Author: Staff Writer

China’s ride-hailing company, DiDi Chuxing, has launched in South Africa, signalling the company’s first entry into Africa. This new expansion follows the successful pilot launch of its operation in Gqeberha, South Africa, on March 1 DiDi now offers ride hailing services in more than 400 cities in China and 14…

Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, is back online with a new website, https://www.45office.com, after he was banned from social media sites in the aftermath of the January Capitol insurrection. The website offers a narration of the former President and his wife, Melania Trump. The website describes…

Getty Images, a British-American visual media company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, has acquired Unsplash, a website dedicated to sharing stock photography. Though the amount involved was not mentioned, Getty Images will fund the transaction from existing cash balances. Started in 2013 as a Tumblr blog with ten photos, Unsplash…

Uganda Asset Finance firm, Tugende, announced that it has closed $3.6 million in a Series A extension round led by San Francisco and Paris-based VC firm, Partech, with Enza Capital and some unnamed angel investors participating. This follows the completion of a USD $6.3M Series A investment round last year, led by Toyota…

On-demand delivery service, Bolt, has officially launched its food delivery service, Bolt Food, in Nairobi, Kenya. This is coming days after it raised $24 million from World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) for expansion in emerging markets. The company says it has thus far over-boarded 200 restaurants on the platform, among them;…

Tech Experience Centre, Africa’s foremost lifestyle and technology centre, has rolled out a six months’ zero-interest payment offer on various mobile devices and home appliances ahead of the Easter celebration. The special offer, which runs until Saturday, April 10, 2021, is designed to afford shoppers the opportunity of making desired…

TalentQL, a Nigerian-based talent recruitment and outsourcing company, announced that it has been accepted in the 2021 edition of Techstars Toronto accelerator program. The company will join nine other startups, including Plentywaka, in the class. Some days ago, Nigerian bus-hailing startup, Plentywaka announced its participation in the same class. Launched in…

Prosus-owned OLX Group, a global leader in classifieds marketplaces is shutting down Berlin-based Frontier Car Group (FCG) operations in the city. The Classifieds global giant said that it wants to refocus on more local operations in Latin America and Asia under its OLX Autos brand, into which it will fold…

inq., the pan-African multi-cloud digital service provider, has appointed Dr. Christian Wirtz as its new Group CEO from 1 April 2021. Dr Wirtz, currently an Executive in Group Enterprise at MTN, will be taking over from founding Group CEO Geoff Hardwick who has stepped down from the role. Dr Wirtz…

Most people would agree that our trial and prison systems are not perfect. However, most individuals would also agree that we need some way to prosecute those who commit crimes. We must incarcerate them to demonstrate that law and order have their proper place in our society. Wherever and whenever…

Financial Services giant, Visa, has become the first payment network to settle transactions using cryptocurrency. The company announced that it is moving to the use of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin backed by the US dollar, to settle a transaction with Visa over Ethereum—one of the most actively used open-source blockchains. Visa…

Nigeria’s Access Bank announced that it has received approvals from Nigerian and South African regulatory bodies to acquire South African bank, Grobank Limited. The announcement was contained in a statement made available to the Nigerian Stock Exchange signed by Sunday Ekwochi, the Company Secretary of the bank. According to the…

Nigeria’s largest bus network transportation company, Plentywaka, and Libra Motors Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading transportation companies, with specialization in the interstate traveling industry have today announced a partnership to further simplify the bus booking travel experience for Nigerians. This partnership would see both companies combine technology, and marketing, to…

Ethiopian Fintech Startup ArifPay announced that it has secured $3.5 million Funding. It raised the funds from 31 individual investors to support it in its early stages of rollout and growth. ArifPay mPOS ( mobile point of sale) is Ethiopia’s first smartphone, tablet or dedicated wireless device that performs the…

Nigerian payments startup, Blueloop, is joining 9 other African startups as it has been accepted in the 2021 Winter batch of Y Combinator program. Founded in September by Ben Eluan, Osezele Orukpe and Israel Akintunde, Blueloop is the company behind Flux, a mobile payments app that lets you send money, receive…

The Pan-African Fintech Accelerator (PAFA) is excited to announce the selection of the ten (10) fintech startups to participate in the maiden edition of the six-month virtual acceleration and immersion program. Featuring the industry’s most promising and exciting startups, the 2021 cohort brings together businesses from Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal,…

Ten African startups will be pitching at virtual Y Combinator’s W21 batch demo day. The selected startups will receive US$125,000 in seed funding as well as further investment opportunities at a demo day 274 companies from 41 countries are represented within this virtual edition of the programme, with 50 per…

Termii, a YC-backed startup announced that it has raised $1.4 million in seed fund round led by Kepple Africa Ventures and Future Africa. Other participating entities include Aidi Ventures, Remapped Ventures, Nama Ventures, RallyCap Ventures, Assembly Investors, Acuity Ventures, and Kairos Angels. Other notable Industry Angels also joined the round…

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that doesn’t require much introduction. It is a P2P electronic cash system that was developed to replace fiat currencies and over the years, it has really being a competitor for fiat money. The adoption of virtual currency keeps increasing day by day and more people…

Airtel Money, the brand name of Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel Africa, has raised $200 million from The Rise Fund, the global impact investing platform of leading alternative investment firm TPG. Valuing the mobile money business at $2.65 billion on a cash…