended services to Russia. This means that cards issued by Russian banks will not work outside the country. In a press release from Visa on the 5th of March, it stated that Effective immediately, Visa will work with its clients and partners within Russia to cease all Visa transactions…

Chari, a Moroccan B2B ecommerce platform, announced that it has acquired Axa Credit, the credit branch of Axa Assurance Maroc, for $22 million. Founded by Sophia Alj and Ismael Belkhayat in 2020, Chari is an e-commerce app helping small retailers in French Speaking Africa, particularly Morocco and Tunisia, procure inventory for their stores and get…

Tech giant Microsoft has announced initiatives through its recently established Africa Transformation Office (ATO) to accelerate the growth of 10,000 African startups and fast-track investment in Africa’s start-up ecosystem over the next five years. The initiatives include: support for African startups with $500 million in potential funding in partnership with…

Sudo Africa, a Nigerian Fintech that provides a card-issuing API platform, announced that it raised $3.7 million in a pre-seed funding round. The funding round was led by San Francisco-based Global Founders Capital (GFC). Other participating companies include Picus Capital, LoftyInc Capital, Rallycap Ventures, Kepple Africa, Berrywood Capital, ZedCrest and Suya Ventures.…

Instagram announced that it is launching auto-generated captions in IG Feed videos. The Meta-owned company made this announcement via its Instagram page. “We’re excited to share auto-generated captions for IG Feed videos. Adding captions makes Instagram more accessible for those in the deaf/hard-of-hearing communities. You will have the option to…