Author: Staff Writer

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…

Egypt-based legal edtech Kouncel announced that it has raised $1.2 million in a pre-Seed round led by Zaldi Capital for investment, the African Development Bank (AFDB), the Academy for Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) and Egypt’s entrepreneurship development project “Tanmia wa Tatweer” Founded by Ibrahim Saleh in 2022, Kouncel is…

Fresh from securing $4 million from a recent seed funding round, Floatpays has raised another $1 million. This time, the on-demand pay provider got the investment from Naspers Foundry, a R1.4 billion early-stage business funding vehicle dedicated to growing South Africa-focused technology companies. Founded in 2019 by Simon Ward, Floatpays…

Egyptian B2B marketplace, Mowarrid, has been acquired by Saudi Arabia’s Sary for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2018 by Ahmed Essam, Mowarrid focuses on B2B food and grocery, allowing retailers to digitally procure their needs across its platform. He led the company toward unlocking a $25 million run rate allowing…

South African based crypto company, VALR, announced that it has raised $50 million what can be termed, in Africa’s largest ever crypto funding round. With this raise, the company is now valued at $240 million. The company has raised a total of $54.9m including the $3.4 million raised in July 2020…

Google announced that as part of its celebration of International Women’s Month in March, it is launching a new integrated campaign titled, #LookMeUp, to show its support for Africa women entrepreneurs during International Women’s Month. According to Google in a blogpost, “Africa is a hotbed of female entrepreneurship. Women make…

Google announced that application for the Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge is now open. The GNI Innovation Challenge is a global program that empowers news organizations from around the world to demonstrate new thinking in digital journalism. The GNI Innovation Challenge in the Middle East, Turkey & Africa region focuses on…

Leading African tech company, MTN Group, announced that it has purchased 144 plots of virtual land in Africarare, the first Virtual Reality metaverse in Africa. This was disclosed via a press release published on the company’s website. Africarare made its debut in South Africa in October 2021, making it the…

Though TikTok debuted in 2016 as a source of 15 second short length videos, it extended its video length to 3 minutes in July 2021. The company has now increased the maximum video length to 10 minutes. Social media consultant Matt Navarra shared this new development on his Twitter handle…

Recently, a new spotlight has been placed on the global issue of toxic work culture. As a result, “the great resignation” has seen a total of 3% of the United States workforce leave their posts. However, there is a silver lining as professionals aren’t just leaving their jobs; most are…

Scholarships should aim at attracting as many qualified applicants as possible. While this piece of information makes acquiring scholarships sound like an easy feat, the truth is promoting scholarships is a challenging task. Scholarship promotion needs to target specific demographics like online coding students, high school and college students in…

Uber has lowered its service fee from 25% to 20% to help enable better earning opportunities for drivers using the Uber App in Abuja and Lagos. This is one way Uber is showing its commitment to drivers. “Uber is committed to helping to facilitate unique earning opportunities for drivers through…

Seplat Energy Offshore Limited, a wholly owned Nigerian subsidiary of Seplat Energy Plc, announced that it has entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement to acquire the entire share capital of Mobile Producing Nigeria Unlimited from Exxon Mobil Corporation, Delaware for a purchase price of $1,283 million plus up to $300…

Construction businesses of all types need to have the ability to deliver services and products in the most efficient and cost-effective way without sacrificing quality. Construction businesses also have unique considerations. For example, the safety of equipment and worksites is essential. So how can the efficiency in construction be improved…

According to a Reuters report, the Ukraine government is calling on the hacker underground to come to its aid by protecting critical infrastructure and conducting cyber spying missions against the Russia. Requests for volunteers began to appear on hacker forums on Thursday morning as Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine.…