Author: Staff Writer

Topship, a Nigerian shipping company, announced that it has been accepted into Y Combinator Winter 2022 Batch. The company joins many successful companies such as Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox, Flexport and Paystack who have gone through the popular accelerator program. Founded in 2020 when the world went on a lockdown due…

Tesla has started accepting dogecoin as payment for merchandise on its online store. Elon Musk first made this known in December 2020, stating the electric carmaker will accept dogecoin as payment for merchandise on a test basis. It was noticed this morning that items listed in the “lifestyle” section of its shop,…

Tech giant Microsoft has now made its Walkie Talkie feature available to all Microsoft Teams’s users. It unveiled the Walkie Talkie feature in 2020 but it has remained inactive for most users. Just yesterday, it announced “the general availability of Walkie Talkie app in Teams on a wide range of Zebra…

As times are changing, it’s important that businesses adapt, otherwise, they may not remain successful. One thing that is always changing and improving is technology. And while some businesses may be hesitant to use technology, many kinds of technology are designed specifically to help businesses. Various kinds of software, for…

Y Combinator, an American technology startup accelerator, announced that it has revised its standard deal upwards for accelerator companies. Last year, the accelerator reduced its investment ticket size to $125k for 7% equity. Now it is offering to invest a total of $500,000. It will still invest $125,000 for 7%…

Smartphone brand Honor, a former Huawei sub-brand, has unveiled its first foldable smartphone called the Honor Magic V, joining the likes of Huawei and Xiaomi in the foldable marketplace. Using a similar folding form factor to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold devices, the device combines a large internal folding display with…

Take-Two Interactive announced today that it is set to acquire mobile gaming company Zynga for $12.7 billion with a mix of cash and stock. Founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City. It owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K. Take-Two’s combined portfolio…

Standard Chartered Plc is closing down 12 branches in Nigeria in its bid to embrace digital transformation in its operations. According to a Reuters report, the bank will operate 13 branches out of its 25 branches and build agent networks. It started shutting down some of the branches from December…

Nigerian fintech startup, Connected Analytics, promoters of ThankUCash, announced that it has finally closed a $5.3 million funding round, which included an undisclosed seven-figure seed last year. The funding round which started early last year, was led by VC firms 500 Global and Unicorn Growth Capital. Other participants included Expert…

The Nigerian government has announced that non-resident companies providing digital services in the country will pay 6% tax on revenues earned and this is contained in the Finance Act signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 31, 2021 The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, made…

In a recent statement filed by tech giant Apple with the SEC, it was revealed that Apple CEO Tim Cook earned $98.7 million in base salary, stock, and other compensation in 2021. The remuneration earned by the Apple top executive in 2021 is 6.7% higher than he earned in 2020 ($14.8…

BFree, an ethical credit Fintech startup, announced that it has raised $1.7 million to expand into emerging markets globally. Participants in this pre-Series A round include 4Di Capital, Octerra Capital, VestedWorld, Voltron Capital, Logos Ventures, and several other angel investors. Coupled with $800,000 raised in a seed round in May…

Tanzanian classified platforms, ZoomTanzania and Kupatana, announced that they are merging to form a new online marketplace. ZoomTanzania is owned by Roam while Kupatana is backed by Frontier Digital Ventures. The two platforms have been long time competitors in the Tanzanian market and with this merger, they become a formidable…

China’s central bank has launched pilot versions of its digital yuan wallet application on mobile phone app stores in a bid to expand its usage to more people in the country. The “e-CNY (Pilot Version)” app was developed by the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) digital currency research institute and…

Sony has announced the next generation virtual reality system for the PS5 console – PlayStation VR2, and the new VR controller, PlayStation VR2 Sense controller. This was made known by Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan at the CES 2022. According to Hideaki Nishino, Senior Vice President, Platform…

Ex- Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes was once touted as “the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire” by trumpeted Forbes magazine. Now she has been convicted of duping investors into believing her startup Theranos, had developed a revolutionary medical device that could detect a multitude of diseases and conditions from a few…

Tech giant Apple has become the first US public company to reach $3 trillion in market value roughly 500 days after it hit $2 trillion level in August 2020. It was also the first publicly traded US company to hit a $1 trillion market cap during intraday trading on 2…

Aumet, a US-based and MENA-servicing B2B healthcare marketplace announced that it has acquired Egypt-based Healthcare supply chain solutions startup, Platform One for an undisclosed amount to become fully active across Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan with more than 5,000 active pharmacies on its platform. Founded in 2015 by Yahya…

Apple is reportedly offering its employees up to $180,000 to retain them and ward off competitors like Meta. According to Bloomberg, “Apple has issued unusual and significant stock bonuses to some engineers in an effort to retain talent, looking to stave off defections to tech rivals such as Facebook owner…

Meta has announced that it is shutting down Jobs on Facebook outside of the United States and Canada effective 22nd February 2022. No reason was given for the decommissioning. This was mentioned in a product announcement that the Jobs on Facebook product was changing on February 22, 2022. Launched in…