Home Blog Page 21

Kuda Bank raises a $25m Series A four months after a $10m seed round

0
Kuda Bank raises a $25m Series A four months after a $10m seed round

Kuda is a Nigerian-fintech startup that started operation as a lending platform until June 2019. The fintech took a step further to obtain a banking license from the Central Bank of Nigeria to launch a full-service bank.

Kuda is the only and first Nigerian platform to launch a full-stack mobile bank. It allows Nigerian to run a savings or current account, save money, and earn interests.

Meanwhile, last November, the fintech startup raised a whopping $10m at the end of its seed funding round.

In March, the startup announced its $25m Series A round – and it raised some eyebrows. Many people wondered why the Series A funding came so early after the seed round.

Kuda’s chief operating officer – Ryan Laubscher said, the short interval between the funding rounds was due to some factors. They include the growth rate of the company, global economic considerations, and a few more.

”Over the last ten months, we have experienced a speedy growth rate. Given the economic outlook globally, buffering our reserves and making sure we had enough capital sounded like a great idea,” Ryan said.

”It also seemed like the right time to raise funds considering our growth ambitions. Now, it feels like we have enough resources to pursue our aggressive growth plans over the next 12 months.”

”The company is barely two years old, and so far, we have witnessed fast growth. Hence, we need to flesh out our product suite and expand into various credit products.” Ryan added.

Honor schedules to launch the MagicBook X series in China tomorrow

0
Honor schedules to launch the MagicBook X series in China tomorrow

Recently, Honor detached itself from Huawei to stand alone. Since then, a lot of tech enthusiast been anticipating the products the now-independent brand will unveil.

Before now, Honor was the brand that produced the low-end variants of Huawei devices. Following the spin-off, speculations have it that Honor would begin to manufacture high-end gadgets as well.

It’s left to see whether the smartphone brand will live up to expectations.

Meanwhile, the brand is ready to host a launch event in China tomorrow – May 7. Reports mention that the tech firm will take the covers off a new laptop series – the MagicBook X – at the event.

Interestingly, a teaser image revealing the looks and design of the upcoming Honor MagicBook X has appeared online.

From the image, it appears the new laptop series will feature a slim and more compact build compared to other MagicBook laptops.

For now, the position of the new MagicBook in the firm’s laptop lineup is unknown.

However, it appears the all-new MagicBook X would arrive as an alternative to the MagicBook Pro series.

The image also shows that the MagicBook X series would sport two USB-A ports – one on either side of the device.

It would also feature a USB-C port for charging, a micro HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The new MagicBook X features very thin bezels. And like other MagicBook models, the MagicBook X would likely sport a front-facing snapper between the F6 and F7 keys.

Currently, there is no information on the internals of the MagicBook X as the poster revealed only the design.

TIBU raises undisclosed amount in new funding round to boost business

0
TIBU raises undisclosed amount in new funding round to boost business

TIBU, a Kenyan e-health start-up, has raised an undisclosed amount in a recent funding round and they hope to scale to bigger heights with this new investment.

For those who do not know this company, they specialise in deploying medical assets and assistance to patients at a time and place of their choosing. It is one of the moves towards modern and future healthcare advancement, allowing healthcare seekers to choose which services they need, where they need such and match with someone willing to meet their needs at that point in time.

Built in 2019 (although the plan had been in place since 2016), TIBU has reached over 10,000 clients from all across the country.

According to the company CEO, some of the intended plans for the cash includes setting up a high-tech micro laboratory.

This means that patient samples do not have to be taken back to a physical lab somewhere else for analysis when it can be analysed in real time with the right tech. That improves the services that the health practitioners signed up to the start-up can render, boosts the image of the brand and delivers better healthcare to the clients.

At the same time, some of the cash will also be earmarked for marketing and business development.

The start-up is going strong already. On the back of that, they also plan on hosting a series A funding round in September. By then, we are sure more investors would have heard about the good work that this start-up is doing and want to get in on the train.

Airtel denies claims that it plans to exit Kenya

0
Airtel denies claims that it plans to exit Kenya

After the signing of the National ICT Policy 2019, some rumours emerged that Airtel might be planning to exit the country. This line of thought might have been fuelled by the fact that the company’s regional CEO made some comments about the viability of the business under the new policy.

Well, the company has now come out to establish that they do not plan on leaving the Kenyan market anytime soon. In fact, they continue to make valuable investments in the country to help bolster the reach of the network and add on more subscribers than before.

As of the time of this writing, the telco confirms that more than 200 sites have been upgrade from 2G and 3G networks to the 4G level helping to boost the standard of voice calls and internet usage across select parts of the country. With that, they are still working hard on upgrading and improving the networks in other untouched regions.

Airtel users in the country can now rest easy since their favorite telco has announced plans to continue expanding its operations within the borders of the country.

Uber and Bolt drivers in Lagos commence strike action. Here’s why

0
Uber and Bolt drivers in Lagos commence strike action. Here’s why

The two of the biggest ride hailing services in Nigeria – Uber and Bolt – seem to have lost favour with their drivers as the latter group has gone on a strike action against the companies.

Over the years, both companies have engaged in a lot of promotions and offers in a bid to win customers over. To do this, they have to lower their fares and apply some discounts to the riders. However, the drivers claim that the company is not taking those costs out of its own pockets but shelving them onto the drivers.

