TechCabal Daily – Let’s print more schools!

Quick Fire 🔥 with Eugene Kavuma

Explain your job to a five-year-old.

I make sure that the people who come to my workplace are able to get what they are looking for. It’s like when you visit your aunt / uncle and you need a drink of water, you ask your aunt for water? I am the aunty/uncle who makes sure you get the water.

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

Patience, consistency and good manner will get you into rooms that talent may not.

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

Put in the time that everyone is unwilling to, take the job that everyone else is unwilling to take. Kill your darling.

What are you currently reading?

Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies by Reid Hoffman.

Tell us about something you love doing that you’re terrible at.

I really really love cooking fish. But I’ve always failed at it so terribly so many times. The last time I prepared it I got food poisoning.

What’s something you really don’t like doing but are great at.

Leading people. I’d really rather be marooned on an island, sipping mi-ties. The recluse in me loves their space.

Eugene is Community Lead at MoTIV, East Africa’s largest makerspace and a lover of good sound.

Malawi is home to the world’s first 3D-printed school

Windows 11 is here!

Windows 11 was the belle of the ball at the just concluded Microsoft Event.

Here are some things you should know

Where did “Start” go?

The Windows Start button we’ve all come to know, love and expect to see in the bottom left of our screen, will be moving to the center.

Very much like the doc on the Mac don’t you think?

Teams is here to stay

Microsoft Teams will be integrated into Windows 11. We’ve all gotten used to different videoconferencing tools. While Teams may or may not be your favourite, it’s about to be the default option for many PC users.

That said, isn’t this Skype’s thing? Being the default on Windows? Can someone check on Skype?

The all-seeing screen

It’s one thing to switch between multiple open tabs or apps. Windows 11 now has different layouts for you to be the master multi-tasker. You could always split your screen before if you wanted to, but this new feature adds more options and makes it easier.

Look who it is, Amazon!

A partnership between Microsoft and the Amazon App Store will allow Windows 11 users access to Android apps on the Amazon store.

But can your system even?

The Windows 11 update will be free. But here’s the catch: you’ll need a minimum 1GHz or faster system running two or more cores. Added to this 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, Boot capability, DirectX 12 compatible graphics card, screen with HD (720p) resolution and internet connectivity to complete the setup process for Windows 11.

The requirements aren’t outrageous so many people can look forward to the new OS.

When? “The free upgrade will begin to roll out to eligible Windows 10 PCs this holiday and continuing into 2022. And next week, we’ll begin to share an early build of Windows 11 to the Windows Insider Program – this is a passionate community of Windows fans whose feedback is important to us,” concluded Microsoft.

Read more: Introducing Windows 11

Today!

We’ve got a big day today. Six fintech and financial services leaders will be on the TechCabal Live stage!

They include Tosin Osibodu, CEO – Chaka; Elsa Muzzolini – CEO, Tomilola Majekodunmi – Co-founder/CEO, Bankly; Tayo Oviosu – Founder/CEO, Paga; and Robert Kotei – Operations Director for Africa at Ria Money Transfer.

They will share their experiences about finding, nurturing and leveraging partnerships for fintech growth.

The event will be moderated by Topsy Kola-Oyeneyin, Partner at McKinsey & Company. Based in the Lagos office Topsy serves financial institutions, regulators and investors in developing ambitious growth programs and executing large-scale transformations. She has led multiple projects and co-authored reports on how to unlock the potential of digital financial services in Africa.

Everyone is invited! Whether you are in the fintech industry or not. It’s going to be a very insightful conversation. We promise!

Register here: http://bit.ly/tclivejune25 and join close to 1,000 others who have indicated an interest in the event.

This event is brought to you in partnership with Chaka. It will also offer expert insights from McKinsey & Company.

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: Funding Tracker

Egyptian trucking company Trella completed a $42m Series A round this week; so far the biggest deal by an Egyptian startup this year. $30m of this was equity funding, and $15m was debt financing.

The equity deal was led by Maersk Growth and Raed Ventures, with participation from Algebra Ventures, Vision Ventures, Next Billion Ventures, Venture Souq, Foundation Ventures and Flexport.

Here are the other deals for the week:

• Ed Partners Africa, a Kenyan-based financing platform targeted at educational institutions, received $1.9m from Acumen, I&P, Zephyr and existing investors.
• Another Kenyan startup, Apollo Agriculture received $1m in debt funding from the Agri-Business Capital Fund (ABC Fund).
• South African edtech startup, HyperionDev raised $3.5m Series A, majority of which was raised through CrowdCube, a crowd investment platform.
• TopShip, a Nigerian-based shipping technology company raised an undisclosed round of funding led by angel investors.

That’s all for the week!

Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and stay tuned for more updates.

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