Author: Staff Writer

Nigeria’s finalist in the Seedstars World Competition 2020/21, Ladda lost out to Malaysian FinTech startup Finology. Finology, a startup that enables seamless access to financial products via the use of proprietary technology and digital distribution channels, emerged as the Global Winner of $500K in equity investment. The Seedstars competition, which…

Africa-focused payments giant Flutterwave has partnered with Amole, Ethiopia’s largest mobile Digital Wallet platform to make diaspora remittances easier for over 8million Ethiopians in Diaspora that remit over USD $5 billion annually to Ethiopia. Amole was created by Ethiopia’s Dashen Bank and payments platform Moneta Technologies in 2018. Amole offers…

Google unveiled the new Android 12 at its Google I/O event yesterday. This operating system is available in beta version on the following devices: Pixel 3, 3 XLPixel 3A, 3A XLPixel 4, 4 XLPixel 4A, 4A 5GPixel 5Asus Zenfone 8OnePlus 9, 9 ProOppo Find X3 Pro (model CPH2173)TCL 20 Pro 5GVivo…

One-month old Egyptian digital bank, Telda, announced that it has raised $5 million in a pre-seed round led by Sequoia Capital, Berlin-based Global Founders Capital (GFC);  and Class 5 Global. Founded in April by CEO Ahmed Sabbah and CTO Youssef Sholqamy, Telda is targeting the Gen Z in Egypt’s 100 million people. The…

Healthcare consulting firm, Salient Advisory, has launched a health care report calling on donor agencies, governments and impact investors to accelerate the impact and scale of African health-tech innovators working in supply chain. The report, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and titled, “Innovations in Health Product Distribution in Sub-Saharan Africa,” sets…

After a successful pilot of Chekkit’s drug verification solution in collaboration with blockchain partner, Fantom Foundation, the Afghanistan Ministry of Health has announced the rollout of the service nationally. The announcement was made on the 2nd of May 2021 at an event attended by a host of officials from the local government,…

Jane Manchun Wong, a Technology blogger and app researcher, is famous for uncovering new social media features before they launch. On Thursday, May 13th 2021, she shared on Twitter that the social media platform is planning to launch the new self-served Verification Request form next week.  I was told by multiple sources that…

TikTok is reportedly launching a job service for its users to find jobs. Though known mostly as a video-sharing social networking service, it is looking at empowering the Gen Zs and giving them a chance to meet with big brands that can provide employment opportunities. According to Axios who first…

Meal kit companies surged in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic and addressed two main needs. First, consumers were craving new and exciting flavors to replace restaurant outings. Second, consumers wanted to minimize as much as possible visits outside the home. This trend was truly global and food kit providers across…

In a bid to compete with TikTok, YouTube has launched a $100 million fund to reward YouTube Shorts creators for their most viewed and most engaging content over the course of 2021 and 2022. YouTube started the rollout of YouTube Shorts in September 2020 and according to Alphabet CEO Sundar…

Miss Tamaramiebi Akika, a student of Corona Secondary School, Agbara Estate, Ogun State, has emerged winner of the second edition of the annual BCG Lagos International Women’s Day (IWD) essay writing contest. The annual competition is designed to foster deep intellectual engagement with young students in celebration of women. Each…

The pandemic has taught the world a lot about certain things that we used to take for granted. Shopping habits were already starting to shift before, but we still could go to a store and buy what we wanted, when we wanted. Then, it became something risky to go into…

On Tuesday, online delivery startup, Glovo, confirmed that a cybercriminal managed to break into its platform. According to Forbes, the hacker was selling access to both customer and courier accounts, with the ability to change their passwords, though Glovo emphasized that no credit card data has been stolen. This is…

Today, Facebook is inviting community leaders from Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya to apply for the 2021 Facebook Community Accelerator Program—a program that offers participants training, mentorship and up to $50,000 USD in funds to invest in an initiative that extends their community’s positive impact. The aim of the Community Accelerator is to…

Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, announced that he and his wife, Melinda Gates, are getting a divorce after 27 years. The billionaire made this announcement on Twitter today. He stated that they came to this decision after a great deal of thought and a lot of work on…

Telecoms giant, Verizon, announced that it has agreed to sell its media group, which includes Yahoo and AOL, to private equity firm Apollo Global Management, for $5 billion. This is about half of what the company paid for the two entities – $4.4 billion for AOL in 2015 and $4.5…

AZA Finance, an established provider of currency trading solutions, has announced the acquisition of Exchange4free, a leading foreign exchange, money transfer and payments technology provider serving over 50,000 private and corporate clients worldwide. With this acquisition, AZA Finance will more than double its transaction volume to $2.5 billion in 2021…

MTN Rwanda has announced the setup of its FinTech subsidiary, Mobile Money Rwanda Ltd, to provide and manage Mobile Money services in Rwanda, effective 27th April 2021. The Telecoms company has also appointed appointed Chantal Kagame as its Chief Executive Officer to drive business development, strategy, innovation, and day to day…

Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading various cryptocurrencies, has announced the launch of an NFT marketplace and trading platform, Binance NFT, in June 2021. The new marketplace is expected to become the premier destination for NFTs and digital collectibles across mediums, from visual arts and gaming…

TIME Magazine has just released its TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021 List and Flutterwave is the only African company that made the list. The TIME100 Most Influential Companies list highlights businesses making an extraordinary impact around the world. To assemble it, TIME solicited nominations across sectors including health care, entertainment,…