Likewise, drivers are disgruntled that both companies are taking a 25% cut from their earnings without doing any other thing than providing a platform for them to work on. As part of the strike action, there are demands for the commissions to be brought down to 10%.

Seeing as economic hardship mounts in the country and the pump price of fuel keeps going up in the same vein, it is not out of place that these drivers are complaining bitterly right now.

Many Nigerians now depend on these ride hailing platforms, so such a strike action will leave both companies largely under-staffed and they would have to meet with the drivers to determine a course of action soon.

ScholarX partners up Airtel to make eLearning even more accessible

0
ScholarX partners up Airtel to make eLearning even more accessible

ScholarX was launched in 2016 with the sole aim of allowing users access a wide range of scholarships that matches their needs at intent at the time.

The start-up has grown rapidly since then, being accepted into a host of laudable accelerator programmes and accessing a series of funding in the process. To even better their services, the company has now secured the rights to work with Airtel, enabling it to further expand its services to more Nigerians.

The partnership with Airtel introduces a new mobile learning platform dubbed ‘LearnAM.’ This platform has been designed such that it offers content in the local languages (Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo) while also incorporating Pidgin English. Thus, it makes sense that they can reach a wider audience base and provide quality eLearning to them all.

At the same time, it should be noted that partnering with Airtel this way means that they can tap into the wide customer base which Airtel has built over time to deliver this platform to even more people.

Securing a GSMA Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion to make this happen, ScholarX is committed to taking affordable education and learning opportunities to all and sundry.

Twitter announces plan to build African HQ in Ghana

0
Twitter announces plan to build African HQ in Ghana

Twitter has been present in Africa for a long time, but only virtually.

Now, the Jack Dorsey-owned company is looking to expand physically into Africa and have chosen Ghana as their preferred base of operations. This would serve as the continental headquarters of the business – and the president of the country lauds this as a welcome development.

To back this up, Twitter has announced openings for new roles across categories like product development, design, engineering, marketing and communications, among others, to quickly launch and hit the ground running in the country.

It should be noted that Nigeria has a larger population and an even bigger internet user base than Ghana. This should have made the country the first choice for Twitter. Thus, some people have blamed the Nigerian government for being hostile to development and foreign brands – as well as the current state of insecurity – as why we lost out on such a fine deal.

No matter which it is, this is still a fine win for Africa as a whole as we got recognised well enough on the Twitter space to deserve our very own HQ.

SEC comes for investment startups, bars them from selling foreign stocks

0
SEC comes for investment startups, bars them from selling foreign stocks

In what can be said to be the country’s latest policy attack on fintech startups, the SEC has now asked trading and investment platforms to stop offering foreign stocks to Nigerians.

It should be noted that Robinhood-style aps like Chaka, Risevest and such other investment platforms have been offering Nigerians access to both local and international stocks which they can invest their money in. The latest circular from the SEC has deemed such activities illegal and any fintech that does not stay off offering such services might soon face the long arm of the law.

This is not the first time that SEC Nigeria is making such a move. Back in December of last year, the body accused Chaka, an investment platform of this sort, of advertising and selling stocks illegally in the country. The fintech came out to deny the allegations via its CEO and ever since, we have not heard anything else of the matter. Till today, anyway.

The users of these apps have been in a state of panic as they do not know what would happen to their funds which are already on those platforms. However, official emails have started going out to users to assure them that their funds are stull safe and secure as they work with the SEC to regulate the situation.

Gokada appoints new CEO as the company achieves profitability status

0
Gokada appoints new CEO as the company achieves profitability status

Since the tragic death of the Gokada CEO in 2020, the company has been without top leadership. However, it has been run collectively by the likes of Nikhil Goel working with others and the company has been able to 10X its revenue under his management.

It is, thus, little wonder that the same person be promoted to the role of CEO of Gokada Nigeria.

Speaking with TechCabal, Goel confirmed that the company does not have any plans of leaving Lagos anytime soon. He also confirmed that they had been able to spin off their business into one that focused on deliverers as they could not just sell off all of the bikes that the start-up had already acquired.

His foresight and direction have already helped the company to reach profitability in the last twelve months and there is a high chance that they only keep going up.

It is also remarkable to note the G-Hub plan that the company launched which allowed them to do a revenue split between themselves and the owners of certain locations when pickups and delivery happen on their property.

All of these point to the fact that Gokada is ready to break into even more niches and adapt better to allow them become better at what they do.

Huawei to launch Watch 3 with Harmony OS under the hood

0
Huawei to launch Watch 3 with Harmony OS under the hood

When the Google Android-Huawei issue first started, there was a lot of news in the market about how Huawei will come out with its own HarmonyOS.

That looked like something that would truly make a difference but it ended up being one of those things that we just hoped for but never got. Well, the company might be debuting this OS on their Huawei Watch 3.

Yes, not the GT watches. this is the first time after the launch of the Huawei Watch 2 in 2017 and start of the Watch GT series that the company will go back to that naming system.

It is also interesting that they will not have LiteOS on this one nor use the Google Wear OS, but opt for the in-house OS.

If the leak is anything to go by, this new watch should make the market in May. There is no official confirmation on this yet but there could be some element of truth here.

In the coming days, we should hear mor about this watch if it is truly to hit the shelves when the rumours say it is.