Africa Tech News

Indian oil-to-metals conglomerate Vedanta and global manufacturing giant Foxconn have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian state of Gujarat to set up a $20 billion semiconductor unit in the coastal state. Top officials says Foxconn will bring technical expertise to the venture whereas Vedanta, which has a background in mining, will finance the project. Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai...

Peloton hit heights experienced by precious few tech firms, As exercise demands shifted away from the gym amid pandemic-related shutdowns. Peloton announced that Foley has resigned from the company altogether, alongside fellow founder and Chief Legal Officer Hisao Kushi. Foley’s resignation goes into effect today, while Kushi’s is planned for October 3. Tammy Albarrán will become both chief legal...

Google announced that 60 African startups have been selected for the second cohort of its Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. Each of the selected startups will receive support in the form of a 6-month training programme that includes tailored workshops, community-building sessions and access to a network of mentors to assist in tackling challenges that are unique to them. The 60 startups wil...

Kippa, a financial management and payments platform for Nigerian small businesses, announced that it has raised $8.4 million in a new financing round. This fundraiser brings the total fundraised by Kippa to $11 million. This recent fundraising saw Kippa, welcome new global investors, including Goodwater Capital, TEN13 VC, Rocketship VC, Saison Capital (the venture arm of Credit Saison), Crestone V...

The U.S. Department of Commerce is detailing some of those plans, outlining where $50 billion of that funding will go. Reiterating the legislation’s key goals, the DoC notes that the money will be focused on getting the U.S. back on track with domestic semiconductor production, building a back-stock of chips and creating jobs. An eligible applicant for funding under the Section 9902 incentives pro...

Waysia, an Asian grocery delivery platform, Previously known as Alorsfaim, started out in Paris four years ago as a platform delivering from Asian restaurants and supermarkets to customers. When the pandemic hit, its users began to panic buy and quickly emptied retailer supplies. Yejun Fan, founder and CEO of Waysia says the pandemic showed that the need for ethnic groceries was really underserved...

Juul has long argued that it’s trying to save lives; meanwhile, its own existence seems precarious at times. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced the deal, noting that in addition to the financial terms, the settlement will force Juul to adhere to specific marketing and sales practices, including refraining from depicting anyone younger than age 35 in its marketing in film, on billb...

Metaverse Magna, a blockchain gaming platform, has raised a $3.2 million seed sale token round to expand its efforts to build Africa’s largest gaming DAO and provide gamers with access to world-class opportunities. Nestcoin’s CEO and co-founder, Yele Bademosi, says that the opportunity for Metaverse Magna came from the number of gamers on the continent, combined with the absence of any platform th...

Canada-based neobank Be Mobile Africa has announced its official launch in South Africa with a mission to make banking accessible to the unbanked and underbanked in the country. It also offers low to no-fee banking products through its mobile app. The company further claims that customers will be able to transfer and request money from anyone in the Be Mobile Africa network instantly and at no cos...

The recent Gross Domestic Product reported by the National Bureau of Statistics, the information and communications technology (ICT) sector contributed 18.44% to Nigeria’s GDP in the second quarter of 2022. The sector saw a 6.55% growth rate from Q1 2022. The contribution of the oil sector, which used to dominate the country’s GDP bottom line, fell to 6.33% in Q2 2022, a position lower than its 7....

MTN Nigeria became the first telecommunication provider in Nigeria to roll out the 5G mobile network on August 24. MTN, who won the auction for the 3.5GHz 5G spectrum alongside Mafab Communications last December, commenced the roll-out by switching on the network in 190 sites across the country. MTN Nigeria, which intends to launch 5G services in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kano, Owerri,...

Nigerian payment unicorn, Flutterwave, has secured a Switching and Processing Licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria. This high-profile licence will allow it to facilitate transactions between financial service providers, merchants, customers and other stakeholders without intermediaries. The licence will also allow it to offer new services such as transaction switching, card processing, non-ban...

