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It’s been less than a year since the iPhone 14 series was released. But users are reporting a huge problem: their batteries are degrading almost as quickly as some networks disappear when you need them.
Several have shown how their battery capacities have moved below 90%, quicker than any of the past iPhone series. Is this another move by Apple to force people to buy newer iPhones? Is another $500 million settlement on its way? If you use an iPhone 14, share your battery percentage with us on X.
Funding
Founders Factory Africa secures $114 million
Founders Factory Africa grew five times bigger overnight! 🚀
The accelerator and venture studio secured $114 million to invest in more startups across Africa. The funding came from investors like Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures. This is about five times the size of its previous investment fund of $25 million.
How will FFA use all that money? Founders Factory Africa issues equity checks of up to $250,000 for startups at the idea, pre-seed and seed stages. Its portfolio cuts across 55 ventures in 11 African countries, with most of them foodtech and healthtech startups. With this fresh fund, FFA is shaking things up. Now, it will focus less on sectors, and invest with the goal of addressing gender imbalances in the ecosystem. Plus, FFA is beefing up its own muscles so that it can offer better support to the startups in its venture studio.
Sidebar: A venture studio combines a traditional venture capital approach with non-financial support tailored to the needs of its startups.
“Our new fund will allow us to continue supporting the continent’s most promising early-stage ventures – and their exceptional founders – with the capital and resources they need to fuel their growth,” said Sam Sturm, the chief portfolio officer of Founders Factory Africa.
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Acquisitions
Mastercard to acquire minority stake in MTN’s MoMo
Mastercard is investing in another mobile money product in Africa.
The payments processor has agreed to buy a minority stake in the fintech business of MTN Group Ltd—MoMo. MTN’s CEO, Ralph Mupita, says that the telecom is finalising the investment arrangements.
The second choice: This is Mastercard’s second investment in mobile money products in Africa. In April 2021, it invested $100 million in Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations—acquiring a minority stake in the fintech arm of the telecom.
MoMo was launched in Africa to facilitate low-value transactions in remittance services, micro-savings, and withdrawal services for users. Currently, it is available in 17 countries.
At the close of 2022, 69.1 million customers were using MoMo to make and receive mobile money payments. There were also 1.3 million agents and 1.5 million merchants registered on the platform. MoMo had processed $13.4 billion in transaction volume in the same period.
The big picture: MTN invested ₦16 billion ($20 million) in MoMo after its launch in Nigeria. While the mobile money service is thriving in other countries, it is yet to be adopted by most Nigerians. Per MTN’s2023 first quarter result, MoMo has 3.2 million monthly active mobile money wallets (MoMo PSB), accounting for 43.2% of the telecom’s users. While MTN’s impressive distribution lets it reach 19 million people, MoMo still has a long way to go in becoming a service of choice.
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Fintech
CBK increases M-PESA’s transaction limit
M-PESA customers can now send up to KES 500,000 ($3,480) per day.
They couldn’t do this before, as the Central Bank of Kenya had capped transactions at 150,000 ($1,043) for a long time. Now, the CBK has increased the cap limit.
Why? It appears that the CBK limited M-ESA until the fintech was able to adhere to KYC, anti-money laundering, and other financial regulations and safeguards for such a transaction capacity. The change will take effect from August 15.
Sidebar: The current limit of KES 150,000 ($1,043) per transaction remains unchanged. But now customers can conduct multiple transactions up to the new daily limit of KES 500,000 ($3,480).
So now what? This means thatSMEs that use M-PESA can make even more transactions every day with the wallet. In March 2023, more than 606,000 businesses received payments through Lipa Na M-PESA, with a total of KES 1.625 trillion ($11.3 billion) transacted in the 12 months. This is good news for Safaricom too as Lipa na M-PESA contributes about 40% of the carrier’s service revenue. Everyone wins.
Telecom
Vodacom to appeal rejection of Maziv acquisition
South African mobile network operator,Vodacom, has responded to a decision by the country’s competition commission.
ICYMI: Last week, the competition commission halted Vodacom’s acquisition of Maziv, a holding company whose assets include fibre network operators, Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) and Vumatel. The commission says the proposed transaction could lessen competition across multiple fibre markets.
Vodacom says it is disappointed with the regulator’s decision to block the acquisition, and it plans to appeal. The telecom believes that the acquisition would have contributed to reducing the digital gap and improving competition in the fibre market. The company is confident that the involved parties would have ensured accessibility to Maziv’s fibre assets.
Vodacom and Maziv’s initiative: Vodacom has committed to creating up to 10,000 new jobs and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by establishing a new enterprise and supplier development fund of R300 million ($15.8 million) over three years. The company has also committed to passing at least one million new homes in lower-income areas with fibre infrastructure over five years.
Zoom out: The case will now move to the Competition Tribunal. If the Tribunal upholds the decision, Vodacom can then appeal to the Competition Appeal Court.
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Crypto Tracker
The World Wide Web3
Source:
|
Coin Name |
Current Value |
Day |
Month |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin |
$29,392 |
– 0.13% |
– 3.27% |
| Ether |
$1,841 |
– 0.23% |
– 4.76% |
 Barn Bridge |
$2.99 |
+ 0.36% |
– 0.81% |
| Worldcoin |
$1.78 |
– 8.10% |
+ 6.92% |
* Data as of 05:35 AM WAT, August 15, 2023.
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Opportunities
- Visa is open to applications for its Africa Fintech Accelerator Program. Startups up to the Series A stage are encouraged to apply for a chance to gain unparalleled expertise, valuable industry connections, cutting-edge technology, and potential investment funding. Apply by August 25.
- If you are an aspiring economist entering your first year of undergraduate studies in the 2024 academic year, the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Economic Research Department in collaboration with the SARB Academy, invites you to apply for competitive SARB bursaries in the field of economics, economics and econometrics, economics and mathematical statistics and economic science. Apply by September 30.
- Applications are open for the Cambridge Africa ALBORADA Research Fund 2023 for sub-Saharan African Researchers ($20,000 in Grants). The Cambridge Africa ALBORADA Research Fund competitively awards grants between £1,000 and £20,000 for research costs, research-related travel between Cambridge and Africa, and conducting research training activities in Africa. Apply by September 4.
- The SaaS Accelerator Programme: Africa 2023 has opened applications for its accelerator programme to enable early startups in Africa to receive funding. Selected startups will receive up to $70,000 in funding. Apply by September 7.
What else is happening in tech?
- The Next Wave: How much digitisation will be enough for B2B e-commerce in Africa?
- TikTokers are documenting—and monetizing—anti-government protests in Kenya
- Zuckerberg says he’s ready to fight and that Elon keeps making things up
- Nigerian tech workers are going remote, and pricing out locals in smaller cities
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