Author: Staff Writer

Alphabet, Google’s parent body, announced that it is shutting down the Makani project. Makani was founded in 2006 by a group of kitesurfers who were curious about the potential for kites to unlock wind energy in more places around the globe. Google acquired the startup in 2013, placing the group…

Co-creation Hub (CcHUB), the leading technology innovation centre in Africa in partnership with British Council and Beetfreeks Collective have today announced the launch of New Narratives Pilot, a co-creation lab pilot designed to prototype solutions that help stimulate more plural and diverse narratives to solve the problem of singular, outdated…

Egyptian based fintech startup, kashat, has launched an Android app offering short term loans between EGP 100 (USD 6.33) and EGP 1,500 (~$95) Kashat is designed for the unbanked segment of Egypt and aims to help users cultivate a financial identity by providing them with instant credit. Users can sign…

Former Transcorp Hotels CEO, Owen Omogiafo will be taking over from Valentine Ozigbo as President/GCEO of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp). Valentine will now become a Non-Executive Director of the company. The announcement was part of the recent significant appointments to its Board and Executive Management of the publicly…

Sanofi, a global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the lives of people worldwide, is calling on technology entrepreneurs and startups in Nigeria to participate in its 2020 AfricaTech Challenge. AfricaTech is a lab dedicated by Sanofi at VivaTech to encourage open innovation by African technology startups. The AfricaTech Challenge initiative…

African leaders are putting women front and center of efforts to drive the continent’s economic growth through a game-changing fund that invests in women fund managers and also provides technical assistance. The launch of the African Women Leadership Fund (AWLF) will provide capital to both first time and experienced fund…

“We are sourcing, testing and putting together the best talents among us and making it easy for employers and entertainers to quickly discover, cast, sign or hire these talents in few clicks.” said Latii Brayllot the founder and chief executive of the amazing Quilege.com talent-sourcing platform. Nigeria being a country of over a million…

Barely a month after the ban of commercial bikes and tricycles in Lagos Nigeria, one of the affected bike-hailing companies announced that it has already started its Logistics business. Just yesterday, a twitter user @Mr_Rotimi tweeted that Gokada had come out with a new product called “Chop” to offer food…

GSM Association, the industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide, has cancelled its annual event – the 2020 edition of Mobile World Congress Barcelona because of the Coronavirus outbreak. The event was scheduled to run between February 24th and 27th The GSMA officially made this announcement…

Tech giant, Samsung unveiled its new foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip yesterday at the Samsung Unpacked event in San Francisco. The Z Flip is the latest from the tech giant after pioneering a new mobile category with the launch of the Galaxy Fold last year. The Z Flip features…

Samsung unveiled the new Samsung Galaxy S20 series – Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra – at the Samsung Unpacked event yesterday. The new series combines the power of 5G with camera innovations and artificial intelligence. Here is a comparison of the three models: Each model features a thin and…

Egyptian online doctor booking platform, Vezeeta, has raised $40 million in a Series D round led by by Abu-Dhabi based Gulf Capital and joined by Saudi Technology Ventures (STV). With this raise, this takes the total capital raised so far by Vezeeta to $63 million. Vezeeta currently operates in 50…

In celebration of Safer Internet Day, Facebook announced that it is partnering with nine non-profit organisations and government agencies throughout sub-Saharan Africa to raise awareness about Internet safety and security. Under a program themed “Together for a better Internet”, Facebook will be working with the following organisations: Digify Africa , South…

Search engine giant, Google, has announced the launch of a $1million pan African fund to support innovative project ideas by nonprofits and social enterprises around digital literacy and online safety of children, young people and families. The announcement was made to celebrate the Safer Internet Day – an initiative that originated…

Nigerian startup Global Air Drone Academy (GADA) emerged as the winner of the grand prize of £20,000 in the first ‘African Drone Business Challenge’, hosted by the African Drone Forum (ADF) in Rwanda. Founded by Nigerian Eno Umoh and American Austin Brown, Global Air Drone Academy is a non-profit drone…

Nigeria’s Connected Analytics (ThankUCash) is the only African company in 500 Startups’ 26th batch of startups. The full list was released by Aaron Blumenthal of 500 startups today. This group of 29 companies was chosen from over 3,000 applicants, representing a less than 1% acceptance rate. Founded in 2018, Connected…

Today is Tuesday, the 11th of February 2020 and it is another opportunity for Samsung to unveil its latest arsenal in the smartphone ammunition. Samsung had officially announced the date for the next big smartphone launch event on the 6th of January, 2020. It is Samsung Unpacked event happening live…

Introducing the launch of the third edition of #Africa4Future, a joint accelerator program between Airbus’ global aerospace accelerator, BizLab and Make-IT in Africa, a programme by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit German (GIZ), the German agency for International Cooperation. First launched in 2017, the #Africa4Future initiative was created by…

Nigerian fintech start-up, Aella has raised a $10m debt financing round, from HQ Financial Group (HQF), Singapore-based private company specializing in new material science, semiconductor and blockchain financial investments. This is Aella’s second raise and it is aimed at bolstering the company’s commitment to serve the underbanked population in West…

SunFunder, a solar finance company providing debt capital to solar enterprises in emerging markets, has made its first disbursement in Nigeria, part of a facility of up to $4m with commercial and industrial (C&I) solar developer, Daystar Power. SunfFunder has deployed more than $85m to nearly 50 solar companies since 2012.…