IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Good morning… again ☀️ ️
If any day was special enough to require two newsletters, this is it!
After all, It’s not every day that one of the continent’s most innovative startups becomes a unicorn.
So what’s new:
- Africa has another unicorn
- A big move
- YouTube, but with taxes
The $1 billion club
Flutterwave announced this morning that it has completed a $170 million Series C fundraise.
What’s important about this? The current raise, led by Tiger Global and the New York-based private investment firm Avenir Growth Capital valued Flutterwave at over $1 billion.
It makes Flutterwave Nigeria’s third unicorn after Interswitch and the e-commerce company, Jumia. But what’s really impressive about this is how quickly Flutterwave joined the small club of unicorns – under 10 years.
What’s next? The company isn’t shy about talking exits and CEO Olugbenga Agboola says that a public listing in the U.S is something they’re thinking about. While that is talk for the future, right now, Flutterwave is going to use the new funding to take a stab at their big goal: becoming a global payments company.
It’s a big goal for the company but no one’s going to be betting against them.
Want to get smarter about fintech in Africa? Listen to the Decode Fintech Podcast by Paystack!
How do you leverage customer interactions to grow your business? In this episode, Paystack’s Customer Success Manager shares the key metrics he tracks, the tools his team uses, how to turn unhappy customers into brand advocates, and how Paystack uses customer service data to improve the product.
▶️ Listen to Episode 3: How Paystack Drives Growth with Customer Service
A big move
Teju Ajani, Google’s Nigeria head for Android has made a big move to Apple. Teju, who joined Google in 2018 has also held various leadership positions in YouTube as Head of Content Partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa, and Oracle as Principal Product Manager.
It is noteworthy that Ajani’s will be Apple’s first African top-executive appointment and it may suggest that Apple, which doesn’t have an official store on the continent may now be ready for a focus on Africa.
EVENTS
The questions around data and technology implicate us all and they are more urgent than ever.
Join us and the World Ethical Data Forum in defining the most crucial discussion of our time on March 17-19 at the digital edition of the World Ethical Data Forum 2021.
Buy your tickets for the 3-Day Digital Event here.
Exclusive Promo Code: BIGCABAL20
The WEDF is also inviting individuals & organizations to act as patrons for this year’s forum.
For more info, visit the event website here
Youtube will now take taxes
This is news content creators will frown at; YouTube will now be deducting U.S taxes for all creators on its platform. If you’re about to say, “but I don’t live in the U.S,” you should know it doesn’t matter because YouTube will collect the taxes all the same.
Here’s the notice from YouTube: “We’re reaching out because Google will be required to deduct U.S taxes from payments to creators outside of the U.S. later this year (as early as June 2021). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be asking you to submit your tax info in AdSense to determine the correct amount of taxes to deduct, if any apply. If your tax info isn’t provided by May 31, 20201, Google may be required to deduct up to 24% of your total earnings worldwide.”
What’s behind this change? Put simply, the U.S. government.
Chapter 3 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code obligates Google to collect tax info from all monetizing creators outside of the U.S. and withhold taxes when income is earned from viewers within the U.S.
That means that only income earned from viewers within the United States will be affected.
And that’s all folks!
HELP SHARE THIS!
