Djamo, a Francophone digital banking startup, raised $17 million in an equity funding round led by Janngo Capital. The fintech company currently serves one million customers, specifically in Ivory Coast and, more recently, Senegal, according to TechCrunch. The funding will help Djamo expand its product suite for its customers and the thousands of small businesses it has acquired over the past two years. Who are the founders of Djamo? CEO Hassan Bourgi founded the company in 2020 alongside Chief Product and Technical Officer Régis Bamba. Djamo is committed to lessening the financial
Kevin Hart’s Coramino Fund is now accepting applications for its $10,000 grant, including AI training to help small business owners learn more about AI. The fund is the brainchild of Kevin Hart and Juan Domingo Beckmann’s Gran Coramino Tequila. It is currently in its third year and is now open for its latest round of grants targeting entrepreneurs and small businesses from underserved communities, according to Fortune. Part of the grant includes “cutting-edge AI technological training and hands-on learning to responsibly and effectively incorporate into their operations.” Addressing the disparity
Nigerian fintech startup Moniepoint announced the launch of MonieWorld, a platform that offers immigrants various financial services, starting with remittances to Nigeria. The new financial product allows users to return money to Nigeria, beginning with the UK. “With MonieWorld, Nigerians in the UK can send money home in seconds directly into any Nigerian bank account. With remittances to Nigeria crossing $20B in 2023, we see this as an opportunity to support economic growth in Nigeria, while bringing families closer,” the company said in a blog post. Customers will be able
Marshmallow, a British fintech startup aiming to make insurance cheaper, faster, and fairer, has raised $90 million in equity and debt funding. The funding round, led by Portage Capital, will support the company’s expansion into new markets and products amid a growing migrant population. “We think of migration as a huge opportunity. We need migration to put more people into work, and we want to help people move and integrate into the UK,” CEO Oliver Kent-Braham told TechCrunch. The raise nearly doubles Marshmallow’s valuation to $2 billion. New investors include
OneUnited Bank, one of the nation’s largest Black-owned banks, is partnering with the credit-building platform Esusu to change the path to homeownership for renters during Financial Literacy Month. Esusu uses data to help improve users’ credit scores, allowing people to make it easier to get onto the housing ladder. “This alliance is all about empowering renters with the financial tools they need to turn their homeownership dreams into reality,” Teri Williams, President & COO of OneUnited Bank, said in a press release. OneUnited Bank’s collaboration with Esusu By reporting on-time rental payments, this
This week on Techish, Michael and Abadesi unpack how the changing political landscape is shaping career goals for top university grads. They also dive into Big Tech’s ties to the military-industrial complex, reflect on the ‘good old days’ of internet journalism, and the debate about tackling wealth inequality. Chapters 00:25 Stanford Grads Are Ditching Big Tech for Defense07:57 Nostalgia for BuzzFeed-Era Journalism10:20 The Pressure to Perform Success13:31 Gary Stevenson and Taxing the Super Rich Listen to the episode You can find the Techish podcast on Spotify, Apple, and all good podcast
Everyone knows how grueling the tax filing process can be, so the accounting software company Open Ledger has launched a new product to make the process more fun. If you grew up loving Pokemon, PokéTax will make Tax Day feel like a breeze. Open Ledger launches PokéTax Open Ledger is the latest venture from Pryce Adade-Yebesi, the entrepreneur who previously co-founded Utopia Labs, a crypto invoicing startup that was recently sold to Coinbase. His new company, co-founded with Ashtyn Bell, builds embedded accounting tools for small businesses and recently raised $3 million
Krisp, a noise cancellation app, announced that it will launch an AI tool to convert a speaker’s accent to American English, starting with Indian accents. The company says the AI Accent Conversion will change a person’s accent with a 200ms latency, which Krisps calls “an imperceptible delay in conversations,” whilst maintaining the speaker’s voice, according to The Verge. The tool has already been trialed in enterprise environments, and a beta version will be available on the Krisp desktop app. Users can use the tool at any time during or before
Major US tech companies are warning employees on temporary visas not to travel outside the country, fearing they may be denied re-entry amid shifting immigration policies. Tech giants employ thousands of workers on H-1B visas, which allow highly-skilled foreign workers to temporarily live and work in the US. Warnings to H-1B Visa Holders Documents reviewed by The Washington Post show companies like Google and Amazon have advised foreign workers to avoid international travel, fearing sudden policy changes or heightened border scrutiny could leave them stranded overseas. H-1B visa denial rates
The Nigerian fintech Payhippo, which previously provided SME loans, has rebranded to RIVY and raised $4 million in a pre-Series A funding round to focus on increasing clean energy financing in the continent. The funding was split between $2 million equity and $2 million debt. The seed round was co-led by EchoVC, a Nigerian venture capital (VC) firm through its $2.5 million Eco fund, which focuses on climate, energy, agriculture, and mobility solutions, and Shell’s All On, a climate-focused impact investment organization. Local debt providers supplied the debt. “Renewable energy is
