IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Good morning ☀️ ️
Today is Africa Day.
A day set aside to acknowledge the success of the fight against colonialism and apartheid, as well as the progress Africa has made.
Africa Day is observed as a public holiday in only twelve African countries, if yours is one of them, enjoy the break 🙂
In today’s edition:
- Center Stage
- Mono raises $2 million
- Bolt increases fares in Kenya
- Snapchat’s new milestone
Successful product managers are walking encyclopedias.
What exactly do product managers do?
According to Tobi Lufadeju, product managers are walking encyclopedias. At Reliance HMO, she’s a product manager who is in charge of their consumer business unit.
New to the role, she battled with impostor syndrome at first.
“The first two months on the job were not easy. I joined an existing team which meant that I had to do a lot of learning and observation in the beginning. My team members would throw around in-house language during meetings and I also had to figure out how to speak the engineering team’s language. I dealt with impostor syndrome big time.”
Before things got out of hand, she turned over to every product manager’s superpower: curiosity. She kept on asking questions whenever in doubt.
In this edition of Centre Stage, Koromone talks to Tobi Lufadeju who shares tips and tricks for aspiring and existing product managers.
Increase your online sales with a Paystack Storefront – a free, beautiful seller page that helps you bring creative ideas to life.
🏾 Learn more at paystack.com/storefrontMono receives $2 million investment from Kuda CEO, Lateral Capital, others
Nigerian financial data startup Mono has raised a seed round of $2 million from a number of investors including Entrée Capital and Lateral Capital.
Babs Ogundeyi, co-founder and CEO of Kuda; Gbenga Oyebode, partner at the Continent Venture Partners; and Eric Idiahi, co-founder and partner at Verod Capital, also invested according to TechCrunch.
Mono was founded in 2020 by Abdul Hassan, a former product manager at Paystack, and Prakhar Singh. The company’s technology enables businesses and individuals to gain access to financial information, such as account statements, stored at commercial banks. Mono is one of out a number of startups creating open banking solutions in Nigeria.
In related news: Egyptian venture capital firm, Flat6Labs, has raised $10 million for its fund for early-stage startups. The raise brings the value of its fund to $13 million. The accelerator also announced plans to increase its cash seed offering for the Cairo Seed Program to $96,000 and up to $191,000 in post-programme follow-on funding for selected startups.
Companies all over the world were swift to embrace the new reality of work styles at an accelerated pace. This led to the growing adoption of artificial intelligence and the use of technology in the workplace.
Join Endeavor Nigeria as we host the Thinking Big webinar with Prof. Konyin Ajayi, SAN, Endeavor Nigeria Mentor and Managing Partner at Olaniwun Ajayi LP, as he shares insights on Restructuring for High-Performance Teams in a Developing World.
Date: May 27 2021 | Time: 1:00 pm WAT | Register here
For more information, contact Joy Mabia at joy.mabia@endeavor.org
Bolt Increases fares in Kenya
Two weeks ago, Uber increased its fare prices in Nigeria in response to complaints from its drivers. This week Bolt has done the same, albeit in Kenya. The reason cited by Bolt is due to the increased cost of fuel in the country.
The price revision
“The base category will now attract an addition of KES 2.10 ($0.019) per kilometer in Nairobi and KES 1.70 ($0.016) per kilometer in Mombasa, while riders in the economy (Lite) category will now pay an additional KES 1.50 ($0.014) per kilometer in Nakuru and Kisumu towns.
Tuk Tuk and Boda boda services in Mombasa, will each attract an increment of KES 0.60 per kilometer.
Boda boda services in other towns will attract price increment as follows; Nairobi KES 0.80 per kilometer, Nakuru KES 0.70 per kilometer and KES 0.60 per kilometer in both Kisumu and Eldoret.”
Big Picture: This price increase helps the ride-hailing company maintain its margin without eating into the earnings of its drivers. A move that the drivers might care less about as they’ll rather have a reduction of the commission charged by Bolt.
Europe’s biggest startup and tech event is back!
Viva Technology, which brings together startups, CEOs, investors and global tech actors, will take place on June 16 – 19, in person in Paris, and online worldwide. There are many surprises in store: virtual showrooms, 3D modelisations, international satellite events, live conference channels… as well as exclusive experiences in Paris! Get your pass: here
SnapChat hits 500 million monthly active users
Last week, Snapchat revealed that it had reached 500 million monthly active users. This was the first time the social media giant revealed its monthly active users.
Backstory: This is a significant milestone for the social media app which was written off after it refused a multi billion-dollar acquisition deal from Facebook, and saw its value crash from $24B in March 2017 to $6B in Dec 2018.
Today, it’s worth $86B.
The announcement was made at its 2021 Snap partners summit where it also announced a couple of new product features that hint at the direction the company is heading: e-commerce.
E-commerce?
Yes, Snap’s new features are focused on making it possible for users to virtually try on clothing items, visualizing how they will look on them in real life.
The company is launching a “wrist-tracking technology” that allows consumers to use Augmented Reality lenses to try on watches and jewelry. It also launched a feature called Screenshop. This allows consumers to use the Snapchat camera to scan a friend’s outfit and shop for similar looks recommended by the app.
Zoom out: Snap’s 500m monthly active users is only a fraction of the 2.85B people who use Facebook every month. At the moment, both Snapchat and Facebook generate most of their revenue from advertising, with this move, Snapchat is looking to diversify its revenue.
Snapchat has come a long way, proving its doubters wrong.
What else we’re reading
HELP SHARE THIS!
