👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Constant funding

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* Data as of 09:30 PM WAT, May 30, 2022.

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ADCB-EGYPT EXTENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH TEMENOS

ADCB-Egypt has extended its existing collaboration with Temenos. This extended collaboration will enable ADCB-Egypt to offer digital payments on Temenos’s composable banking platform. 

What is so great about Temenos’s platform?

Temenos’s platform facilitates composable banking. 

Side-bar: Composable banking allows clients to quickly assemble, dissemble, configure, reconfigure, deploy, and extend banking capabilities in their own systems or new ones from Temenos. It basically allows financial companies to pick and choose which banking features they want to offer on their platform. 

With Temenos, clients can process payments instantly from any channel, local or international, all in real-time.

What’s in it for ADCB-Egypt?

ADCB-Egypt was recently awarded Best Digital Transformation Program and Outstanding IT Transformation by Digital Banker. To remain at the forefront of innovation, it plans to compose digital payment solutions that adopt the latest global standards like ISO20022—an open standard which provides robust and structured data for every kind of financial transaction.

It also wants to power new payment offerings that tap into the growing customer demand for instant and frictionless cross-border payments. Temenos will give ADCB-Egypt a quick low-cost plug-and-play approach to the design and deployment of new digital banking products and the upgrade of its existing systems. 

How the bank has been faring so far

In the first half of 2021, the bank recorded an 83% increase in net profits, its customer base grew by 10%, and lending and deposit portfolios increased by 20% compared to the previous year. In addition, the users of its digital services increased by 320% since September 2020, and remittances and payments through digital channels have increased by about 50%. 

With its new plans and this extended collaboration, it won’t be surprising if the bank snatched more prestigious industry awards.

SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE METAVERSE

A researcher from a US-based non-profit advocacy group entered Meta’s virtual reality space, Horizons, to conduct research on user behaviour in the metaverse. 

Within moments of her entry, the researcher reported that her avatar was raped by other users in the virtual space. 

We’ve spoken about sexual assault in the metaverse before, specifically in Meta’s Horizons. Late last year, a beta tester of Horizons wrote about how she was virtually groped and assaulted in the space. 

The report quickly pushed Meta to install a safeguard to protect all its users from sexual assault or any form of unwanted physical touch. All avatars on Meta’s Horizons were upgraded with the “Personal Boundary” feature—2-foot transparent boundaries that no one else could enter. At first, the barriers couldn’t be disabled by anyone, but less than a month later, Meta gave users access to disable Personal Boundary. 

In the most recent report of sexual abuse in Horizons, the researcher reported that she was invited to a party where she was asked to disable the Personal Boundary feature. Moments afterwards, she was forced into a room where she was assaulted. 

In response to Daily Mail, a Meta spokesperson said, “We don’t recommend turning off the safety feature with people you do not know.”

CONSTANT VENTURES LAUNCHES $100 MILLION VC FUND

The global funding scene may be tightening up, but more local opportunities are opening up for African startups. 

Venture Capital fund, Constant Ventures, a part of the Constant Group, is raising a $100 million venture capital fund. Starting with tech startups in Nigeria and Ghana, the funding will be accessible to West African tech solutions that offer financial inclusion, education and healthcare. 

A little about Constant Ventures

Constant Ventures is a venture capital fund investing in early and mid-stage companies whose products and services are capable of driving scalable wealth creation in Africa and generating superior returns on investment. It is self-described as an impact-focused VC fund.

Well, how much impact has it made?

It has invested $3.2 million in 9 Nigerian startups to date, including Appzone and Gokada.

It also says it has a proprietary venture studio, which supports African entrepreneurs to refine their ideas and create a team. The studio also provides strategic direction and capital for the team to reach product-market fit.

The goals of this $100 million dollar fund

The fund aims to invest in start-ups across West Africa that commercially address the real societal needs of millions of people and deliver exceptional returns for investors.

HOW TO LIMIT DISTRACTIONS ON YOUR PHONE

How many times do you open up TikTok or Twitter when you’re supposed to be doing something productive? Or even pick up your phone when you should be working?

Reports show that people spend as much as 4.8 hours a day getting distracted by their phones. Another report shows that people check their phones 30 times during the workday. 

We considered all this and created a guide no one asked for to help you limit distractions and help your bosses you make the most of your time, especially for those of us who work with our phones. 

So here are 5 ways to limit distractions on your iPhone. And because we know that Android users will come for our heads, here are 6 ways you can boost productivity on your Samsung phone. 

*No Android users were harmed in the curation of this guide, although we’re sure a lot of them will be offended by it. Good luck to all involved.

OPPORTUNITIES

• develoPPP Ventures is offering €100,000 ($107,831) grants to high-potential startups from Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania. Young high-growth startups with less than €2 million ($2.15 million) in funding so far can apply for the grant here.

• The Google Black Founds Fund Programme is still open to applications from black-founded startups in Botswana, Cameroun, Côte D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Selected startups will receive $100,000 in equity-free cash, and up to an additional $200,000 in Google Cloud Credits. Find out more here.

• The Last Mile Money Startup Accelerator is now open to ventures working at the intersection of last-mile users and financial empowerment. Selected startups will receive design support, access to Last Mile Money’s network, and up to $50,000 in equity-free grants. Apply here.

What else we’re reading

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