Let’s quickly take you on a journey of this week’s tech news and events in Africa.
GHANA AGRIC START-UP, QUALITRACE WINS GHANA INNOV8AGRIC CHALLENGE… Qualitrace, a traceability and anti-counterfeiting startup that uses track and trace technology to authenticate product farm inputs and outputs has emerged winner of Ghana edition of Innova8Agric Challenge of the Meet the Farmers Conference, MTFC 2018, and will now compete at the grand finale of Meet the Farmers Conference, Dubai for up to US$5,000 grant price.
NIGERIAN, KENYAN, AND OTHER AFRICA ENTREPRENEURS SHINE AT 3RD COHORT OF THE EFOUNDERS FELLOWSHIP…
Four startup founders from Nigeria alongside 29 African young entrepreneurs from 11 countries in Africa have been named in the 3rd Cohort of the eFounders Fellowship by Alibaba Business School and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for empowerment and training courses to become catalysts for digital transformation in their respective countries.
PAYLATER LAUNCHES PAYVEST, A SERVICE THAT ALLOW USER TO INVEST AND EARN 15% INTEREST…
Nigerian loan rendering startup, Paylater has launched a new feature to its services called PayVest, a fixed-interest investment product that allows users “invest” for interest rates of up to 15%. The service aims to help the company’s customers get better at managing their finances.
NIGERIAN LOGISTICS STARTUP, KOBO360 RAISES US$1.2 MILLION SEED, JOINS YCOMBINATOR…
Nigerian-based logistics startup, Kobo360 has raised up to $1.2 million in a pre-seed funding round after being accepted into the YCombinator class of 2018. The round which was led by Western Technology Investment and Nigeria’s Verod Capital Management.
UGANDA COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION TO BLOCK VPNS TO STOP SOCIAL MEDIA TAX EVASION…
The use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass a new social media tax by Ugandans has attracted the attention of Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). UCC said in a statement that, “We have technology that will block the VPN services so that no one dodges the taxes…We have all the systems needed to block the virtual private networks already here and the government will move anytime to effect it”.
LINKEDIN ADDS QR CODES AND SEE TRANSLATION FEATURE ON ITS PLATFORM…
LinkedIn, a business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile app is introducing two new features that will make the product more functional for its users.
VILLGRO KENYA TO INVEST IN UGANDA’S MAMAOPE AND CLINICPESA…
Villgro Kenya, an early stage incubator that is supporting startups with a global health impact in the east African region has included Ugandan based innovations, MamaOpe and Clinic Pesa to its portfolio following funding approval by the Villgro Kenya Investment Committee.
YABATECH ACQUIRES WORLD-CLASS PLAGIARISM SOFTWARE CHECKER…
One of Nigeria’s First Higher Institution, Yaba College of Technology Has Gotten A World-Class Security Software for Detecting Plagiarism.
VODACOM TO DEMONSTRATE AFRICA’S FIRST 5G SPORT BROADCAST…
South African mobile communications company, Vodacom will be demonstrating first Africa 5G use case of a live sports broadcast in Virtual Reality at this year’s Vodacom Durban.