| First off, we’d love to say a big thank you to everyone who spent their day with us on 27th September, 2019 at the TC Townhall: Mobility. Many thanks to Uber and Lori Systems for sponsoring the event, our event partners Odujinrin and Adefulu, and Zone Tech Park, and to all our amazing speakers, workshop leads and product showcase anchors. Here and here are some highlights from the townhall. The next will take place in November and will focus on edutech. We’ll keep you posted. |
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| South African edtech company Snapplify has raised US$2 million in expansion capital. Two South African venture capital firms, Knife Capital via its SA Revenue Service and KNF Ventures as well as investment manager Hlayisani Capital’s Hlayisani Growth Fund contributed to the raise. Founded in 2011, the company, which says it is Africa’s largest e-book aggregator, offers e-learning solutions to over 1,400 schools, colleges and universities. The expansion capital will be channeled towards increasing its market footprint and acquiring new customers, the company says. |
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| In societies with functional public systems across the globe, it is the people who break the law who should fear law enforcement personnel like the police. In Nigeria, it is young software developers who rightly move around with laptops or electronic gadgets and have subsequently become targets for a special unit of the Nigerian Police Force, SARS. In the last year, there have been intense calls for police reforms and particularly, the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit of the police over repeated reports of brutality, extortion and extrajudicial killings.
At the weekend, a very disheartening personal experience recounted by Twitter user Toni Astro, has since caused the tech community to spring into action once again. Toni, a Lagos-based software engineer, was held behind bars, physically assaulted, and robbed for no apparent reason other than being in possession of a laptop.
CEO and Founder of CcHUB, Bosun Tijani has publicly called out the government’s inability to protect its young and a fundraiser has since been launched to help facilitate actions to pressure the government to intervene more definitively. IrokoTV CEO, Jason Njoku has pledged a N10 million contribution to the campaign which has now been tagged #StopRobbingUs |
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| The #JollofRoad team are now in Togo! ICYMI: Our brothers and sister, Fu’ad, Toke and Kayode are travelling in a bus through West Africa curating their experiences of the food, people and culture. The trip will take a total of 80days. Daily journals and videos are being shared via a beautifully designed website which you should check out daily. For now, they are open to suggestions about the best places to go to while in Lomé. Send in your feedback! |
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| Ken Njoroge, Co-founder & Co-CEO of Cellulant has been named the recipient of the 2019 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The Schwab Foundation award is in recognition of Cellulant’s work in building digital payments and financial services that enable businesses and consumers in critical sectors. Congratulations! |
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| Cairo-based health and beauty services startup Glamera, has raised a US$250, 000 seed round from an unnamed Saudi angel investor. Founded earlier this year, Glamera enables users to book and pay for appointments via a mobile app, for health and beauty services from 200 partners that range from spas, beauty salons, gyms, and cosmetic clinics. The company says the funds will be used to increase its partners to a thousand, expand its services in Cairo, Alexandria and two other governorates in the country as well as to Saudi Arabia. |
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| The UNICEF Innovation Fund is looking to make equity-free investments of up to US$100,000 in startups that bridge learning or connectivity gaps towards employability. Applicants must be working on open source technology solutions – or willing to be open source – and will be contacted with a request for proposal if they are shortlisted for funding. Here’s a link to apply. Applications close on September 30. |
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| Estonian based technology company TAI+ has launched a mobile app service to connect truckers and cargo shippers in real-time in Kenya. Kenya’s Port of Mombasa is currently undergoing expansion. As a result, cargo volumes are on the rise reaching over 1.3 Million TEUs (Twenty-foot equivalent) annually. With only 10,000 trucks available in the Kenyan market, the growing demand is leading to delays, penalties and disgruntled customers. Rait Raal, Tai+ Chief Executive Officer says the service will promote trust and transparency in the cargo handling process and bring sanity to the sector. |
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That’s it,
Have a great day. See you Wednesday!
– Kay
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