28 MAY, 2021

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Good morning ☀️ ️

Amazon, Microsoft and Google are all involved in a bidding process for the Boeing deal, which is expected to be worth at least $1 billion. Now that’s a big one!

In today’s edition:

  • Quick Fire 🔥
  • CBN’s new-ish regulations
  • Women in animation
  • TC Insights: Deal Tracker

Quick Fire 🔥 with Lewam Kefela

Explain your job to a five-year-old

I help people with big ideas turn them into something real.

What keeps you up at night??

Haha, honestly a lot of different things – but they all boil down to economic growth in Africa and how to facilitate it. Currently obsessing over how local capital can be reallocated to fund local entrepreneurs, and catalyse our economic growth. An Africa funded and built by Africans – that’s the dream.

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

An existential crisis here and there is healthy and completely normal. Also, mental health is extremely important, and therapy can be really helpful.

What are you currently reading?

Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India by Ravinder Kaur

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

Frictionless movement across borders for everything (workforce, capital, etc) – think of the economies of scale! I’d happily spend my only wish on that!

*Lewam is an Investment Director at Village Capital & Co-Founder at The Africa Playbook

PARTNER CONTENT

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/storefront

CBN’s “new” regulations

Early in the week, there were reports making the rounds that the Central Bank of Nigeria had announced new licencing requirements for Payment Service Providers (PSP) in Nigeria

Perhaps because of a distrust of regulators and regulation in Nigeria, the reactions were negative. One media house for instance, used the headline, “CBN slams N4bn escrow and shareholder requirements on Nigerian fintech companies.”

Yet, a look at the new regulations show that there are few changes of note. In fact, there are reductions in the required minimum Shareholders’ Fund (SHF) and application fees.

Two major additions in the new rules are that escrow deposits are to be invested in treasury bills and all payments must be made in the applying company’s name.

In the end, this has played out like the title of one of Shakespeare’s plays: Much Ado About Nothing

African Women in Animation, gather here

Women in Animation (WIA) will hold its Women In Animation World Summit, in conjunction with this year’s hybrid version of the Annecy International Animation Festival and Mifa 2021. The theme of this year’s virtual summit is “The Business Case for Diversity.”

 

The Women in Animation World Summit will be viewable exclusively as part of the festival’s virtual programming and for WIA members from Monday, June 14th at 9:00am CAT through Saturday, June 19th. As of June 20th, the summit will be available to the general public via the WIA website and YouTube Channel.

Find out more about Women in Animation here.

PARTNER CONTENT

Appzone’s recently launched headquarter promises to be the thriving hub for talented Africans motivated to be a part of a dynamic team working towards achieving the quantum leap to the global fintech stage.

Read more here

Event

On August 25th 2020, a Twitter handle known as Bank Security reported that the database of a Nigerian commercial bank was being shared online on hacker forums. In less than a month following that announcement, at least three other hacker forums reportedly shared the same database.

What could the bank have done differently?

Today at 11 am (WAT), we will be discussing tips to keep your customer data safe with Daniel Osineye – Co-founder & CTO, EvolveCredit; Joseph Onyema – Group CIO, United Capital Group; Adeoluwa Akomolafe – Chief Information Security Officer, Wema Bank; Sophina Kio-Lawson, Co-founder, SheSecures, and Nick Maxwell – General Manager, AVA Security (UK/MEA & ANZ)

If you’re a CTO or CIO, our four speakers will be sharing important cybersecurity lessons they’ve picked up in their careers, and if you’re simply a consumer, here’s a chance to discover the role you play in protecting your data.

Register here to attend.

This event is brought to you in partnership with UrbanUbuntu and AVA Security.

Note: By clicking on the registration link for this event, you’ve indicated interest in the event and will get an invite to attend. To opt out, please ignore the invite.

TC Insights: Deal Tracker

This week, South African startup LifeQ secured the biggest healthtech deal this year. It raised $47m from OneBio Venture Studio and 18 other investors.

The other deals for the week include:

  • Mono, a Nigerian financial data startup, raised $2 million from Babs Ogundeyi, Entrée Capital, Gbenga Oyebode, Ehimare Idiahi, and Lateral Capital.
  • Egyptian agri-fintech startup Mozare3 raised an undisclosed pre-seed round from Algebra Ventures, Disruptech, and EFG-EV Fintech.
  • CribMD, a Nigerian digital health consultation platform, raised $2.6 million from Sputnik ATX, Norrsken and The Guardian.
  • Egyptian networking app Tays, raised a 7-figure pre-seed round from Joseph Hanna, Ashraf Bacheet, Karen Sewasa and Khaled Nasser.

That’s all we’ve got this week! 

Follow TC Insights on Twitter andLinkedIn for more updates on funding deals.

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Written by – Olumuyiwa

Edited by – Edwin Madu & Koromone Koroye

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