JéGO Technologies Inc, a Black-owned innovative tech firm based in Miami, Florida, has just begun manufacturing their self-driving vehicles called JéGO Pods. The company’s goal is to use its mobile platform to connect users with businesses that provide on-demand services like Flu Testing, COVID testing, IV therapy, and other services which can be brought directly to customers using driverless JéGO pods. To be released in late 2022, the firm was founded by Frederick Akphoghene, a Nigerian immigrant who started his career in tech at just 16-years-old, eventually building and partnering
It was rare to see a Nigerian startup raising $10 million ten years ago but now the country’s fintech unicorns are becoming just as valuable as its banks. Every other month we’re hearing about startups all over the country raising capital but a new report has found that in 2021, investors, including global giants SoftBank and Tiger Global, put a total of $1.37 billion into Nigerian startups, according to Africa: The Big Deal, a pan-African funding tracker. But to justify large valuations, companies need to demonstrate growth, which means spending big on customer acquisition.
Remedial Health has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding to digitize pharmacies, and stem the supply of fake and substandard pharmaceutical products, starting with Nigeria before expanding to the rest of Africa. Founded in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada, a trained pharmacist and self-taught software developer, together with his co-founder Victor Benjamin – the company is said to be using part of the new funding will be used to extend the startup’s buy-now-pay-later offering, for an even wider reach. Okwuada started his entrepreneurial journey while still at the university, where he built SaaS products,
Maci Peterson – who has sent her share of accidental text messages — tried to put end to the embarrassing-text-epidemic with the long-adored app she launched when she was just 28-years-old. Peterson launched On Second Thought back in December 2014 as a texting app that allows users to “take back” a text up to 60 seconds after it was sent before it reaches the receiver. It grew with 42,000 users. Called “The Texting Savior” by AT&T, On Second Thought was reportedly a patented, mobile delay/recall technology that lets users take back
The Black Angel Group is a collective of angel investors from Google and Alphabet that invests intellectual, social, and financial capital in seed to Series A startups around the world. Black people continue to be underrepresented among startup investors and founders. According to Crunchbase, Black founders received little over 1% of the $147 billion invested in US startups in 2021. In the UK, about 3% of London-based founders who received venture capital funding identified as Black, according to a 2019 study from Cornerstone Partners. The group aims to be part of the
Mdundo, an Africa-focused music streaming service, is banking on more partnerships with telcos across the continent to grow its earnings and user base. The optimism comes after a successful year. Last year, the Kenya-based company signed deals with MTN and Airtel in Nigeria, and Vodacom in Tanzania, which reportedly appeared to be paying off after its user-base almost doubled as it added paying subscribers as a source of revenue, according to media. According to TechCrunch, MTN and Airtel Nigeria have a combined customer base of 124.5 million, while Vodacom Tanzania
Kiaan Pillay runs Stitch, which offers a B2B application programming interface (API) focused on fintech infrastructure. The founder has announced that Stitch — one of the prominent players building and operating these APIs in Africa — has raised $21 million in Series A funding. The South African API fintech enables businesses to build, optimize, and scale financial products. With its API, developers can connect apps to financial accounts. This allows users to share their transaction history and balances, confirm their identities and initiate payment Per a statement released by the company, it plans
A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in December alone. But the latest numbers also revealed that Latinas are exiting the workforce at higher rates than any other demographic, which economists are really concerned about. The research was released around about the same time that another report, by Russell Reynolds Associates, found that Black technology workers face professional barriers that lead to shorter average tenures than technology workers of other racial backgrounds. Russell Reynolds found that Black tech workers moved between employers every 3.5 years
Despite diversity pledges, funding to Latino-founded startups in the US still lags—accounting for only 2 percent of venture investments last year. At POCIT, we try to be your go-to resource to find out the best resources and tools. Here are summits and conferences for Latinas to look forward to this year. It’s a glimpse at some of the opportunities to get involved in 2022. These may connect you to a mentor, advisor, or potential investor. Latinas in tech The ‘Your Transferable Skills: How to Identify & Leverage Skills to Advance
Duplo, a Lagos-based fintech, is attempting to tackle these inefficiencies by digitizing payment flows for B2B companies, starting with those in this industry. It comes after the company secured a place in Y Combinator last November and is taking part in the accelerator’s current winter batch. The YC-backed startup has also raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round led by early-stage pan-African VC firm Oui Capital to further its growth. A mix of local and international investors such as MyAsia VC, Y Combinator, Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola and Mono CEO Abdul Hassan
