Author: Staff Writer

Kenya is on the verge of becoming one of Africa’s most clearly regulated crypto markets after lawmakers approved the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill—a framework that could bring stablecoins, crypto exchanges, and digital-asset platforms under formal oversight. The bill, championed in the National Assembly by Finance Committee chair Kuria…

African startups raised $141.7 million in September 2025, a 21% jump from $117 million in August, driven by large South African rounds and steady fintech appetite in West Africa. Combined with a $555 million surge in July, third-quarter funding totalled $813.7 million. The quarter thus charted a whiplash trajectory—a July…

Elon Musk has reached a settlement with four former Twitter executives who sued him for more than $128 million over unpaid severance tied to his 2022 takeover of the social platform, now called X. Court papers filed last week say “the parties have reached a settlement” that requires “certain conditions…

YouTube is piloting a path back for some creators whose channels were previously terminated, a notable shift in policy for the world’s largest creator platform. The company says the program will allow “qualified creators” to request a brand-new channel—a clean slate—one year after termination, while keeping long-standing safeguards and Community…

REasy, a payments startup focused on African small and medium-sized importers, has closed a $1.8 million pre-seed round to speed up its mission of simplifying cross-border payments for SMEs. The round brings together a strong coalition of early-stage backers, including Launch Africa Ventures, 54 Collective, Ingressive Capital, Digital Africa, Cameroon…

LemFi, the AI-powered international payments platform built for immigrant communities, has launched Send Now, Pay Later (SNPL)—a credit-enabled remittance feature that lets customers transfer money home immediately and settle the bill later. The product debuts in the UK, where immigrants send nearly £10 billion annually, and targets a familiar pain…

An eSIM (embedded SIM) is a tiny, rewritable chip built into your phone, tablet, or smartwatch that replaces the plastic SIM card. Instead of inserting a card, you download a mobile plan as a secure “profile” (usually by scanning a QR code). You can store multiple profiles, switch lines in…

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi for discoveries that revealed how the immune system applies “brakes” to stop itself from attacking the body. Their work established the biology of regulatory T cells (T-regs) and…

Xiaomi has officially launched two new smartphones in Nigeria—the budget-friendly Redmi 15 and the flagship-class Xiaomi 15T—as part of a dual-track strategy to serve value seekers and power users alike. Both devices are already listed on Xiaomi’s Nigeria site, with local partners confirming retail availability from today. According to Xiaomi…

Lagos made history last weekend, hosting Africa’s first-ever round of the UIM E1 World Championship—the world’s premier all-electric powerboat series—on Lagos Lagoon. In front of an energised waterfront crowd, Team Brazil (by Claure Group) powered to victory at the E1 Lagos GP presented by FirstBank, sealing their maiden win in…

Paxful, once billed as the world’s largest people-powered crypto marketplace, will cease operations by November 1, 2025, closing a 10-year chapter that helped mainstream peer-to-peer (P2P) trading across Africa and beyond. In a statement, the company said the decision follows the lasting impact of historic misconduct by former co-founders Ray…

Sorce, an AI-powered job-search app that lets you swipe right to apply while an agent handles the forms, has officially joined Y Combinator’s F25 batch. The team calls it “Tinder for jobs”: you browse roles, swipe, and Sorce’s automation visits the employer’s site, fills applications, and drafts tailored cover letters—turning…

Social media users in Cameroon are alleging that pro-government accounts are pushing AI-generated campaign videos ahead of the October 12, 2025 presidential election. The posts—circulating on Facebook, X, and WhatsApp—claim slick, narrator-driven clips touting government achievements were synthesized with generative tools, blurring the line between political advertising and synthetic media.…

Editor’s note: This update follows our August 2025 coverage — “Nigeria’s POS Market Faces Shake-Up as CBN Imposes ISO 20022 and Geo-Tagging Rules” — which outlined the tech mandates now being operationalized by today’s circular. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released a new circular—PSP/DIR/CON/CWO/001/049—that resets how agent banking…

Egypt-born cleantech company Tagaddod has secured $26.3 million in Series A financing to scale a technology platform that sources and certifies renewable, waste-based feedstocks for the biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industries. The round was led by The Arab Energy Fund (TAEF) and joined by existing backers including FMO,…

Every HVAC contractor knows that efficiency sells, but in today’s market, efficiency alone isn’t enough. Customers want systems that work harder for longer while leaving a lighter mark on the environment. At the same time, businesses need solutions that cut costs and strengthen their bottom line. The companies making the…

OpenAI is moving from recommendations to transactions. The company introduced Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT, a new flow that lets people buy products without leaving the conversation. The feature is powered by an open standard called the Agentic Commerce Protocol, co-developed with Stripe, and debuts today for U.S. ChatGPT Free, Plus,…

At its 2025 Lei Jun Annual Speech in Beijing—this year themed “Change”—Xiaomi unveiled a sweeping hardware refresh led by the Xiaomi 17 smartphone family, joined by the Pad 8 series and a slate of smart home appliances. The event doubled as a progress report on the company’s “Human × Car…

The Nigerian government is moving to bring remote workers into the tax net under new reforms, aiming for a total tax burden of roughly 23% on their earnings. In June 2025, President Bola Tinubu signed four major tax bills into law, overhauling the system to ensure that freelancers and remote…

Do you ever wonder how doctors and pharmacists know the exact medication you need, including the ideal oral doses and how often you should take it? The answer lies in sophisticated data gathering and analysis, made possible with pharmacokinetic modeling software. This specialized tool has become an important component in…