A selection of tech news from Nigeria and Africa at large.
Stllr partners Payoneer for SMEs | Convexity digital solution | PayGo solar startup | KCB, Visa, and Thales contactless | MTN and Microsoft Cloud Solutions | Insurtech Turaco milestone
Egypt’s Stllr partners Payoneer to empower SMEs to transact globally – Disrupt Africa
Egypt’s Stllr, a regional network of independent creators and boutique agencies, has partnered with Payoneer, a financial technology company empowering the world’s small and medium-sized businesses to transact, do business and grow globally.
Launched in December 2021, Stllr reduces wasted costs in marketing departments and miscommunication with external vendors, offering companies a plug-and-play marketing model through experimenting with different campaigns like SEO, media buying, social media and more.
A network of independents in the Middle East, the startup connects quality independents with brands across the region. The partnership with Payoneer, which has built a global financial platform that allows SMBs to pay and get paid, manage their funds, and grow their business, will enable Stllr to make real-time settlement to their independents utilising Payoneer’s payment platform.
The partnership also empowers Stllr Network independents to receive global payments for their services seamlessly and securely in multiple currencies from clients all around the Middle East, with lower conversion fees. Read more here:
Convexity Technology launches digital solution – PUNCH News
Convexity Technology Limited, a blockchain consultancy firm, has unveiled a digital solution called, ‘Convexity Humanitarian Aid Transfer Solution’, to create end-to-end visibility and transparency for humanitarian aid given to Nigeria and Africa. It said this would connect all stakeholders within the distribution from the donors down to the beneficiaries. It noted that its solution used blockchain technology.
The Chief Operating Officer, Convexity, Mr Adedeji Owonibi, disclosed this during a seminar organised as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility in Abuja themed, ‘Data protection for humanitarian organisations in the 21st century; A tool to attract funding’.
He said, “Data privacy is key in humanitarian services but we noticed a lot of these organisations are not taking data privacy seriously. Read more here:
PayGo solar startup Yellow raises $14 million to scale in Africa – Tech crunch
Yellow, an asset financier for solar energy and digital devices in Africa has raised $14 million series B funding in a round led by Convergence Partners with participation from the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund, managed by Triple Jump, in addition to follow-on investment from Platform Investment Partners.
Yellow was founded and launched in Malawi in 2018 by Mike Heyink and Maya Stewart, to initially bring solar energy to the country, which is among those with the lowest access to electricity in the world. It has since grown its footprint across Africa and increased its product offering to include electronics like smartphones.
Following the new funding, Yellow plans to deepen its reach in its current markets Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and Madagascar, launch digital and financial products in near-term, and prepare for future debt funding rounds to ramp up its growth. The new round brings total debt and equity funding raised by Yellow to $45 million. Read more here:
KCB, Visa, and Thales partner to bring contactless payments to Kenya – Techpoint Africa
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Visa, and Thales have collaborated to launch a new in-store payment service. Customers who have near-field communication (NFC) enabled on their Android smartphones or Garmin wearables can make contactless payments through the KCB app.
Garmin is an American technology company that specialises in GPS technology for automotive, aviation, marine, outdoor, and sport activities. This is the first time a product of this type will be available in Kenya. Alternative contactless payment options, such as those provided by Absa and Standard Chartered, rely on cards rather than mobile devices.
Compared to debit cards, contactless payments are convenient, simple, and quick because you do not need to enter a PIN code for your routine and small transactions. Read more here:
MTN and Microsoft Unleash Cloud Solutions to Assist Businesses Accelerate Value Creation – TechEconomy News
MTN Nigeria and Microsoft are taking major steps to assist the government and businesses in Nigeria to accelerate value creation through cloud technology.
To this end, MTN Business is redefining business operation models with the Microsoft cloud technology (Azure) that is designed to explore ways in which technology is transforming business operations in both private and public sectors.
The partners presented their cloud roadmap for the market to C-level executives at a breakfast meeting in Lagos. Recall that last year, MTN Group and Microsoft announced a new partnership that will see them support customers across governments and organizations accelerate value creation and drive Africa’s economic growth using Microsoft platform solutions. Read more here:
Kenyan insurtech Turaco passes 1m insured milestone – Disrupt Africa
Kenyan insurtech startup Turaco has announced it has surpassed one million lives insured. Turaco provides simple and affordable insurance solutions for emerging markets and is a distributor, broker and key customer interface between the underwriter and the consumer. Turaco achieves this by forming partnerships with leading tech-enabled companies with a large pool of emerging market consumers, like ride-hailing apps and solar pay-go companies.
The company raised a US$10 million Series A round in September 2022, and is using that investment to grow rapidly. Operating in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, Turaco provides access to a much needed safety net against financial shocks to mass market consumers, and has now insured one million of them. As many as 350,000 of those protected by Turaco signed up in the last three months as part of a newly-launched partnership with Airtel Money Uganda and Prudential Uganda. Read more here:
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Image Credit: TechEconomyNews.Ng
