TechCabal Daily – In this corner 💪 – Nigerian Banks and Telcos go at it again

Explain your job to a five-year-old.

I look for all the people who like what we’re doing, and convince them to pay for it.

What keeps you at night?

Growth. That’s what keeps me up at night man. Na God dey give customer, but na person dey go find am. [God gives us customers but we still need to find them]

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received in your career?

Anything I say here is going to be a lie. Next question.

What’s something you wish you knew earlier in your career/life?

I just wish I had a laptop much earlier to have enough time to play with it, then be bored, then be thinking about what I could make with it. Let me explain.

Getting a laptop as a teenager is not the same as getting a laptop as an adult. A laptop as an adult is almost always a need. You need it for a school thesis, or for work. Your relationship with the machine is need at first sight. It’s never really the same as growing with it.

What’s the oddest job you’ve ever done?

It’s only odd in the context of what I currently do – I used to make beads and sell.

A genie gives you one wish for the African tech ecosystem, what would yours be?

Thoughtful government.

On Dec 9, 2020, Mr Eazi put out a tweet alluding to a system to allow fans to own equity in his music. 

While we wait for a chance to own Mr. Eazi song shares, Nigeria’s first domestically launched music streaming service, uduX just created something similar.

uduX has developed a new product called PopRev in partnership with PiggyVest.

About PopRev: PopRev will allow music lovers to invest in their favourite musician’s project and make profits based on the project’s digital streaming performance.

According to uduX’s CEO, “PopRev gives artists access to funding while letting them keep their masters. We’re creating a new artist revenue model driven by fans’ social engagement and the new normal of ‘sharing’. We want to give investors access to metrics and the performance of their investments on-demand. For the wider industry, we’re providing a leg-up to the untapped potential of musical talent in the African diaspora.”

Read more: PiggyVest and uduX present PopRev, a platform that lets music fans invest in artistes

This week was a sharp contrast to the last. 5 startups raised over a million each, and there were nine deals altogether totalling $21.1m. Fintech carted $16.5m of the total sum in six deals.

Let’s have a look at the deals in more detail:

• Egypt based e-commerce platform, Kemitt raised an undisclosed amount from Saudi angel investors.
• Nigerian fintech, Appzone raised $10m in a round led by CardinalStone.
• Africa’s first e-motorcycle company, Ampersand secured $3.5m from Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF).
• ‘Gold digitalization’ startup, TroyGold raised an undisclosed figure from Crossfin Ventures.
• Ghanaian fintech, BezoMoney raised $200K seed capital from GOODsoil VC.
• Numida, a fintech based in Uganda closed a $2.3m seed round led by MFS Africa.
• South African healthtech, Quro Medical raised $1.1m from Enza Capital and Mohau Equity Partners.
• Revix, a cryptocurrency startup based in South Africa, secured $4m in offshore funding.
• Kenya-based fintech startup, Tanda raised an undisclosed sum from HAVAÍC, Zedcrest Capital, DFS Lab, Victor Asemota, and three other investors.
• Samurai Incubate closed an $18m fund focused on startups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt.

Whew! That’s it for this week.

Follow us on Twitter to stay updated; there just could be more today.