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Blessed Frank

Exploring Africa's Tech Frontier | Unearthing Startup Gold 💰 | Decoding Crypto & Web3 | Your Guide to Emerging Markets #TechJournalist

Orange Egypt Partner Mohamed Nagati, Victory Link to Launch Start-up Mentoring Platform for Egypt's Talents

Orange Egypt Partner Mohamed Nagati, Victory Link to Launch Start-up Mentoring Platform for Egypt's Talents

Orange Egypt, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators has announced the launch of an integrated digital platform that supports and guides promising, innovative, and creative ideas to encourage young talents in Egypt to go through the experience of establishing start-ups and gaining the knowledge needed to turn their

YAP, Leading Fintech in MEASA Secures $41M Funding to Expand into Egypt and Three Other Markets

Aljazira Capital

YAP, Leading Fintech in MEASA Secures $41M Funding to Expand into Egypt and Three Other Markets

YAP, the leading fintech disrupting the digital banking experience in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, announced today that it had received a $41 million investment to fund its operations and growth from Saudi Arabia’s Aljazira Capital, Abu Dawood Group, Astra Group, and Audacia Capital. The Dubai-based fintech

TPAY MOBILE's CEO, Sahar Salama relinquishes Group CEO duties to Become Group Chairwoman

TPAY MOBILE's CEO, Sahar Salama relinquishes Group CEO duties to Become Group Chairwoman

TPAY MOBILE, the leading mobile payments platform in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey (META) has appointed Gaston Aussems, previously CEO of Mollie, as Group CEO, effective July 4, 2022. Announcing the appointment, the founder and former CEO of TPay Mobile, Sahar Salama, now the group chairwoman said “All of

Amazon Egypt Rolls out BNPL Offer in Egypt via valU

Amazon Egypt Rolls out BNPL Offer in Egypt via valU

Amazon is introducing installment payment plans through valU, the leading Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) lifestyle-enabling fintech platform in MENA and a subsidiary of EFG Hermes Holding, in its quest to improve the shopping experience for its Egyptian customers through flexible and affordable payment options. Customers who are also valU customers will

Another Internet Shutdown in Sudan: The Actual Cost of Weaponizing Internet Access by the African Gov't

Internet shut down in Africa

Another Internet Shutdown in Sudan: The Actual Cost of Weaponizing Internet Access by the African Gov't

Internet penetration in Africa remains the lowest globally, as only four in every ten persons in the continent had access to the internet as of December 2021. Moreover, the online penetration rate on the continent was below the global average, measured at around 66 percent. Nevertheless, according to Statista forecasts,

Gurbhej Dhillon, Goldman Sachs’ Former MD, Joins Flutterwave as New CTO

Chief Technology Officer

Gurbhej Dhillon, Goldman Sachs’ Former MD, Joins Flutterwave as New CTO

Gurbhej Dhillon, the former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, has been appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Flutterwave, a leading fintech company, and Africa’s most valuable startup. The fintech company says that the new CTO will be responsible for further developing Flutterwave’s innovative technology platform, which currently supports

Moove, Nigerian Mobility Fintech, Secures $20m Debt Funding from British International Investment, BII

British International Investment

Moove, Nigerian Mobility Fintech, Secures $20m Debt Funding from British International Investment, BII

Moove, a Nigerian mobility fintech startup, has secured a $20 million four-year structured debt funding from the British International Investment (BII) – (formerly CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and Colonial Development Corporation), the UK government’s Development Finance Institution (DFI). Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi founded Moove in 2020 to

Kukua, Nairobi-and London-based Edutainment Company Gets $6M from Alchimia and Tencent-led Series A

Kukua, Nairobi-and London-based Edutainment Company Gets $6M from Alchimia and Tencent-led Series A

Kukua, a Nairobi- and London-based educational entertainment company and the creators of “Super Sema,” the first African animated superhero franchise, has secured $6 million in Tencent and Alchimia co-led series A round, with the participation of EchoVC, firstminute Capital and Auxxo Female Catalyst. The children’s entertainment content creator says

