| Egyptian health tech startup, Yodawy has raised $1 million in Series A funding from Algebra Ventures and CVentures. ASI Ventures also participated in the funding round. It is unclear what the startup will use the fresh capital for but a comment by one of its investors suggested that it will roll out new products/services. Yodawy was founded last year and it allows users to order drugs from its pharmacy network through its mobile app. The startup also enables users to make medical insurance claims for drugs on its platform. |
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| Social media is awash with many fraudulent offers to double or triple your money in a short period of time. On Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, hundreds if not thousands of accounts are named with a variant of “binomo investment” as a suffix. Timelines of such accounts are plastered with screenshots of supposed testimonies of multiplied deposits, ostensibly to persuade prospective preys of their legitimacy. In this TechCabal piece, Alex shares the personal stories of people who have fallen for them. |
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The European Investment Bank (EIB) has set-up SheInvest, a €1 billion fund focused on women. According to the EIB, SheInvest “will unlock investments to promote gender equality and fuel female entrepreneurs in Africa.” Its primary focus will be to invest in innovative digital solutions and financial products to reach women and girls who are often excluded from such services. Investments by SheInvvest will be guided by the EIB’s 2X Challenge criteria.
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| Bunmi Lawson, MD/CEO, EdFin will be speaking at TC Townhall: Edtech & the Future of Work. EdFin prides itself as the first specialized Education Microfinance Bank with unique and well-researched products and services tailored to cater to the needs of the education ecosystem.
TC Townhall Edtech & the Future of Work will hold on November 29, 2019. We are bringing together regulators, government agencies, investors, entrepreneurs, NGOs, social enterprises and schools to set a strong agenda about how to use technology to leapfrog Africa’s education challenges and prepare our citizens for future jobs. To attend the Townhall, click here to buy your tickets. To enjoy our early-bird discount, click here or use the code TCEDTECH at checkout. Further discounts apply for companies/individuals buying at least 5 tickets. Please click here to enjoy our corporate discounts.
We are also putting together a map of the African edtech industry. If you have an edtech startup or you are a technology company doing significant work in the industry we would like to hear from you. Please fill this form.
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JumiaPay has released its financial report for the third quarter of 2019 and it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The good – JumiaPay, its financial service is the company’s fastest-growing category. It represented an equivalent of 11.6% ($35.2 million) of Jumia’s entire GMV during Q3 2019. The bad – Jumia is still losing cash. Its operating loss in Q3 2019 stood at $55 million about $10 million higher than Q3 2018. For TechCabal, Abubakar read the report and wrote a summary of key insights here.
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| Bus-hailing platform, SWVL will finally suspend its services in Kenya following an accusation of regulator bias by its competitor, Safaricom-backed Little Shuttle. In early October, the National Transport And Safety Authority (NTSA) suspended both platforms saying that they didn’t have the correct licenses to operate. While Little stopped operating back then, SWVL continued until its latest announcement that it will shut down at the end of the month. SWVL said then that it was negotiating with the regulator. Little has since resumed its services after tweaking its business model to comply with the regulator’s judgement. The company changed its vehicles from large buses to 7-seater vehicles. |
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| Tomi Davies, President of Africa Business Angel Network has been announced as part of the #IB100 – a list of the top 100 most influential black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) leaders in the UK’s Tech Sector. Now in its second year, the list has been produced by board appointments firm Inclusive Boards in partnership with the Financial Times. The list will be published online, and in print in the UK and Europe as part of an FT special report into Diversity in Tech. |
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| Tek Experts, a leading, global provider of business and IT support services is hosting its first Open Day Forum themed ‘Preparing for the Future of Work in Nigeria’.
The Forum, which is a gathering of IT industry professionals, is holding on the 14th of November 2019 and 5 lucky TechCabal Daily readers will get special invites to attend. If you’re interested in attending, please register here. |
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| Bolt (previously Taxify) has launched a €10 million green fund as part of a long-term commitment to reduce its ecological footprint. The fund will support Kenya’s MKOPA, a solar energy company providing alternative power sources to households in East Africa with the aim of offsetting its carbon footprint. Bolt is looking to reduce carbon emissions by adding more green ride-types for passengers to choose from as well as to offset emissions of its offices globally in 2020. |
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Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta has passed a new data protection law. The new complies with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. The law outlines guidelines for data handling by the government and corporate organizations. Violators of the law face a maximum fine of 3 million shillings ($29,283) or two years in jail. The new law might be a response to criticism by citizens over the government’s plan to collect DNA data and provide digital IDs to its residents. Regardless, it is a great step that appears to be yielding results already. Amazon Web Services (AWS) says the new law has set the scene for its investment in Nairobi, according to a government news release.
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| The #JollofRoad team has arrived Senegal! It took them only about 3 hours to cross from Gambia into Senegal and once again they needed a ferry to get across. Chilling in an adorable Airbnb, Toke wrote about their experience getting into Senegal and how two immigration officers tried to extort a few bucks from them. It’s Day 52 of 80 and the 10th country visited so far. Visit jollofroad.com every day to catch up on all the stories from Senegal and the remaining four countries! Join the conversation on Telegram and WhatsApp. |
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| Africell and KaiOS have launched a feature phone with smartphone-level features called the afriphone in the Gambia and Sierra Leone. The phone will also be made available in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Afriphone will have essential and popular apps including WhatsApp, Facebook etc. This week MTN also launched a $20 smartphone. The phone which is called Mobicel Rio will run on Android Go and will be made available in all MTN stores across its different locations. |
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That’s all we’ve got,
See you tomorrow!
– Olanrewaju
You are a good person, share the digest!
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