Share this newsletter:
TGIF ☀️
If you haven’t already, please take a couple of minutes out of your Friday morning to tell us how you feel about podcasts. We’re working on a podcast, and we’d like to get it right. So please fill out our survey here and show us the path to take. Thank you!
Cybercrime
Flutterwave loses ₦11 billion in security breach
In February, Flutterwave got a court order to recover $24 million, which it lost in a breach last October.
Flutterwave said the October incident happened when it noticed unauthorised transactions by POS device merchants, which resulted in funds being automatically transferred to the bank accounts of customers.
One month after obtaining the order to recover the lost funds, the fintech was breached again.
A billion-naira breach: While the amount lost in its latest breach was not disclosed, insiders estimate the figures to be between ₦11 billion ($7 million) and ₦20 billion ($13.5 million).
Flutterwave said it “detected unauthorised activities inconsistent with usual customer behaviour on one of our platforms used by a small subset of our customer base.”
The stolen funds were transferred to multiple accounts across five financial institutions in a four-day period, per one insider. The perpetrators in this fraud played smart by transferring small chunks of the stolen funds so as not to trigger fraud checks.
Flutterwave insists that “no customer funds were lost or compromised, and the confidentiality of our customers’ data remains intact.”
This is not Flutterwave’s first rodeo in fraud. Last year, the fintech lost over ₦22 billion ($14 million) in three separate events, as reported by TechCabal. In February and March last year, it lost about ₦2.9 billion ($1.9 million) and ₦550 million ($361,000), respectively, before losing ₦19 billion ($12.4 million) in October.
Read Moniepoint’s case study on family-owned businesses
Family-owned businesses are everywhere, shaping our world in ways you might not expect. We’ve found some insights into how they work, and we’d love to share them with you. Dive in right away here.
Creator Economy
Inside Layi’s business of laughter
Layi is in the business of laughter.
The Nigerian comedian, cosplays “The Law,” a struggling lawyer, and Mr. Richard, a convincing motivational speaker who spins tales of financial independence to lure people into his pyramid scheme. Through these characters, Layi brings humour and joy to millions of people.
With an Instagram following of 2 million people, Layi is not just bringing smiles and laughter to our faces; he is also bringing the heat to other comedians. In 2023, the comedian had the second-highest engagement rate—his posts averaged about a hundred thousand likes—on Instagram, surpassing other Nigerian skitmakers like Taooma, Broda Shaggi, and Sabinus.
Layi, who began creating content in 2015, is not one to stick to the formula. Instead, the comedian, Isaac Olayiwola, uses audience familiarity with his characters to create humor that playfully challenges stereotypes.While he has perfected this art, Layi isn’t the first to do it. Other comedians have trodden the path but left too quickly.
With attention spans down to about 47 seconds, comedians have their clothes cut out for them. Layi typically captures his audience by keeping them hooked from start to finish and making them laugh within one minute.
To make profits and appeal to a broader audience, Layi moved from TikTok to Instagram. While the comedian typically makes people laugh within 1 minute, his approach isn’t fit for long-form video platforms like YouTube. Layi says he is focused on making skits for now.
Collect payments anytime anywhere with Fincra
Are you dealing with the complexities of collecting payments from your customers? Fincra’s payment gateway makes it easy to accept payments via cards, bank transfers, virtual accounts and mobile money. What’s more? You get to save money on fees when you use Fincra. Get started now.
Fintech
Jack Dorsey’s TBD teams up with Chipper Cash
TBD, a digital payment platform owned by Block and co-founded by Twitter’s founder, Jack Dorsey, has partnered with Chipper Cash, a leading fintech platform in Africa to reduce the time it takes for people to send and receive money internationally.
The goal of the partnership: This partnership with Chipper Cash enables TBD to expand its reach in Africa. Through this collaboration, TBD can now offer its services in 40 African countries. Most importantly, the goal of the partnership is to make it faster and cheaper to send money across borders in Africa.
The company “bridges the gap between the old way of doing things and the digital asset space”, Mike Brock, CEO of TBD said.
How it works: TBD created an open messaging system called tbDEX. This system connects people who want to send money with people who can provide it.
Chipper Cash has now integrated tbDEX as a secure communication channel. When you want to send money through Chipper Cash, tbDEX connects you with someone who has the funds you need in another country. Unlike traditional methods, tbDEX verifies both your identity and the recipient’s identity electronically, ensuring everything is legitimate and following regulations. This eliminates the need for individual bank checks, which can take days.
Once tbDEX confirms everything is in order, Chipper Cash facilitates the transfer. One can choose to send either digital assets, like bitcoin, or traditional currency. The recipient also has flexibility—they can receive the money directly in their local currency into their bank account or mobile wallet.
