Author: Staff Writer

Brimore, a social commerce platform, has raised $3.5 million in a pre-series A round led by Algebra Ventures, accompanied by Disruptech, Vision Ventures, 500 Startups, and Flat6Labs. Brimore, founded in 2017 by Mohamed Abdulaziz, Ahmed Sheikha, and Mahmoud Refaay, is a technology-powered retail distribution platform that allows manufacturers direct access to…

Contrary to popular belief, Human Resources is not limited to just the hiring and onboarding of new employees. There are numerous job responsibilities that the HR personnel have to plan and carry out in order to maintain an efficient workflow in an organization. One of the most sought after HR…

Microsoft on Monday unveiled two new Surface devices – Surface Book 3, the company latest, most powerful laptop ever; Surface Go 2, a more affordable and portable 2 in 1 tablet; and two new Surface accessories – Surface Headphones 2, an updated pair of wireless noise-cancelling headphones and Surface Earbuds;…

Ride hailing giant, Uber, has announced that it is laying off 3,700 employees globally due to the adverse effect of the coronavirus. The layoffs will mainly affect those in support and recruiting divisions. According to the company in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, this is one of the…

Tech giants Apple and Google have stated that they would ban the use of location tracking in apps that use a new contact tracing system that they are building to assist in slowing down the spread of the coronavirus. Both companies had stated last month that they were working together…

Apple has announced that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC20) will kick off as from the 22nd of June and it will be free for all developers. This is the first time in its 31 year history that it will hold virtually, in the Apple Developer app and on the Apple Developer website. The…

Within the last couple of days, you may have noticed a Google Meet pop-up as shown below when you get into your Gmail box. The pop-up shows that Google Meet is now available via Gmail. This means that you can initiate a Google Meet video conferencing call from your Gmail…

African based software development outsourcing company, Andela, is laying off 135 employees across four of its operating countries. This announcement was made by Jeremy Johnson, the company’s CEO yesterday in a company-wide video conference call with all staff in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Egypt and the United States. The…

Digital music service provider, Spotify has announced the launch of its Premium family plan in South Africa. This allows six people subscribe to the Premium Family plan using a single shared subscription. Priced at R99.99 per month, it provides the following features: Family Mix: a playlist for your family, regularly…

Apple has just unveiled an updated 13-inch Macbook Pro with new Magic Keyboard, double the storage, and faster graphics performance. The Magic keyboard was first introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro and added to MacBook Air in March. Replacing the unreliable butterfly switches with the Magic Keyboard, the Macbook Pro…

Food delivery service, Uber Eats announced that it would be shutting down its operations in Egypt, Czech Republic, Honduras, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and Ukraine by June 2020 and transferring its operations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Careem, the Dubai-based ride-hailing and delivery company that was acquired by Uber last year.…

Egyptian blockchain-based startup, Pravica, announced that it has raised $500k in pre-seed funding round led by 500 Startups. and joined by Modus Capital and DYRES Venture. Founded in April 2019 by Mohamed Hussein Abdou, Pravica (formerly known as Dmails) intends to aggressively build its customer base, expand its team, and…

Fresh from partnering with First City Monument Bank and Ogun State Government to set up a COVID-19 test lab in Ogun state, 54Gene, the African genomics startup has been contracted by Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) to set up a test lab in Kano. The lab will start with a testing capacity of 400 tests…

Ghana’s retail-tech startup Sumundi has secured an undisclosed amount from Greentec Capital Partners. Sumundi has developed an innovative digital retail management platform designed to help retailers manage, grow, and sustain their businesses. Sumundi’s retail management platform aims to facilitate and promote Africa’s retailers with a suite of services to help…

Financial services giant, Visa, has agreed with Kenyan mobile operator, Safaricom, to allow the connection of M-Pesa’s 24 million users and 173,000 local merchants to Visa’s 61 million merchants and its more than 3 billion cards. Both companies also agreed to collaborate “on the development of products that will support…

Editor’s Note: On the 5th of May, we reported that Helium health raised $7 million. However, we have had to update the story based on new reports. In fact the funds raised was $10 million. Lagos-based healthcare startup, Helium Health, has secured $10 million investment from a group of investors…

Chinese social media giant, TikTok and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged to donate $10 million each to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to support its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in lower-income countries in Africa. “This important contribution to Gavi will not only help us to deploy vaccines, once developed, against…

Google announced that it will be making its premium video conferencing service, Google Meet, free for everyone. Starting in early May, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to our business and education users, such as simple scheduling and…

Instagram has just introduced a new feature called Live Donations which you can use to raise funds for a nonprofit on Instagram Live. A couple of days ago, the Facebook-owned company introduced a Donation sticker for Stories directly linked to nonprofit groups’ accounts. To use Live Donations, tap the camera…

Global digital payments company, Visa, has announced a strategic partnership with payments provider, Pesapal to drive connected digital payments to consumers and businesses in Africa. Pesapal will become a Visa Principal Member driving small business acquiring and issuing. Pesapal has created Africa’s only payments ecosystem that offers Ecommerce, Point of…