Author: Staff Writer

Ghana’s healthcare startup, mPharma, has raised $17 million in a new funding round led by Novastar along with UK’s development finance arm, CDC Group and previous investors including Dr. Daniel Vasella, ex-chief executive of Novartis, Silicon Valley investor Jim Breyer and Dompe Holdings. According to the CEO, Gregory Rockson, this…

Estonian based on-demand transportation company, Bolt, announced that it has raised €100 million ($109 million) from Naya Capital Management, a London-based investment firm via in a convertible note. This now raises the company’s valuation to €1.7 billion. The company recently raised a 50 million dollars debt facility from the European Investment…

Nigerian Fintech company, Carbon, has launched Carbon Express – a keyboard extension that allows customers to access Carbon services from within whatever app they are using. With Carbon Express, a customer can securely make payments and transactions without leaving his or her social apps. Carbon Express enables users to initiate…

Nigerian agro-processing company, Tomato Jos, has raised EUR 3.9 million in its Series A funding round to boost the transition to its next stage of growth — the processing and distribution of tomato products. Since its inception in 2014, the company has focused on securing its supply chain through primary…

Social media giant, Facebook, has acquired Giphy, the popular platform of sharable animated images. According to an Axios report, the deal is worth around $400 million. Minutes after the Axios report, Facebook shared a blog post stating that GIPHY is joining the Facebook company today as part of the Instagram…

Some global companies have come together to build 2Africa, a comprehensive subsea cable to serve the African continent and Middle East region. The companies are China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Saudi Arabia-based telecom firm STC, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and African telecom firm WIOCC. The parties have appointed Alcatel…

Effective Monday 18th May 2020, Uber drivers and delivery persons would be required to take selfies to confirm that they are wearing face masks before going online. This is one of measures Uber is implementing in its response to the ease of the pandemic lockdown as cities begin to reopen…

POCO, a spinoff brand from Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi, has introduced a new smartphone called the POCO F2 Pro. This new smartphone is essentially a rehashed Redmi K30 Pro. It is coming out two years after its predecessor Pocophone F1. Xiaomi created the POCO brand to launch high-end, premium smartphones…

TECNO Nigeria, a global premier mobile phone brand, has announced the launch of the groundbreaking Spark 5 smartphone. Equipped with five cameras and a powerful 5,000 mAh battery, the Spark 5 will bring photos and videos to life on its 6.6 inch dot-in-display. The SPARK 5 brings unmatched quality in…

Novastar Ventures recently held the final closing of Novastar Ventures Africa Fund II (NVAF II) with total commitments of $108 million While Novastar’s first fund was limited to East Africa, NVAF II expands its geographic reach from East to West Africa in search of founders building breakthrough businesses in the…

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…