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.
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
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
A new initiative, launched by Dream Legacy Foundation (DLF), an organization that runs innovative programs to boost entrepreneurship within the Black Community and Ryerson University’s business incubator, has just taken off.
Kenya’s central bank has called on the public to share their views, before May 20th, on the possibility of adopting a digital currency, just one day after it emerged that Zambia is also testing its viability too. The Bank of Zambia is also carrying out research on digital currencies. Digital currency, unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is developed by central banks and pegged on countries’ fiat currencies. The potential decision-making comes just a year after Nigeria became the first country in Africa to pilot its central bank digital currency . While Ghana
Mattaniah Aytenfsu is a 24-year-old UX engineer for YouTube and a budding TikTok influencer. Always being open to new opportunities and avenues led Aytenfsu to the land of TikTok, where she started posting videos revolving around the intersection of art, design, and engineering. She is the definition of the best of both worlds when it comes to art and tech. With multiple viral moments under her belt, it was one particular video that got the social media community buzzing — her painting that she turned into a musical instrument. Talk
Up to £23 million in government funding will create more AI and data conversion courses, helping young people from underrepresented groups including women, black people and people with disabilities join the UK’s world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry. Up to two thousand scholarships for master AI conversion courses, which enable graduates to do further study courses in the field even if their undergraduate course is not directly related, will create a new generation of experts in data science and AI. The UK has a long history in AI, from codebreaker Alan
