Innovate Africa Fund has launched with an initial $2.5 million to support up to 20 early-stage startups over the next year, addressing challenges such as insecurity, unemployment, and poverty. Supporting Early-Stage African Startups Since 2019, the funding landscape in Africa has shown promising growth, with disclosed exits surpassing $2.3 billion. However, despite raising $17.2 billion overall, early-stage founders often need help to secure the funding necessary to transition from ideation to market fit. Innovate Africa Fund aims to bridge this gap by providing insight-driven capital to help founders accelerate their
Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has unveiled plans to establish research centers for emerging technologies across the country’s six geopolitical zones. The technologies include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain, aimed to build a technology research ecosystem. Fostering Innovation and Development Kashifu Inuwa, Director General of NITDA, announced the initiative at the IoT West Africa Conference held in Lagos. Represented by Aristotle Onumo, NITDA’s Director of Corporate Planning and Strategy, Inuwa emphasized that the new research centers align with the agency’s mission to support technological
AI and satellite imagery are being used to fight spatial apartheid in South Africa, exposing stark inequalities and driving systemic change. According to MIT Technology Review, Raesetje Sefala, a 28-year-old researcher from Limpopo, South Africa, is at the forefront of using AI and satellite imagery to combat spatial apartheid. Growing up in a township, Sefala witnessed firsthand the disparities between Black townships and affluent white neighborhoods. Now, she’s using cutting-edge technology to address these injustices. Unearthing Spatial Inequities In collaboration with computer scientists Nyalleng Moorosi and Timnit Gebru at the
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has launched an update enabling content creators in Nigeria and Ghana to monetize their content on its platforms. This new policy, which became effective June 27, 2024, marks an important change. Previously, Facebook excluded creators with Nigerian and Ghanaian addresses from monetization unless their page was managed from an eligible country. Expansion of Monetization Opportunities This policy shift follows an announcement by Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, in March 2024, confirming the rollout of monetization features in June. “Monetization won’t
Nigeria will be sending its first citizen to space as part of collaboration between its National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) and Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), a global space agency. SERA will reserve a seat for a Nigerian citizen on an upcoming Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital spaceflight. First Nigerian in Space Announced on June 19, 2024, this initiative is part of a broader effort to include nations historically underrepresented in space exploration. “Until now, space has been an exclusive domain, with over 80% of all astronauts
A year after launching its AI research lab, Awarri, a small Lagos-based startup, has become the driving force behind Nigeria’s first government-backed multilingual Large Language Model (LLM). Nigeria’s multilingual LLM Nigeria’s first multilingual LLM is developed by Awarri in partnership with global tech entity DataDotOrg, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the National Centre for AI and Robotics (NCAIR). Initially, it will trained in five of Nigeria’s commonly spoken languages – Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Ibibio and Pidgin – as well as accented English. Awarri, founded by Silas Adekunle
Cadana has raised $7.1 million in seed funding this year. Launched in 2021, the startup allows global workforces to integrate payments and payroll management into their systems. Cadana According to the company, the world’s largest payroll platforms and talent marketplaces use Cadana’s APIs to build compliant hiring products in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Founders Albert Owusu-Asare and Ameer Shujjah, who are originally from Ghana and Pakistan, gained years of experience working at Amazon, Esusu, and Goldman Sachs before founding the company. Although the pair appreciated their version of the
Breega, a Paris-based venture capital firm, has announced the first close of its $75 million Africa-focused fund, designed to back pre-seed and seed-stage startups. Expanding Horizons With Local Presence Breega’s new fund, “Africa Seed I,” marks its first foray outside Europe and aligns with opening two new offices in Lagos and Cape Town. These new locations join Breega’s existing offices in Paris, London, and Barcelona, enhancing its presence across the EMEA region. According to Ben Marrel, Breega’s co-founder and CEO, the firm’s approach is rooted in its “founders-for-founders” ethos, offering
Pariti, a platform dedicated to creating economic opportunities through entrepreneurship, has partnered with NVIDIA. This collaboration aims to train over 2,000 developers across the African continent in deep learning through the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI). Training Over 2,000 Developers in Africa Pariti’s educational series, in partnership with NVIDIA, will leverage the NVIDIA DLI to provide intensive artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) training to over 2,000 developers. These sessions will cover NVIDIA’s AI/ML stack and culminate in free certification for participants. The initiative primarily targets university students from Kenya,
17-year-old Emmanuela Ilok from Nigeria has been awarded full scholarships to study software engineering at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including Stanford, MIT, Yale, UPenn, Princeton, and Columbia. Academic Excellence and International Recognition Ilok’s journey to securing these scholarships began with her performance in the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) in Nigeria, where she was recognized as the top performer by the British Council, according to Punchng. Ilok’s mind led her to develop software that employs Machine Learning algorithms to detect breast cancer in women, achieving
