As part of its 2022-2025 roadmap, Digital Africa, in partnership with Proparco, will support 200 African startups at different stages of their growth with a wide range of offers at their disposal.

This joint and sustainable mobilization will see new investment and support mechanisms being implemented to support tech startups 'Made in Africa'. Convinced that digital innovations have a uniquely transformative impact across all sectors of the economy and are a driver of change for the continent...

Intelligent power management company Eaton has announced it will expand its collaboration with Microsoft to accelerate applications of its EnergyAware uninterruptible power system (UPS) technology in key segments worldwide.

The expansion is part of a new strategic framework agreement between Eaton and Microsoft designed to address major industry developments including digital transformation, sustainability and the energy transition. A key element of the strategic framework agreement is the inclusion of Eaton’s...

valU, MENA’s Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) lifestyle-enabling fintech platform, announced that Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair, Salman Abdulaziz Alhokair, and Abdul Majeed Abdulaziz Alhokair (Alhokair Family), have entered into an agreement to acquire a 4.99% stake in valU through a capital injection of $12.4 million, signifying a valuation of $247.4 million for the company.

Currently subject to relevant regulatory approvals and satisfaction of certain conditions precedent, the transaction marks Alhokair Family’s first investment in a BNPL platform in Egypt, underscoring valU’s strength in the market and...

Tugende, the East African fintech platform providing asset financing and digital services to small businesses, announced it has raised a pre-Series B investment round led by current shareholder Partech Africa.

Existing investors including Mobility 54, Enza and Global Partnerships participated, and were joined by strong new partners including global financial inclusion fund Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II (WWBCP II). CJ Juhasz, Chief Investment Officer, Women’s World Banking Asset...

IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl has announced the appointment of Andreas Beck as the company’s Managing Director in the Middle East and Africa. Andreas takes over from Vickram Nagi who is taking on a new role as Vice President, Delivery Transformation Leader at Kyndryl.

Beck returns to the region with a wealth of experience, working across numerous regions, industries and business units. Most recently, he served as Chief of Staff to Kyndryl’s Group President. Based out of the company’s headquarters...

Nigerian fintech firm VeendHQ announced it has secured $330k pre-seed fund, backed by Magic Fund, The Oak Capital, Future Africa, Berrywood Capital and other angel investors, to expand its operations and scale growth.

Temi Awogboro, Lead General Partner, Africa at MAGIC Fund: ''African SMEs are grossly under-funded, with more than 50% of Africans lacking access to credit. VeendHQ is solving this problem by providing easy and fast access to credit, leveraging a credit infrastructure platform that automates...

On the heels of a recent $1.50 million (KSh 170 million) investment, Kenyan insurtech startup mTek has secured an additional  $3 million (KSh 340 million) investment. The new investment is through both debt and equity from African-focused fintech platform, Finclusion Group. 

The intensified cooperation seeks to accelerate mTek’s growth into the Kenyan marketplace through continual improvements to the platform and via the expansion of its customer base. mTek’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Bente Krogmann...

Tokens.com, a publicly-traded company that invests in Web3 crypto assets and businesses linked to the Metaverse and NFTs, announced that its subsidiary, Hulk Labs, has entered into a play-to-earn partnership with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Tokens.com and Hulk Labs plan to work with several local entities and universities within the DRC to identify and train a group of players to participate in the play-to-earn gaming economy. In addition, Tokens.com will deploy play-to-earn...

Global technology company, Mastercard, has announced the signing of a partnership with the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) to help Kenya’s tourism sector rebound to its pre-pandemic level. The three-year collaboration is the first of its kind for Mastercard in Africa.

The aim of the MoU is to drive growth of tourism numbers into Kenya by leveraging various Mastercard channels, including its Priceless.com platform. The MoU also includes increasing transparency on tourism trends, anonymized traveler...

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions globally, is reminding African organisations of the importance of cybersecurity training for employees, following the recent cyber-attack on Shoprite Holdings.

Ransomware attacks are currently rife – and increasing – across the African continent. In the first quarter of 2022, Check Point Research has noted a 23% increase in ransomware attacks compared to 2021 – with 1 out of 44...