Google says 60 African startups have been selected for the second cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund for Africa. According to Google, Nigeria dominates the selection list, which features 23 Nigerian startups. Other countries benefitting from this funding programme include Kenya with 12 grantees, Rwanda with six grantees, South Africa with five grantees, and Uganda with four gran...

Meta has introduced a feature to let its advertisers in India pay for their advertising campaigns in no-cost monthly instalments for over three months. The feature allows Meta’s advertisers to convert their ad payments between $40 and $6,300 into equal monthly instalments. Advertisers need to pay for their ad campaigns using credit cards from banks such as Citibank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Ban...

The UK government announced a new, sweeping set of rules it will be imposing on broadband and mobile carriers to tighten up their network security against cyber-attacks aimed at being among the strongest in the world when they are rolled out. The new requirements cover areas such as how providers can procure infrastructure and services; how providers police activity and access; the investments the...

The first major subsidy contract under the U.K. Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit scheme has officially been awarded, with Wessex Internet securing £6 million to connect remote properties in South West England to high-speed broadband. Many homes and businesses particularly those in rural locations however, aren’t suitably served with high-speed internet, putting them at a disadvantage compar...

The U.S. Department of Justice is in the early stages of drafting an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, according to sources cited by Politico in a report released just ahead of the weekend. While the new report suggested a potential suit could arrive by the end of the year, it also stressed that a final decision about if or when to sue Apple had not yet been made. Apple’s tight control of its App S...

Digital lenders in Kenya largely seem to be upbeat about the new Digital Credit Providers law, saying it will bring order to the sector. The chairman of the Digital Lenders Association of Kenya, Kevin Mutiso, sounded optimistic about the impending new regulatory environment, saying that it had already fostered investor confidence and will bolster growth in the sector. Mutiso added that the associa...

A Kenyan court has ordered that another Ksh 400.6 million belonging to the startup be seized. A Kenyan High Court has frozen more accounts of Africa's biggest fintech startup, Flutterwave, over allegations of money laundering. Kenya's authorities say the Nigerian firm had no approval to conduct cross-border payments in the country and accused it of fraud. The court earlier ordered that its 29 bank...

Eyowo unveiled its Digital First payment offering – the Better Card – which is certified by Mastercard. As one of the pioneer partners in Nigeria to join Mastercard’s Digital First Card Program, Eyowo brings a best-in-class digital banking experience to its customers. This includes digital access to card information, unsurpassed payment security and access to a host of payment options (e-commerce,...

Twitch is lifting its exclusivity agreement that prevented its partners from streaming on other services. Starting today, partners can now stream on YouTube, Facebook Live and more, just not while streaming on Twitch at the same time. Twitch clarified that it doesn’t allow simulcasting on web-based, Twitch-like services that support streaming for extended periods of time, such as YouTube and Faceb...

Toyota has joined the growing list of automakers that have recognized the state of California’s authority to set vehicle emissions standards under the U.S. Clean Air Act. The move will make the Japanese automaker eligible for government fleet purchases by California. Toyota continues to share the vision of greenhouse gas reduction and carbon neutrality goals with the California Air Resources Board...

Servify, a startup that manages the lifecycle of devices for several popular smartphone vendors including Apple and Samsung in many markets, has raised $65 million as it eyes becoming a public company in two years. Singularity Growth Opportunity Fund led the Mumbai-headquartered startup’s Series D funding. AmTrust and family offices including Pidilite and existing investors Iron Pillar, Beenext, B...

Meta, formerly Facebook, has officially rolled out what it’s calling Meta accounts and Meta Horizon Profiles. The global launch will be gradual, but both accounts are to be used in place of the personal social media account logins once used to log in to the company’s virtual reality system. Users, new and old, of Meta’s VR devices, will be required to sign up for a Meta account to log in and acces...

The South Africa Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority has issued a guidance note to banks for dealing with transactions by crypto asset service providers. The central bank says that it is aware that certain banks in the country have previously opted to terminate the bank/customer relationship with CASPs. The banks opted for this termination because of the risks of money laundering, terrorism financ...