Snapchat Officially Launches its New ‘Snapchat+’ a paid subscription Option

Snapchat Officially Launches its New ‘Snapchat+’ a paid subscription Option

Snapchat, a Social media giant, has officially launched its paid subscription plan called Snapchat+ that will offer exclusive features like the ability to change the app icon and being able to see which people have rewatched your Stories. The company says the features will be available at $3.99 per

eNaira Now on Remita’s Platform: A Quick Look at how the Digital Currency is Fairing so Far

eNaira Now on Remita’s Platform: A Quick Look at how the Digital Currency is Fairing so Far

eNaira, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) digital currency, received a significant boost as Remita, Africa’s leading electronic payment platform, added it as an additional payment option across all its touch points. Individuals and businesses can now use eNaira to make and receive payments for all utilities, services,

Morocco Finalizes Crypto Regulation: Why More African Countries Should Follow Suit

Morocco Finalizes Crypto Regulation: Why More African Countries Should Follow Suit

Despite growing use, cryptocurrencies have struggled for legitimacy in Africa for years. However, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, crypto usage on the continent is growing faster than anywhere else, with transaction volumes increasing 1,200 percent between July 2020 and 2021. Reports suggest that one in every three

Egypt's Fintech Startup, MNT-Halan Secures $150M Securitized Bond Issuance

Commercial International Bank

Egypt's Fintech Startup, MNT-Halan Secures $150M Securitized Bond Issuance

MNT-Halan, Egypt’s leading fintech startup, and its fastest-growing lender to the unbanked and underbanked announced yesterday that Tasaheel, its subsidiary acquired recently, has securitized $150 million of its loan book in the first issuance of a $600M program with Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt’s largest private sector bank.

Egypt's Healthtech Startup, Vezeeta, Lays Off 10% of its Staff: The Recent Wave of Downsizing by African Startups

African tech startups

Egypt's Healthtech Startup, Vezeeta, Lays Off 10% of its Staff: The Recent Wave of Downsizing by African Startups

Judging by how amazingly the African tech startups performed in fundraising in the Q1 2022, one would have expected the tech ecosystem to continue to do wonders and possibly, outperform its last year’s record, where it secured $4.4 billion in funding. According to data from the Big Deal,

Nigeria’s Social Payments Startup, Abeg App Gets Mobile Money License by CBN, Rebrands as PocketApp

Nigeria’s Social Payments Startup, Abeg App Gets Mobile Money License by CBN, Rebrands as PocketApp

Abeg Technologies Limited, acquired by PiggyTech Global Limited, the parent company of PiggyVest, today announced that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had granted it an Approval In Principle (AIP) to operate as a Mobile Money Operator (MMO) in Nigeria. Abeg is currently the first Nigerian social commerce platform to

TLcom Capital Appoints Eloho Omame As Partner to Back More Pre-seed and Female-led Startups

TLcom Capital Appoints Eloho Omame As Partner to Back More Pre-seed and Female-led Startups

TLcom Capital, an Africa-focused venture capital firm, has announced the appointment of Eloho Omame, the Co-Founder & General Partner at FirstCheck Africa as a partner to facilitate its deployment of TIDE Africa Fund II its new $150 million pan-African tech fund. Eloho, a Co-Founder and General Partner at FirstCheck Africa,

Appraisal of Twitter's Journey as it Rolls Out New Features

Appraisal of Twitter's Journey as it Rolls Out New Features

Twitter’s importance in our daily lives cannot be overstated; from politics to pop culture to ordinary discourse, the microblogging site now serves a considerably different role than it did a few years ago. Twitter was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone to

Coinbase Set to Launch First Crypto Derivatives Product for Retail Traders

Coinbase Set to Launch First Crypto Derivatives Product for Retail Traders

Coinbase, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, is launching the first cryptocurrency derivatives product for retail traders. This new derivative is dubbed Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, formerly FairX, later this month in the hopes of attracting more retail traders. Coinbase Derivatives Exchange hopes to capitalize on a $3 trillion

Kenya’s Kune Food Shut Down Operations Barely After 10 months, Blames Hash Economic Weather