The impact of this partnership: Chipper Cash is identified as one of the largest financial technology firms in Africa. It allows its 5 million customers to send money across more than 21 countries on the continent. TBD is a part of Block (formerly known as Square). TBD focuses on creating technologies to connect the traditional financial system with newer digital assets. Their partnership aims to improve financial access for individuals, and businesses while making it easier and cheaper to send and receive money. It will also encourage the use of digital assets like cryptocurrency.
Have you shopped online recently?
In just 3 mins, kindly share your experience with delivery services in Nigeria, and you could be one of 20 people to win an electricity gift card or N10,000 airtime. Share here 👉🏾 paystack.com/logisticsurvey
Innovation
Nigeria startup hub to open in Silicon Valley
In a move to improve the country’s tech sector and startup ecosystem, the Federal Government has approved setting up a startup hub in San Francisco, USA also known as the Silicon Valley.
The minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy, Bosun Tijani. announced the move yesterday, noting the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the project during its meeting on Tuesday and an existing property of the Federal Government in San Francisco will be converted to become the Nigeria Startup House.
How will this benefit Nigeria? Well, Silicon Valley is the global centre for startups and startup funding. Minister Tijani noted that the proximity to venture capitalists significantly increases the chances of Nigerian startups to secure funding and the hub will showcase Nigerian startups to a wider audience of investors and potential partners in the global tech market. The minister also notes the San Francisco hub as a strategic move to position Nigeria as a major player in the global tech industry and attract investments back to the country.
Faster internet is coming to Nigeria too: In addition to the startup hub, the government announced a plan to improve internet access nationwide. The government also approved the installation of fibre optic cables to improve internet connectivity in the country.
The Special Purpose Vehicle will oversee the installation of 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable.
This initiative aligns with the ‘Project 774 LG Connectivity,‘ announced by the Communications minister in February. Project 774 LG Connectivity seeks to bridge the digital divide by connecting all 774 local government secretariats to the internet. This initiative will not only improve digital access for government offices but also extend connectivity to communities, fostering job creation.
Nigerians celebrate the news: Unlike the negative reaction to the previous announcement on the AI strategy workshop, X users responded positively and expressed optimism for the new startup hub. One user said, “This is a good development, and will definitely amplify the country’s tech talent.” Another noted, “Great! May it be accessible to all Nigerian startups”.
TC Insights
Funding tracker
This week, Egypt-based fintech MNZL raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by P1 Ventures, Localglobe, and Ingressive Capital. Additional support came from 500 Startups, Flat6Labs, First Circle Capital, ENZA Capital, Beenok, and other angel investors.
Here are other deals for the week:
- Renewable energy startup d.light received $3.4 million to provide solar home systems in Uganda. The initiative is being funded by a grant from the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and the German, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swiss governments’ Energising Development (EnDev) international programme.
- Senegalese B2B E-commerce Maad raised $3.2 million in seed funding. The seed round was led by Ventures Platform, with participation from Seedstars International Ventures, Reflect Ventures, Oui Capital, Launch Africa, Voltron Capital, and Alumni Ventures.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. Before you go, our State Of Tech In Africa Report for Q1 2024 is out. Click this link to download it.
Attend GITEX Africa 2024
GITEX Africa returns a second time on May 29–31, 2024, to Marrakech, Morocco, discussing ways to accelerate the continent’s digital health revolution. GITEX is the continent’s largest all-inclusive tech event renowned for uniting the brightest minds in the technology industry. Grab your tickets here.
Crypto Tracker
The World Wide Web3
Source:
|
Coin Name |
Current Value |
Day |
Month |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin |
$65,045 |
– 0.58% |
+ 4.83% |
| Ether |
$3,952 |
+ 0.55% |
– 1.92% |
 GameStop |
$0.019 |
+ 60.44% |
+ 2677.51% |
| Solana |
$144.34 |
– 1.44% |
– 6.64% |
* Data as of 06:25 AM WAT, May 17, 2024.
Events
- TechCabal is set to announce its first set of speakers for the second edition of its Moonshot Conference which is set for October 9–11, 2024, at the Eko Convention Centre, Lagos, Nigeria. Moonshot will assemble Africa’s biggest thinkers, players and problem solvers on a global launchpad for change. If you want to join the stakeholders in Africa’s tech ecosystem for three days of insightful conversations, then get an early-bird ticket at 20% off.
Here’s what we’ve got our eyes on
Written by: Faith Omoniyi, Stephen Agwaibor & Towobola Bamgbose
Edited by: Timi Odueso
Want more of TechCabal? Sign up for our insightful newsletters on the business and economy of tech in Africa.
- The Next Wave: futuristic analysis of the business of tech in Africa.
- Entering Tech: tech career insights and opportunities in your inbox every Wednesday at 3 PM WAT.
- In a Giffy: business decisions powered by data-driven insights and analysis you can trust.
- TC Scoops: breaking news from TechCabal
P:S If you’re often missing TC Daily in your inbox, check your Promotions folder and move any edition of TC Daily from “Promotions” to your “Main” or “Primary” folder and TC Daily will always come to you.
