Author: Staff Writer

African data collection startup Bamba has announced today that it has closed its first seed investment round after raising US$1.1 million (Kes. 110 million) in investment funds, making it one of the largest and most successful seed rounds completed by an East African startup. At closing, Bamba is proud to…

Everyone has had the experience of jumping across multiple banking apps or worst still visiting physical vendors to pay bills like Electricity and DSTv. There is also the pain of trying to transfer money and realising that your token is not with you. In other instances, the frustration is driven…

Have you registered for Google Hash Code 2017? Hash Code is a team-based programming competition organized by Google for students and industry professionals across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. You pick your team and programming language, while Google picks a real-life engineering problem for you to solve. For each round…

Kenyan mobile telecoms company, Safaricom has announced that it invested an undisclosed amount in Kenyan Startup, FarmDrive through Spark Venture Fund. The investment is in the form of convertible notes. FarmDrive uses mobile phones, alternative data, and machine learning to close the critical data gap that prevents financial institutions from lending…

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates has opened a personal account on Chinese-founded messaging service, WeChat. Gates joined WeChat on Saturday, and made his first post: a brief 30 second video in which he welcomed Chinese netizens to his account. His WeChat ID is @gatesnotes. The video starts with Gates greeting in Chinese…

The CashlessAfrica 2017 awards are dedicated to acknowledging creativity, commitment and excellence in the digital financial services industry across Africa. The awards honour the best of the breed across all sectors and segments covering financial technology providers, mobile network operators, financial institutions, mobile money providers, card services, financial institutions, application providers, regulators,…

Dangote Rice, a subsidiary of Dangote Group is set to launch in Sokoto. Sokoto state its multi-million Naira 25,000 hectares of rice outgrower scheme with a prospect of hundreds of thousands of employment opportunities for the rural communities inhabitants. President of the Group, Aliko Dangote disclosed at the weekend that the…

Simon Sinek is a foremost British/American author, motivational speaker and marketing consultant. He is the author of three books including the 2009 best seller Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009). I feel it is imperative that we hear what he has to say about leadership as…

South African communications network operator Neotel has today officially become part of the pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, marking a new era of investment in Neotel’s network and services across South Africa. Through substantial new capital from Liquid Telecom, which is a subsidiary of Econet Global, a revitalised Neotel will…

South African based Video On Demand (VOD) service provider, Showmax has entered into an agreement with Vodacom where you can now use your Call credit to pay for your Showmax subscription. This means that you can now enjoy Showmax without having a credit card. Interestingly, during a recent promotional event,…

Machine Learning is at the heart of the next computing revolution. From cars that drive themselves, to chatbots and recommendation engines on e-commerce sites, Machine Learning will drive innovation across the world as computers take on human tasks. Devcenter has teamed up with GDG Lagos and the Together with Google…

Kwesé TV has emerged as the exclusive African broadcaster of REVOLT TV, the American multi-platform TV Network owned by international music and business mogul, Sean “Diddy” Combs.  Kwesé is the first international distribution partner for REVOLT. REVOLT was introduced to the African market recently when Kwesé launched its full entertainment and sports…

Lagos State government in Nigeria has announced the commencement of the screening and selection exercise for facilitators for CodeLagos. CodeLagos is an initiative organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Education, to teach at least one million Lagos residents to code by 2019 and also foster necessary skills to create sustainable solutions to…

Nigerian startup, Printivo, has been listed as one of the 44 companies in the 20th batch (B20) of 500 Startups companies. Printivo, also known as the Vistaprint of Africa, is a one-stop online print shop for African designers and business to order quality prints and marketing collateral. The 500 Startups’ 20th program…

YouTube has now rolled out mobile live streaming feature for anyone with more than 10,000 subscribers. This feature has been in the oven since June 2016 and now it is ready to serve. According to YouTube, “It’s a launch that’ll put the power of live streaming in the hands of…

Silvertree Internet Holdings, Africa’s leading Internet platform, has acquired Nigerian price comparison site TopCheck  for an undisclosed amount. TopCheck is Nigeria’s leading price comparison site for financial services offering free online comparison for insurance products, loans, and broadband internet plans. The website recorded fast growth in 2016, processing up to…

The application window for the first DealDay event for 2017 is now open. The event will take place on Friday, March 24th 2017. Lagos Startup DealDay is quarterly investment process run by the Lagos Angel Network (LAN). It brings together LAN members, other angel investors and Lagos startup ecosystem players in a process where…

Ex-CEO Millicom/Tigo DRC, Uche Ofodile, has joined Facebook as the Regional Head, Africa – Express Wi-Fi. Before her role as the CEO of Millicom/Tigo DRC, Uche was the Chief Marketing Officer at Vodafone Ghana. Express Wi-Fi is a key component of internet.org’s mission to connect the two thirds of the world that…

Today is Safer Internet Day (SID) and Facebook has launched a series of initiatives to help make the Internet a safer and better place for people across Africa, especially children and the youth. Facebook is partnering with public sector agencies and non-governmental organisations from across Africa under the rallying call “Be the…

H&M Group’s digital fashion house, Ivyrevel, is partnering with technology giant, Google, to bring fashion design into the digital age with Data_Dress. Data_Dress is a personalised dress designed using a smartphone app. The app tracks each user’s activity and lifestyle which is then interpreted into a truly unique, and on-trend, custom-made Ivyrevel…