Author: Staff Writer

Last week Thursday, eleven-year-old Egyptian electronic payments company Fawry, went public on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX). It was the first IPO in Egypt for this year and it was oversubscribed. Listed at a price of EGP 6.46, it soared 30% to close on the first day of trading to give…

Transsion Holdings, the Chinese company behind three popular African phone brands – Tecno, Infinix and itel – has confirmed that it is going to list in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Shanghai’s STAR Market. STAR is the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s new Nasdaq-style board for tech stocks that also went live in July…

TechAdvance, a Nigerian payment application development company has raised $1m from Bahrain-based energy investment company Lamar Holding. The investment will be used to support TechAdvance’s strategy to substantially expand its global expansion. Founded in 2009 by the CEO Edmund Olotu, TechAdvance focuses on developing and deploying niche payment companies to serve the needs…

A couple of days before the Samsung Unpacked event, Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch Active2. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 is the latest addition to the Galaxy smartwatch portfolio. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 is purposefully designed with new, intuitive, and refined features to bring more customization to consumers’ personal…

Apple’s analytics dashboard for artists, Apple Music for Artists, is out of beta and now available for all artists. The data analytics platform was launched and made available to a selected few in beta stage in June 2018. It provides insight into the listening habits of fans, highlighting the number of…

Apple has now agreed to roll out a macOS bug bounty alongside its iOS bug bounty program. Three years ago it introduced a bug bounty program for iOS alone. iCloud, iOS, tvOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS will now be covered. This announcement was made by the head of security engineering and…

Health diagnostic startup, Ilaya Health, announced that it has raised $735,000 from group of angel investors and venture capital (VC) firms including Chinese fund ShakaVC ,Chandaria Capital and Villgro Kenya. According to the Nairobi based company, the fund will be used to grow its operations in Kenya and to build a “flexible” technology platform to manage and…

Though the Samsung Unpacked 2019 event was more or less overtaken by the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Note10 and Note10+, Samsung also launched a Qualcomm powered laptop called the Samsung Galaxy Book S. Galaxy Book S offers uncompromising performance-powered by the Snapdragon 8cx compute platform; the world’s first 7…

French based Vivendi Group has entered an agreement with Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to invest in Kigali Cultural Village (KCV) to boost entertainment in the country. The Kigali Cultural Village is a $40 million project aimed at building an economically viable eco-tourism and cultural village facility within the City of…

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note10 and 10+ at the Galaxy Unpacked 2019 event in Brooklyn yesterday. Here are some of the notable features of the new line of premium smartphones that combines elegant design with powerful performance and productivity tools. Purposeful Design The Samsung Galaxy Note10 comes in two sizes:…

Disney has announced that it would be entering big into the streaming wars with the launch of a bundle including Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu. And this bundle will be available as from November 12, 2019 for $12.99 per month. This bundle offering is certainly cheaper than or on par with streaming…

Hitherto, Google Assistant has only been able to read out SMS messages, with third-party app conversations needing to be manually viewed instead. This is changing as Google has updated Assistant to read out replies from third-party apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, GroupMe, and so on. According to Android Police, Google…

Google shut down its Trips app, Google Trips yesterday August 5. It is moving Google Trips app features in Google Search and Google Maps. It introduced the app in September 2016. Google Trips is a personalized tour guide in your pocket. Each trip contains key categories of information, including day plans,…

Airtel Nigeria has announced to the rollout of a new broadband value plan as part of its moves to extend broadband connectivity in homes and offices across the country. In a statement provided on Sunday, the telco said the launch of the new home offering rides on its expansive and…

The Next Einstein Forum (NEF) today announced its third Class of NEF Fellows, 25 strong scientists, all under 42 years, whose research and innovations are contributing to solve Africa’s and the world’s most pressing challenges. “I am excited to announce the 3rd class of NEF Fellows for two reasons. The…

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has hinted in the introduction of 5% tax for online purchases. According to the Chairman of the revenue service, Mr Tunde Fowler in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, FIRS will ask banks from next year, to charge customers five per cent Value Added Tax…

Team HIVE from University of Ibadan in Nigeria beat four other finalists to  win N1 million as first prize in the recently concluded Professor Ayodele Awojobi Design Competition (PAADC) PAADC, now in its third edition, is an initiative of the University of Lagos Engineering Society. It is designed to spark ingenuity…

On his second attempt, Frenchman Franky Zapata finally succeeded in crossing the English Channel on his designed jet-powered hoverboard. He took off from Sangatte in northern France and it took him just over 20 minutes to make the 22-mile (35 km) trip He achieved this feat on Sunday August 4 after…

South African logistics startup, Cloudline, has been announced as one of the ten winning startups in the 2019 MassChallenge Israel. Founded in 2017 by Harvard graduate Spencer Horne, Cloudline uses autonomous airships to transport goods. Cloudline will participate in the MassChallenge Israel US Roadshow, a curated business trip and introduction to the…

After a complex three year process, Standard Chartered Bank has completed the sale of the majority of its private equity investment portfolio to Affirma Capital backed by Intermediate Capital Group’s Strategic Equity funds. In 2016 the bank decided to reduce its balance sheet exposure to Principal Finance by streamlining it over…