Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is launching its first Global Fintech Accelerator, giving fintech founders the support and mentorship they need to bring smarter financial services solutions to the market by leveraging the power of AI/ML and the cloud. The AWS Global Fintech Accelerator will select 150 fintech startups harnessing the…

Vodacom today pays tribute to Nigerian Professor Kole Omotoso, widely recognized as the face of Vodacom’s long-running ‘YeboGogo’ advertising campaign, who passed away on Wednesday 19 July 2023 at the age of 80. Most South Africans know Prof Omotoso as “the Yebo Gogo man” from Vodacom’s iconic adverts which the…

Pan-African edge technology provider inq. has announced a new group CEO in Glad Dibetso who succeeds former CEO Nick Reed. Prior to this development, Dibetso was the CEO of Cloud Exchange and later joined the company’s advisory board. He was also the West Africa CEO of Dimension Data. Speaking on the appointment…

In a move that reflects China’s burgeoning AI landscape and its ambition to compete on the global stage, Meituan, the country’s prominent food delivery giant, has invested in Zhipu AI, a promising challenger to OpenAI. The investment comes as a strategic step to bolster Meituan’s AI capabilities and capitalize on…

Are you having trouble accessing WhatsApp? You’re not alone. The messaging app appears to be suffering an outage that’s having an impact on users around the world. Down Detector, which tracks outages for all kinds of websites and apps, has received over 40,000 reports of WhatsApp being down as of…

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard on Wednesday agreed to extend the deadline for their merger agreement until Oct. 18, Activision said in a statement Wednesday. The two companies had originally agreed to complete the transaction by July 18, but regulatory pushback from the U.S. and the U.K. delayed the takeover. If Microsoft had not extended…

Tesla shareholders, including CEO Elon Musk, who were accused of receiving excessive compensation, have reached a settlement with the company amounting to $735 million. The lawsuit, filed in 2020 by the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System, contested the validity of stock options awarded to Tesla’s board of directors from 2017 to 2020, totaling…

Telegram, the popular messaging app with over 800 million monthly users, this week raised $210 million through bond sales. This brings the total amount of debt financing raised by the company to over $1.2 billion. Telegram issued bonds worth $270 million to some investors, including its founder and CEO Pavel Durov, who personally bought about a quarter…

Microsoft just held its Inspire event, where the company announced AI-related products and partnerships. At the event, Meta revealed its partnership with Microsoft which will make Meta’s large language model (LLM) free for the public and researchers. As stated in Meta’s blog, Meta is expanding its partnership with Microsoft by…

Telecommunication is the most competitive and fastest-growing market in the globe. Leading telecom operator Safaricom is set to launch satellite Internet services at a time that Elon Musk’s Starlink has already entered the Kenyan market with a similar offering. A “contestable” market encourages new entrants to enter, which in turn…

Satellite internet firm, Starlink, is now available in Kenya. This move marks the company’s expansion into the African market and is part of Starlink’s mission to provide internet access to remote and underserved areas around the world. The company’s entry into Kenya will be faced with stiff competition from some…

Threads is making a big change as it continues to grow exponentially as an alternative to Twitter but what’s certain is that the Threads and Twitter drama is far from over. Now it seems even Meta’s new app isn’t immune to the problem of bots and spam. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri took to the micro-blogging…

Thunes, the global B2B payment infrastructure platform, has extended its Series C funding to USD $72m, with backing from top global investors – Visa, Singapore-based EDBI Pte Ltd, and Endeavor Catalyst. This latest round helps the company to directly challenge the cross-border payments ‘status quo’ to make them instant, cheaper, and more secure worldwide. Founded in…

Following a bitter, months-long feud over the company’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft and Sony have signed a deal to keep the multi-billion dollar Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation consoles. To be precise it has been 18 months since the acquisition hasn’t closed as several competition regulators have…

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has lost what may be its final attempt to block Microsoft from buying Activision Blizzard. It’s the second loss for the FTC after a US federal judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction earlier this week to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard until the conclusion…

First National Bank (FNB) has appointed Sashin Sookroo as CEO of FNB Connect, its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). Sookroo replaces Bradwin Roper, who joined mobile operator MTN as chief financial services officer in April. With over 14 years of service to FNB, Sookroo has been instrumental in driving innovation across different…

Google is adding some new features to its Bard AI chatbot, including the ability for Bard to speak its answers to you and for it to respond to prompts that also include images. The chatbot is also now available in much of the world, including the EU. In a blog…

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), United States’ competition watchdog, on Thursday, filed its appeal of a federal judge’s decision earlier this week allowing Microsoft to close its $69 billion merger with Activision Blizzard. The legal filing comes after the FTC’s failed effort to block the deal over allegations that the merger would…

The United States’ competition watchdog, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has opened an investigation into ChatGPT creator OpenAI amid suspicions the startup broke the law by scraping public data and publishing false and defamatory information. In a 20-page letter, FTC has requested OpenAI to provide detailed information about its technology and…

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of Twitter, on Wednesday announced the debut of a new AI company, xAI, with the goal to “understand the true nature of the universe.” According to the company’s website, Musk, and his team will share more information in a live…