TechCabal Daily – The Brave cut

CRYPTO MARKET

Bitcoin	$19,151	– 1.31%
Ether	$1,295	– 1.70%
BNB	$272	– 1.74%
Solana	$32.17	– 1.80%
Cardano	$0.40	– 3.75%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 23:30 PM WAT, October 10, 2022.

GLAMERA RAISES $1.3 MILLION

Egypt-born startup Glamera has raised $1.3 million in a seed round led by Riyadh Angels Investors. Techstars Accelerator, Ithraa Venture Capital, 100 Ventures, Lucrative Ventures, and Super Angel Investors also participated in the round.

What Glamera does

Glamera is a software-as-a-service business. It is a platform which provides access to beauty and lifestyle services providers such as beauty salons, barber shops, gyms, spas, and makeup artists. It enables consumers to find such service providers and book sessions with them.

What will Glamera do with the money?

To date, it has facilitated a gross merchandise value of $45 million on its platform. The funding will be used to achieve more growth in revenue and client acquisition. The startup has said that it aims to work with 2,500+ clients and achieve $500 million GMV by the end of 2023. It will do this by continuing product development and expanding to more markets. 

BRAVE CUTS SA OFF FROM WITHDRAWING CRYPTO REWARDS

No more BAT for South Africans.

South Africans can no longer withdraw their blockchain token, Basic Attention Token (BAT), which they earned by viewing advertisements on the Brave browser. The ethereum-based token is available on exchange platforms.

On Sunday, October 9, 2022, it was available for R5.45 ($0.30) per token on the South African cryptocurrency exchange, VALR. Audiences on Reddit and YouTube also use the BAT token to tip creators they appreciate.

Why won’t South Africans get their BATs?

This is because the browser, Brave, has stopped extending its services to the country. 

Before now, South Africans could withdraw their BAT from the browser by using either Gemini or Uphold, Brave’s partner wallet providers. However, in May, Gemini stopped supporting users in South Africa and several other countries. Two months later, in July, Brave made the same move. No one in the country could create new accounts on Brave to earn BAT, but pre-existing Brave users continued to earn BAT and store it in their Uphold wallets which still supported the country. 

Hanging BATs

Uphold users have to authenticate their accounts every 90 days but South African users can’t do that because the browser no longer runs in the country. Now they have been logged out of their accounts leaving their BATs hanging on the blockchain.

Brave has not said why its doors are closed to South Africa and other countries, but a product manager said on Reddit that it is in a bid to check the fraudulent activities happening on the platform.

NGUVU PARTNERS WITH AXA MANSARD

Since its inception in 2020, Nguvu Health, an on-demand teletherapy platform, has been providing Nigerians with access to clinical psychologists.

Nguvu’s work is important, especially in a country like Nigeria where there are only 300 psychiatrists for the over 50 million people that live with mental health disorders. 

But not all Nigerians can afford mental healthcare, especially not the masses who live under $2 per day.

Nguvu wants to change this. The startup has partnered with AXA Mansard to provide affordable mental health care to Africans. AXA Mansard is an insurtech platform providing motor, travel, health, and life insurance to Nigerians, so a partnership with a teletherapy platform fits its bill.

The partnership, a two-year deal, brings together Nguvu Health’s connections to teletherapy services and AXA Mansard’s connections to thousands of users seeking proper mental health coverage.

IN OTHER NEWS FROM TECHCABAL

How to use MTN MoMo in Ghana for payments, loans, and savings.

OPPORTUNITIES

• Expedia Group is inviting small businesses that have been existing for less than 10 years in the travel and hospitality industry to apply to its six-month remote accelerator programme. Among other things, selected participants will receive $20,000 in non-equity funding. Apply by October 21.

• The Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme and the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique of Nairobi are offering a three-month long fellowship in France for postdoc researchers from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Eastern Congo (Kivu) who have presented their thesis from 2017. Laureates will receive a monthly stipend of €1,600 at the start of each month. Apply by December 9.

• The Impact Entrepreneurship Competition is accepting applications from entrepreneurs and early-stage companies generating positive socio-economic impact in Ghana. Over $20,000 in cash prizes and more than $5,000 will be awarded to the selected entrepreneurs during the competition. Apply by October 10.

• If your startup or innovation is focused on climate-smart agriculture practices, apply to the THRIVE|Shell Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge for a chance to win $100,000, a spot in a prestigious accelerator, publicity and more. Apply by December 11.

• Telecel Group’s African Startup Initiative Program is now open for applications. The 10 selected startups will receive €15,000 in cash each and benefits valued at more than €500,000, including credits from AWS, Google Cloud Services, Hubspot, and more. Apply by November 11.

What else is happening in tech?

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