Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

Twiga Foods, a Kenyan agri-tech startup has secured US$29.4 million in debt funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support more than 300 irrigated medium-scale contract farmers to complement Twiga’s seasonal smallholder farmer supply base. Founded in 2014, Twiga Foods is a business to business food distribution company that builds fair…

Facebook is publicly testing a dark mode for its mobile app, and it is seemingly rolling out to public users, reports Engadget, and this new mode is available on both Android and iOS, and can be accessed by navigating to Settings and Privacy under the Menu tab. RELATED READING: FACEBOOK IS…

The eighth Angel Fair Africa (AFA), is going to take place on 5 November 2020, so due to the coronavirus pandemic just like with most global events that happened this year will be held virtually with 43 leading global investors from Africa, Europe, US and the Middle East signing up to…

The South Africa Virtual 2020 programme is officially open for early-stage entrepreneurs to apply until 31 January 2021. Led by The Founder Institute, one of the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerators, the programme allows entrepreneurs to develop their businesses with the help and support of startup experts. Startup accelerator, the Founder Institute was founded…

Applicants are now invited to apply for the Standard Chartered Women in Technology Incubator Kenya and the programmme is an initiative of Standard Chartered in partnership with @iBizAfrica Centre, Strathmore University. Standard Chartered Women in Technology Incubator Kenya is Africa’s leading women in tech incubator, aligning with calls for more diversity in…

Rain has launched a new mobile app called “My Rain”, which allows customers to manage their accounts and data usage from their mobile phones. The app is currently available to download from the Google Play Store and Huawei AppGallery for Android devices with Google Mobile Services (GMS) and Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), respectively. The application allows…

Kenyan startup, Data Integrated, which provides matatu cooperatives with bus management and digital ticketing systems, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from venture capital firms, Toyota Tsush, and CFAO. The funding received will be used to promote the startup’s efforts in the digitization of public transport in Africa. In a press statement,…

WhatsApp has released new beta updates for the iOS and Android versions of its messaging application, WABetaInfo reports. According to the report, the latest WhatsApp beta update released for iOS through the TestFlight beta programme includes advanced wallpaper configuration tools. These options allow you to customise the in-app wallpaper displayed behind chats…

Pick n Pay has announced that till receipts can now be sent directly to its Smart Shoppers’ email accounts or can be loaded onto their mobile apps. The South African retailer said that this will replace a printed receipt, and is applicable across all Pick n Pay stores – including…

Popular instant messaging platform, WhatsApp Messenger plans to add on additional features for SMEs and startups to market and sell their products via the platform. The new proposed features aim to provide seamless communication between consumers and business owners. This will allow consumers to purchase products directly from SMEs and startups. …

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 series graphics cards are official. AMD unveiled three new graphics cards to compete with the Nvidia RTX 3000 series namely the Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT. These graphics cards use AMD’s RDNA 2 gaming architecture, which includes improved energy efficiency,…

Nokia has announced that it is supplying 5G services to Vodacom by deploying its 5G radio, core, and fixed network solutions across Vodacom’s network. Vodacom is using Nokia’s 2G, 3G, 4G and fibre access networks, as well as 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) and mobile broadband services. Nokia added that…

As part of its Research and Innovation strategy, SENTECH has launched the #HackTheFuture challenge to encourage coders, developers, technologists, and creators to test their skills in 5G, cloud, and open computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence, web, or mobile applications. The aim of the challenge is to create an innovation that can…

MTN has launched a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service which will allow other operators without radio access networks of their own to launch mobile networks using MTN’s infrastructure. The company said that with its extensive national network that covers rural areas, it offers MVNO partners a high-quality network experience…

A South African school payment’s startup, Karri, has expanded its offering as it launches a new feature on its mobile app to screen students for Covid-19 symptoms before arriving at school. The startup’s online platform has created a Covid-19 screening questionnaire for students which instantly shares the results with their schools…

Ponatshego, a new Botswana-based tech startup, has launched a digital marketplace platform that aims to assist African SMEs in transitioning to an online marketplace and in turn, SMEs are able to sell their products online, allowing a wider customer reach and an increase in overall sales and profits.  Digital transformation…

Liquid Telecom, Africa’s largest fibre network provider, has raised US$307 million from shareholders to expand its data centre business and the new money includes an additional US$40 million equity investment from the CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution. This is CDC’s second investment in Liquid, after a US$180 million equity…

Reports suggests Discord has so far registered 250 million users and around 15 million of them active on any given day… which is the chief reason among others, why it has become a popular target for cybercriminals especially during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Discord has one persistent threat…

Telkom has came down heavily, criticizing the roaming deals Vodacom and MTN have initiated with smaller networks and claims that ICASA should investigate these deals in more depth. Speaking at the Mobile Broadband Services Inquiry public hearings, Telkom argued that these do not make sense as roaming deals in the…

FarmCrew, an investment fund dedicated to helping Agric-tech Startups kick start their innovative ideas and solutions, has created an innovation fund that awards 10 African founded agritech startups an opportunity to receive a $50 000 investment fund. The applications for the FarmCrew Innovation Fund closes on 31 October 2020. This…