Kenya’s smartphone market saw shipments increase 4.5% year on year (YoY) in Q1 2022, according to the latest figures from global technology and consulting services firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

However, the company’s newly released Quarterly Global Mobile Phone Tracker shows that Kenya’s overall mobile phone market was down 9.0% YoY, with feature phone shipments declining 31.6% YoY. Smartphone shipments were up 12.7% from a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) perspective in Q1 2022...

Unicaf is an online and blended learning higher education platform that is dedicated to making higher education of international standard accessible, by offering scholarship opportunities to professionals and young school leavers.

What are scholarship opportunities?

A scholarship could be defined as financial aid that relieves the burden of tuition fees and living costs that students and families have to pay to secure a place in secondary and tertiary education. Considering the rising costs of student expenses and debts, we could nowadays describe education...

The Africa Trade Expo (TATE) presents direct access to African buyers whose main aim is to source the latest products, establish partnerships, and conclude import/export deals. TATE is an ongoing virtual trade show for African businesses to network, collaborate, and enter into partnerships with international manufacturers and exporters. Present your new opportunities, network, build relationships and grow your business in African markets...

Future Foods is a virtual meeting place for importers, F&B managers, retail category buyers, owner-operators, agents, and distributors from across Africa’s diverse and booming market to come to conferences, to network, meet exhibitors, source products, new ingredients, retail shelf-ready products, and the latest processing, packaging, and logistics solutions. Future Foods connects attendees exhibitors across the...

Kate Woolley is the IBM Ecosystem General Manager. In this interview, she talks about her priorities and her big plans for growing the IBM Ecosystem.

What prompted you to take the IBM Ecosystem leadership role?

When I look at the future of IBM the chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna has defined and that we’re executing towards, there are three big priorities – Hybrid Cloud and AI, Innovation and technical expertise, and the ecosystem. In looking at these priorities and where I wanted to go next, I saw the IBM...

An estimated 45% of young people aged 34 years in South Africa were not in employment, education or training last year according to data released by Statistics South Africa in Q4 of 2021. In 2022, predictions for the South African youth unemployment rate are projected to be as high as 64%.

Following the rising levels of unemployment among young South Africans, the UK-South Africa Tech Hub Launch League initiative undertook a research project dubbed ‘Skills and Training offered by South Africa’s Hub Network: How can...

Data forms the backbone of any manufacturing enterprise. With continuous supply chain disruptions, the allure of data and Business Intelligence (BI) is the ability to look deeper into production, performance, and efficiency.

For today’s industries, the issue isn’t whether they’re generating enough data, it’s whether they’re getting value from that data. SYSPRO research reveals that only 20 percent of manufacturing and distribution businesses have looked at investing in big data analytics tools to process and analyze...

The notion of cyber-attacks seems distant from our daily lives, as we go about our work, social and family lives. Cyber-attacks feel like they happen to big businesses who can quickly bounce back from them after the issue is identified and fixed– just as quickly as we would bounce back from being sick, once the illness was diagnosed and treated. 

Cyber-attacks have the potential to disrupt our lives completely, and in instances where critical national infrastructure is attacked, they could disrupt the country’s entire economy, leading to loss of life and livelihoods...

When it comes to the discourse around the way we work in the new era of hybrid working, it has never felt more balanced between the technology that enables it and the culture that defines it.

As well as investing in the latest digital experience technologies to support employees wherever they choose to work, organisations are also having to re-think the culture of a workforce that is no longer confined to an office full-time. If making a decision between permanent hybrid working and a return to the office wasn’t hard enough, employers also...

Kenya is set to benefit from a $1 billion investment by Google over the next five years to boost digital transformation in Africa. Announced at the company’s Google for Africa virtual event in October, the investment will assist start-ups and entrepreneurs on their digital journeys and help usher in the next era of connectivity for citizens across the continent.

In addition to a previous commitment from Google of $10 million in COVID-19 economic recovery funds to SMEs and technology start-ups, the finances show that private companies have a critical role to play in the country’s full...