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
Coalition to Back Black Businesses, co-founded by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, American Express, and four leading national Black business organizations – announced the 491 Black-owned small businesses that have been awarded funding. The organizations, which are based across 39 states, were each awarded a $5,000 grant as part of a multi-year grantmaking and mentorship initiative. The recipients will be eligible to apply for enhancement grants of $25,000, which will be provided to a select number of 2021 grantee recipients in July 2022. The group itself was formed back
Major tech companies such as Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft are among the West Coast names that have opened offices in Atlanta, hoping to capitalize on the technology talent in the city, especially Black talent, according to a report by TheGrio. Over the past five years, Atlanta has seen 15% growth in tech jobs, comparable with other notable tech cities — 16% for the San Francisco Bay Area and 10% for Austin, Texas, this is based on data collated by the CBRE. There are also a wide range of tech incubators,
Casava, the self-described “Nigeria’s first 100% digital insurance company”, has raised a $4 million pre-seed round. It was first founded by Bode Pedro. Before starting Casava, Pedro ran VisaCover, an insurance brokerage company, in 2014. The idea for Casava came while VisaCover provided an alternative in the auto insurance market by allowing drivers of Uber, which was one of its partners, to make weekly insurance payments instead of quarterly or yearly payments insurance partners before it operated, according to TechCrunch. He left the VisaCover company in 2016 and Pedro brought on Olusegun
Alejandro Cordero, a professor of electronics and the CEO & Founder of Innova Space, which is reportedly the only company in Latin America that specializes in the design and development of PocketQube pico-satellites. Innova Space was born from an educational project led by Cordero and his seventh-year students. Cordero had challenged his students of Technical High School, which is dubbed number five in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina with designing a satellite in 2019. In the process, Innova Space received an offer from a startup accelerator. An investment of $100,000
The NAACP, VistaPrint, and the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation have announced the second cohort of recipients from the Power Forward Small Business Grant. The collaboration between the trio and their commitment of $1 million was designed to create a lasting impact through the economic empowerment of Black-owned small businesses across New England. As well as the grants of $25,000 and the opportunity to be featured on national co-branded platforms, recipients also receive design and marketing assistance customized to their specific needs. The successful small businesses, chosen from the Boston metropolitan area, Western Massachusetts, Rhode
DrugStoc co-founders Chibuzo Opara and Adham Yehia launched DrugStoc to serve as a tech-enabled solution that combats the continent’s broken pharmaceutical supply chains through connecting drug store companies with hospitals and pharmacies in Nigeria.
Instagram has switched things up and has introduced a new way for creators to make money, kicking off a test of subscriptions for the social platform in the US. Announcing the news on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and chairman/CEO of its parent company Meta, said: “This will help creators earn more by offering benefits to their most engaged followers like access to exclusive Lives and Stories. “I’m excited to keep building tools for creators to make a living doing creative work and to put these tools in more creators’
According to the annual VC Diversity Survey from Chicago:Blend, 2021 did see growth in both minorities and women working in venture capital, but the city is still behind national averages. The Chicago tech scene is one of the biggest contributors to Chicago’s economy and has helped develop tech startups scale and through the first three quarters of 2021 alone, Chicago tech raised over $5.5 billion, up from $2.8 billion in 2020. 2021 saw the most venture funding since they started tracking such statistics 15 years ago. And while they can be applauded
Rapper Nas has joined US private equity firm Andreessen Horowitz and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in an investment round for Africa-focused mobile gaming platform – Carry1st. Carry1st, a South African publisher of social games and interactive content across Africa, has raised $20 million Series A from the investors. The startup, launched by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman and Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu in 2018, also received investments from Avenir and the founders of Chipper Cash, Sky Mavis and Yield Guild Games, took part. It wants to use this additional capital to scale interactive content across Africa, build the workforce and acquire new users. The
