Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

Discord, the popular messaging service for gamers, has confirmed that it is laying off 17% of its workforce, amounting to 170 employees. The company had previously laid off around 40 employees in August. The recent layoffs were deemed necessary for efficiency following a hiring surge in 2020, according to Discord…

The European Union (EU) is investigating the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI to determine if it could necessitate a full merger investigation. This follows increasing scrutiny of OpenAI, known for its significant influence in the AI industry, which experienced a leadership crisis last year leading to the abrupt dismissal and…

Pan-African eyecare startup, Lapaire, has secured US$3 million in equity funding to support its expansion plans across Africa. Established in 2018, Lapaire has been delivering reliable and accessible eyecare services by offering stylish, quality eyeglasses at reasonable prices through a customer-centric one-stop-shop model. Since its inception, the startup has conducted…

Microsoft has overtaken Apple to become the largest company globally by market value, influenced by the surge in artificial intelligence. Microsoft’s share price increased by approximately 1% in early trading, pushing its market value to $2.87tn, nudging ahead of Apple whose shares declined nearly 1%. Throughout the trading day, the…

The religious TV network, Emmanuel TV, founded by the late SCOAN (Synagogue Church of All Nations) leader T.B. Joshua, is set to be discontinued from broadcast by Multichoice. This decision comes in the wake of a contentious documentary on the clergyman by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Multichoice has announced…

BlackRock, the world’s largest money management firm, is set to sack around 600 employees as a strategy to reallocate resources in response to the evolving technological landscape in the finance sector. The speed at which the industry is changing is unprecedented since the foundation of BlackRock, according to an internal memo…

OpenAI has recently launched a platform named GPT Store which hosts a variety of GPTs (custom chatbot apps powered by the company’s AI models like GPT-4 and DALL-E 3). This store is accessible via a new tab in the ChatGPT client and features a broad range of GPTs developed by…

Baims, a leading Kuwaiti ed-tech company, has acquired Egyptian online tutoring startup Orcas in a strategic drive to tap into the flourishing $100 billion education market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Orcas, co-founded by Hossam Taher and Amira El Gharib, offers personalized one-on-one tutoring services designed to…

Badili, a Kenyan-based start-up specializing in the refurbishment and resale of mobile phones has procured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from E3 Capital. The funds will be used to expand Badili’s operations across East Africa. Launched in 2021 in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, Badili recycles, fixes, and relaunches used…

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced plans to acquire networking equipment provider Juniper Networks in an all-cash deal worth approximately $14 billion, or $40 per share. HPE anticipates the deal will close in late 2024 or early 2025. The announcement was made after the Wall Street Journal reported that the…

Amazon is reducing its workforce in the Prime Video and MGM Studios division by hundreds of jobs, according to an email sent out by division leader Mike Hopkins. He announced on Wednesday morning that “several hundred roles” would be cut. The layoffs come the same day Amazon’s Twitch livestreaming unit announced…

Cynoia, a Tunisian startup focused on team collaboration, has secured EUR850,000 ($930,000USD) in funding to expand its operations into the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), specifically targeting Senegal and Ivory Coast. At present, Cynoia caters to over 3,000 users across nine countries, and the funding round was led…

Educational technology app Duolingo has laid off about 10% of its contract workers as part of a shift towards greater use of artificial intelligence (AI). While not all the layoffs stemmed from technology changes, the language learning company did let some contractors go at the end of 2023 in order…

Twitch, the livestreaming platform owned by Amazon, is reportedly set to reduce its workforce by 35%, which equates to nearly 500 employees, according to Bloomberg. The company is expected to announce this reduction later this week. This marks another setback for the already troubled company, which last year saw staff…

Unity Software has announced it is cutting 1,800 jobs, about 25% of its workforce, marking another wave of layoffs at the gaming technology company. The announcement caused a nearly 5% upturn in the stock in extended trading. In a regulatory filing, Unity stated that these cuts form part of a…

Ampersand, a trailblazing electric transport energy firm in Africa, has successfully raised $19.5 million in funds. A notable $7.5 million of this total was secured as new debt from the Africa Go Green Fund (AGG), managed by Cygnum Capital. This funding will be utilized for three primary objectives—to boost the…

A coalition of Nigerian banks, fintechs, and blockchain firms is working to create the first regulated Naira stablecoin, known as cNGN. This consortium-based Naira stablecoin will be compliant and regulated, with its value pegged on a one-to-one basis to the Nigerian Naira (NGN). Unlike previous stablecoin versions, cNGN will be…

SpaceX faces a complaint from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging the illicit dismissal of eight staff members who drafted a letter criticizing Elon Musk’s social media conduct as perpetually distracting and embarrassing. As per the filing, SpaceX’s firing of these employees was an unfair labor practice, as they…

A new youngster has just moved into the neighborhood. T-Vencubator, situated in the epicenter of Egypt’s innovation hub, presents ‘Vencubation,’ an innovative combination of venture capital and incubation, dedicated to resolving daily challenges through technological solutions. As the first Egyptian tech venture capital firm and incubator, T-Vencubator invests solely in…

Akshay Grover, the Group CEO of Cellulant, a leading African payment company, will step down in order to focus on personal matters. Grover joined Cellulant in January 2021 as CFO and became Acting CEO in May 2021 after the resignation of previous CEO and co-founder, Ken Njoroge. Cellulant has affirmed…