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At age 17, Elon Musk’s computer aptitude test results from the University of Pretoria were so high that they had to retest him. How did we know that? His mother recently shared his results on Twitter.
In today’s edition:
- Soundcloud’s new payout structure
- Kenya Power’s plans
- Crowdyvest’s pivot
- Announcements
- My Life in Tech
Soundcloud introduces a new payout structure for artistes
Earlier this week, SoundCloud which currently hosts over 250 million tracks from 30 million creators in 190 different countries, announced what they call a “Game-Changing New Pay Model For Independent Artists.
What’s it called?
Fan-powered royalties. A more equitable and transparent way for emerging and independent artists to earn money on SoundCloud.
What this means
With this move, each listener’s subscription or advertising revenue is distributed among the artists that they listen to, rather than their plays being pooled – benefiting rising independent artists with loyal fans.
How are royalties paid by streaming platforms currently?
Services such as Spotify currently operate a “pro-rata” (or “one big pot”) royalty model, whereby the majority of all money paid by subscribers is pooled, then paid out based on the market share each artist/label claims of all streams. This means money paid by individual subscribers regularly gets paid to artists they’ve never listened to.
Big Picture: Soundcloud’s fan-powered royalties intends to level the playing field for independent artists by tying payouts to fandom. Is it a coincidence that this feature came out after Spotify’s recent launch in 86 new countries? #StreamingWars
Read more: New fan-powered royalties announced by SoundCloud
Want to get smarter about fintech in Africa? Listen to the Decode Fintech Podcast by Paystack!
How do you expand your fintech into multiple countries? In this episode, we talk about how to choose the countries to expand into, when to expand, how to hire in different markets, and lots more!
Kenya Power’s plan to diversify revenue
After a decline in revenue due to the pandemic, Kenya Power – a public liability company which transmits, distributes and retails electricity to customers throughout Kenya – is looking elsewhere to increase its revenue streams.
What’s the plan?
Currently, Kenyans who own electric cars struggle to charge their cars as the majority of Kenyans still own non-electric cars. To solve this issue, Kenya Power is planning to build new charging ports.
Where will the charging ports be?
Along the superhighways that currently exist, Kenya Power will set their charging ports on the major highways, parking lots and malls. Kenya Power is not currently the only company eyeing this investment, they are joining KenGen who recently announced that they will also be investing in electric charging systems.
Big Picture: In the last few years, electric mobility has grown exponentially, electric vehicles are estimated at over 7.2 million and electric motorcycles at over 65,000 globally. In Kenya, the adoption is slower and the government is making efforts to increase this. Excise duty has been reduced from 20% to 10% to encouraged people to buy electric cars.
Crowdyvest’s Pivot to Fintech
“Ask most entrepreneurs who have decided to pivot and they will tell you that they wish they had made the decision sooner.”
Onyeka Akumah might agree with this statement made by Eric Ries.
Why so?
Yesterday, he announced that his company, Crowdyvest, is pivoting from the crowdfunding to financial technology.
Yes, Fintech
Crowdyvest is now a digital wealth and savings management company. Sounds like Piggyv…
Backstory: Crowdyvest launched about a year ago and it has over 10,000 members in Nigeria who have used opportunities on its platform to sponsor projects in Agriculture, Real Estate, Transportation, Health and Education sectors.
What this means
Crowdyvest will no longer be an open crowdfunding platform and Onyeka Akumah has handed over the leadership of Crowdyvest to Tope Omotolani. He’s moving on to become head of both Crowdyvest and Plenty waka.
Read more:Farmcrowdy exits Crowdfunding space
Facebook Launches Book Spotlighting Female Leaders from across Africa
In commemoration of the annual International Women Day in March, Facebook has launched a book; a collection of beautiful, insightful, and inspirational real-life stories of 19 formidable African women who are pioneering change in their communities titled, “LeadHers: Life Lessons from African Women”.
Some of the women include Temi Giwa-Tubosun (Nigeria), Tara Fela-Durotoye (Nigeria), Elizabeth Akua Ohene (Ghana), Saran Kaba Jones (Liberia) and Hawa Sally Samai (Sierra Leone) and many more.
Read or download the book here
Accelerator Program for Purpose-Driven Female Startup Founders
It’s less than a week to the Nigeria Digital Economic Summit 2021 Accelerator Program qualifier final!
Out of 474 applications, 5 finalists will emerge. Five world-class judges decide which are the most thought-provoking startup ideas as presented by these female founders.
About: The program seeks to equip these women with the requisite coaching and mentoring, backed with financing to scale their startups.
Join on March 8th and be a part of the experience. Sign up here
The 16 Ambitious innovators selected for the 2021 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation
Meet the 16 ambitious entrepreneurs who developed scalable engineering solutions to meet local challenges across Africa. The 16 entrepreneurs have been shortlisted for the 2021 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation – UK Royal Academy. Six of the 16-strong shortlist are female innovators. Some of them are:
- Armelle Sidje from Cameroon developed Biopackaging, a sustainable manufacturing process that transforms banana and plantain stems into biodegradable paper packaging products
- Juka Fatou Darboe from The Gambia developed Make3D Medical, cost-effective locally 3D-printed customised orthopaedic, medical and assistive equipment for patients and healthcare workers.
- Indira Tsengiwe from South Africa developed BlueAvo, a digital platform that connects creative brands and people in the media industry with local content creators and provides a digital workspace for collaboration and project development
You can learn more about all 16 innovators and their innovations here.
Tsakane Ngoepe wants more Africans to have access to asset financing
While you may have only ever heard of a Chief of Staff in the context of elected officials in government, Tsakane Ngoepe offers a fresh perspective to the role.
There are many things to know about her. She’s a bookworm and a gamer– she plays Fortnite on her PS4. She also loves a cup of coffee every morning, which she sips as she takes in the view of Nairobi from her balcony.
When she’s not immersed in a good book or drinking coffee, she’s the Chief of Staff at M-KOPA.
In this week’s edition of my life in tech, Edwin tells us about Tsakane Ngoepe’s life in tech.
Read more:Tsakane Ngoepe wants more Africans to have access to asset financing
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