Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

FNB’s mobile virtual network operator, FNB Connect, has partnered with South African fibre provider Vox Telecom to launch a fibre solution to help SMEs with their telecommunications needs. FNB Connect is also introducing new software vouchers, including Microsoft 365 and antivirus solutions such as McAfee and Norton, that FNB and…

MTN Group announced the appointment of Hermann Tischendorf as Chief Technology & Information Officer for Digital and Fintech. “Hermann brings a solid track record of success in directing organisational expansion, digital product development, operations management, IT budget allocation, as well as mergers and acquisitions,” MTN said. Hermann joins MTN from…

Fintech platform ImaliPay has announced its expansion into South Africa. This move leverages a partnership with Stitch to rely on its payment and open banking infrastructure. ImaliPay enters the country with vendor partnerships already in place to facilitate buy-now-pay-later services. Since launching in 2020, ImaliPay has powered over 400 000 litres of fuel, and…

African Rainbow Capital (ARC) Investments has announced that Tyme, including TymeBank South Africa and Tyme Global, completed its Series B Capital raise with the introduction of two new shareholders. Tyme Global represents the Singapore registered company through which the Tyme Intellectual Property is held and which serves as the vehicle…

Recently, Partner Elite (PE), a division of Raizcorp, together with Karoobos Investments invested an undisclosed, but significant, sum in IoTdc, an innovative and rapidly growing internet-of-things (IoT) company. This partnership will provide support to scale IoTdc. Even though the majority of IoTdc’s clients are large solution integrators and IT resellers…

Leading B2B eCommerce and embedded finance platform in Africa TradeDepot which connects consumer goods brands to thousands of retailers and help out with distribution, has raised $110 million in new equity and debt funding round as it looks to bring in more retail stores and expand its Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) service…

The digital industrial revolution has the potential to unleash a surge of innovation that could transform industries and improve well-being across the Africa region. However, for nations to compete in the new globalisation environment, they need to set their sights on knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven fields that can create value well into…

The MTN Group says it will implement a mandatory vaccination policy for staff in South Africa and other major operating markets from January 2022. It comes after the National Institute for Communicable Diseases on Sunday reported 11,125 new cases, representing a 23.8% positivity rate, and taking active cases to around…

Nigerian media and data analytics startup, Dataphyte, which provides products and services, such as data journalism and data-driven investigations, to help the public and private sectors generate value from data and socio-economic insights recently announced that it has raised a seed funding of $100,000 from Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF).…

Donald Trump’s new social media firm confirms to have entered into agreements to raise $1bn (£755m) from investors ahead of a planned stock market listing. The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) also known as T Media Tech LLC is currently working on launching a new social media app called Truth…

A proudly South African online software platform called Exatype developed by Hyrax Biosciences, a company that spun out of the University of the Western Cape (UWC), has played a critical role in SA’s early detection of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, otherwise known as COVID-19. South Africa has…

Bitcoin prices dropped sharply overnight Saturday, plunging to a low near $43,000 as a combination of profit-taking and macro-economic concerns triggered nearly a billion dollars worth of selling across cryptocurrencies. The world’s most prominent cryptocurrency pared losses subsequently, last changing hands at around $49,663, according to Coin Metrics. From a 24-hour…

Toyota has reportedly partnered with China’s BYD to build a new affordable electric car to launch next year. The Japanese automaker has widely been recognized as a laggard in the transition to electric vehicles. Years of betting on hydrogen fuel cells and hybrid vehicles has put Toyota behind on battery-electric…

Capitec, one of South Africa’s largest digital banks, is expanding its digital offering with the launch of Capitec Pay Me, a new solution enabling its clients to generate a personalized QR code on the bank’s app to receive payments immediately and securely from other Capitec clients. With over 9 million digital…

Carry1st, one of Africa’s leading mobile games publishers, today announced that it has partnered with online payments pioneers PayPal and Chipper Cash, a cross-border payments company recently valued at $2-billion, to enable people across Africa to easily and securely purchase virtual goods and services online. After these partnerships consumers across Africa…

Absa Bank has signed a long-term contract with Salesforce, a global leader in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, to “bring about a step-change in servicing individual and business-banking customers as the bank accelerates its digitization programme,” according to the South African lender. In line with its efforts to get closer…

World Mobile has announced the launch its unique hybrid mobile network which is supported by low altitude platform balloons in Zanzibar. The company says it plans to roll-out its innovative service providing reliable mobile internet to more people at lower cost across African. These balloons act as floating cellular base…

Google is getting into the festive spirit today by announcing a bunch of new Android features, which are coming soon or available today. Back at I/O, Google announced that Android 12 will let you unlock compatible vehicles with just your phone. Digital car key functionality for locking/unlocking and starting vehicles is going…

Microsoft has made the HoloLens 2 available in South Africa, bringing mixed reality to local enterprises across various sectors. HoloLens 2 is a comfortable mixed reality device, with industry-leading solutions that deliver an immersive experience. Mixed reality covers the spectrum from augmented reality to virtual reality, so that these worlds…

Microsoft has launched Teams Essentials, a standalone version of its video conferencing software explicitly aimed at small businesses (SMB market). Previously, businesses who wanted a more capable Teams experience would have to subscribe to one of the company’s Microsoft 365 packages. Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, said: “Teams Essentials simplifies…