Q: What’s the best way to start your day?
A: With this week’s My Life in Tech story.
After reading Rage of Angels, a tragic 1980 novel by Sidney Sheldon, Odunoluwa Longe decided to pursue a career in law. Today as the Founder of two different law practices, a legal tech startup and a law firm, Longe is navigating the difficult terrain that is Nigeria to help other businesses succeed at doing the same. Longe speaks with Kay about how she’s managed to do this while dealing with a mental health challenge. Read all about it here. |
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| Protecting their investment?
“If you’re going to leave, you’re going to pay back what they used to train you,” Emeke Ajeh, an employee at a fintech startup in Lagos told TechCabal. Ajeh works at a fintech startup in Lagos where he cannot leave before his first year on the job ends. Training bonds are an increasing fixture of employment contracts at tech companies and financial institutions. Are they even legal? Are they justifiable? For TechCabal, Alex attempts to answer these questions. |
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| A winning formula for attracting investor interest?
How does a one-year-old startup attract 100,000 users with zero marketing and go on to raise US$1 million in seed funding? Perhaps by incentivizing people to use its product, a mobile browser? Wasla, a Cairo-based consumer-tech startup has closed $1 million in seed funding from Egypt Ventures, Glint Ventures, and Ebtikar for Financial Investments with participation from some angel investors. The startup will invest the money in rolling out its go-to-market strategy, human resources and product development with a focus on financial inclusion. Wasla rewards its users with points to browse the internet for free if they spend time on its mobile browser. For brands, it provides digital advertising services. |
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| Now, to the rest of today’s stories ….
Egyptian B2B trucking marketplace, Trella has acquired local competitor, Trukto, the country’s first tech-enabled trucking marketplace. The acquisition will solidify Trella’s position as a market leader bringing the total number of truckers in the merged company to 10,000. Trella participated this year in the YCombinator summer program and recently closed a $600,000 pre-seed round. The merged entity will face competition from Dubai’s Trukker which just raised $23 million in Series A funding and has announced plans to launch in Egypt. |
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| Today, 30 startups from across the continent will pitch in Johannesburg in the 2019 edition of one of Africa’s leading entrepreneurship forum, the Seedstars Africa Summit. Asides startup pitches, the all-day event will feature workshops, panel discussions, keynote speeches and networking opportunities. Ultimately, one startup will be crowned the Seedstars Africa winner and will go on to represent the continent at the global pitch event in Switzerland in April 2020. Our man, Abubakar Idris, is right on the scene and will bring you all the latest updates. |
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| Under a new set of draft regulations for ride-hailing in Kenya, companies cannot charge a commission of more than 15% per trip. The draft bill by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) which is titled the Nation Transport & Safety Authority (Operation of Digital Hailing Operators) Regulations, 2019, requires that operators get a license that needs renewal annually. The bill also contains information about vehicle requirements and stipulates that drivers cannot pick up passengers at cab stands. |
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| *Drum roll* After 75 days on the road and 14 West African countries visited, the #JollofRoad team is back in Nigeria! The team is presently in Sokoto and will arrive Lagos on Tuesday, Day 80. It’s been an exhilarating trip so far! If you are like Saratu or Princess, you definitely don’t want the trip to end. Missed any part of it? Visit jollofroad.com to catch up on all the stories. Also, check out all the videos here. Stay tuned for the final leg of the trip. |
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| Nigerian consumers will now be able to see more than just text ads as they search for products that they are interested in buying online. Google search results will include the prices, photos, reviews and store name for a product thereby allowing the consumer to make a decision before they click on the ad. The service is available following the launch of Shopping Ads on Google Search in Nigeria. Shopping ads are now available in 94 countries and merchants can work with Comparison Shopping Services to advertise their products. |
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| Safaricom has launched Mali, a new investment product targeted at its MPesa customers. With the new product, users can invest from as low as KES 100 (US$1) to a maximum of KES 70,000 (US$687) via USSD. Users will earn an interest of 10% annually. Mali is available to all MPesa users who have been active in the last 3 months. The service allows free deposits and instant withdrawals. Since its now-famous mobile money success story, Safaricom has continued to deepen customer loyalty and acquire new users by enriching its slew of financial and digital services. |
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| Applications are open to the Vatebra Tech Hub incubator program. The six-month incubator program is supported by the Bank of Industry (BOI), Amazon Web Services (AWS), HubSpot, and RingCaptcha. Startups solving a chronic problem with minimum viable product (MVP) can apply here before January 3, 2020. |
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Bye for now!
We’ll be back tomorrow
– Olanrewaju
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