Kenya’s Kune Food Shut Down Operations Barely After 10 months, Blames Hash Economic Weather

Kune Food, a Kenya-based food tech startup, announced Wednesday that it is shutting down operations. The founder and CEO, Robin Reecht, attributed inflated food prices that have hampered the startup from raising another round since its seed round last year. Reecht founded Kune Food in December 2020 to offer ready-to-eat

Egypt’s Fintech, MNT-Halan Acquires Talabeyah, B2B E-commerce Startup for an Undisclosed Amount

Egypt’s Fintech, MNT-Halan Acquires Talabeyah, B2B E-commerce Startup for an Undisclosed Amount

MNT-Halan, a leading Egyptian fintech startup and the fastest-growing lender to the unbanked and underbanked has acquired Talabeyah. This fellow Egyptian B2B e-commerce startup provides FMCG supplies directly to small merchants, retailers, and, soon, consumers, meeting all of their requirements with next-day delivery for an undisclosed sum. The transaction’s

Egypt’s AI Startup, Synapse Analytics Secures $2M Pre-Series A to Help Businesses Adopt AI

Artificial Intelligence

Egypt’s AI Startup, Synapse Analytics Secures $2M Pre-Series A to Help Businesses Adopt AI

Synapse Analytics, an Egyptian AI-technology startup, has secured more than $2 million in a Pre-Series A funding round to accelerate AI adoption for African businesses. Egypt Ventures led the pre-series A round with participation from its existing investors, Cloudera founder Amr Awadallah and Simon Rowlands of Africa Platforms. Ahmed Abaza

Thepeer, API-based Startup Gets $2.1M for Seamless Wallet Transfers between African Businesses

Thepeer, API-based Startup Gets $2.1M for Seamless Wallet Transfers between African Businesses

Thepeer, an African tech infrastructure startup facilitating seamless wallet transfers between businesses, has secured $2.1 million in Raba Partnership-led seed round. This comes a year after the startup raised a $220,000 pre-seed round. Ralil_cap Ventures, BYLD Ventures, Timon Capital, Musha Ventures, Sunu, Uncovered Fund, and African fintech

Ghanaian Fintech Startup, Fido Raises $30M Series A Round to Launch New Products, Expand to Uganda

Ghanaian Fintech Startup, Fido Raises $30M Series A Round to Launch New Products, Expand to Uganda

Fido, an Accra-based fintech startup that provides credit to Ghanaians, has raised $30 million in equity investment and undisclosed debt funding in a Series A funding round led by Fortissimo Capital, an Israel-based private equity fund, with participation from Yard Ventures, a VC fund formed by Harvard alumni. This brings

Afropolitan Takes Africa to Web3 as it Gets $2.1M to Build a Digital Nation for Africans

Afropolitan Group

Afropolitan Takes Africa to Web3 as it Gets $2.1M to Build a Digital Nation for Africans

Afropolitan Group, an Afrocentric Community As A Service Company (CAAS) that curates a seamless experience in Travel, Events, and Media for the African diaspora, has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding led by Srinivasan to build a digital nation for Africans. Other angel investors include Future Africa’s Iyinoluwa

mTek Secures $3M in Funding to Provide Seamless Health Insurance Cover for Kenyans

Finclusion Group

mTek Secures $3M in Funding to Provide Seamless Health Insurance Cover for Kenyans

mTek, a Kenyan insurtech startup that offers paperless insurance through its platform, has secured a $3 million funding round from Finclusion Group. This follows in the wake of a $1.50 million investment. The insurtech startup has had sustained and attractive growth since its start in 2020, tripling its customer

Crypto (Defi) isn't Immune to Macroeconomic Realities After all! How is it Affecting Africans?

Crypto (Defi) isn't Immune to Macroeconomic Realities After all! How is it Affecting Africans?

At the very least, it has become apparent that the much-touted Decentralized Finance, Defi, is not immune to the macroeconomic realities and its volatility as the world is again witnessing the cryptocurrency’s dramatic free fall in recent weeks. In those, hundreds of millions of dollars have been liquidated. People