Author: Staff Writer

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…

To ride on the increased demand for video calling during this coronavirus lockdown, Facebook has introduced two new features – launch of Messenger Rooms and the expansion of WhatsApp Group Calls. According to Mark Zuckerberg on a Facebook live chat today and on his Facebook page, he said; “More than…

Microtraction boss, Yele Bademosi, has announced the launch of Bundle, an Africa-focused social payments app for cash and crypto with the aim of driving crypto adoption in Africa and bringing more economic freedomand prosperity to all Africans. Bundle allows users to request, send and receive cash or crypto from their…

Amazon has opened its first Amazon Web Services (AWS) datacentre in Africa located in Cape Town, South Africa. This is the 23rd AWS Region, and the first one in Africa. It is comprised of three Availability Zones, bringing the Global AWS Infrastructure to a total of 73 Availability Zones. With this…

Social Media giant, Facebook, has paid $5.7 billion for 10% stake in Jio Platforms Limited, part of India’s Reliance Industries Limited. News of the this transaction was first reported in March this year. Jio Platforms is a next-generation technology company building a Digital Society for India by bringing together Jio’s…

Social media and tech giant, Facebook, has announced the extension of Messenger Kids, a special version of its messaging app aimed at kids under 13 years of age, to 70 new countries. Unfortunately no African country is included in this new list of countries but Facebook says more countries may be…

Mastercard extended access to its signature STEM curriculum, Girls4Tech, through a suite of new online, creative educational resources. The program has been designed to help parents and teachers engage and inspire kids, ages 8-12.Through the newly launched website Girls4Tech Connect, as well as through activities made in collaboration with our education partner Scholastic , teachers and…

While we’re all about innovation here, that does not mean we always insist on breaking the mould. Sometimes, the book is already written on a topic and it’s simply a matter of hitting the books. Other times, persistent guidance from a course lecturer and planned coursework is required to acquire…

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Microsoft have partnered to launch the Learning Passport, a global online learning platform, to help in addressing the education of children during this coronavirus lockdown. The platform is called the Learning Passport and it started off as a partnership between UNICEF, Microsoft and…

Alphabet’s Loon is currently testing its internet connectivity balloons over Kenya for the first commercial service launch. When launched, this deployment will provide internet connectivity to Telkom Kenya’s mobile subscribers. In March this year, the Kenyan government gave formal approval for Loon’s balloons to operate in the stratosphere above the…

Apple announced that it has extended the reach of some of its services into more countries. The tech giant said that the App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and iCloud are now available in 20 more countries, and Apple Music is available in 52 additional countries. The App…