Happy New Week Guys!
Welcome to a fresh edition of the Big 5 Daily!
I know you can’t wait! Can you?
Big News! the African Development Bank (AFDB) has received an investment fund of $20 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF). The fund will provide financing for small-scale renewables in Africa and also help scale innovative solutions that will provide energy inclusion. What do you think?
Drum roll!!! Students from the Princeton College, Lagos, Nigeria (all female), have emerged winners of the 2019 African regional Technovation Contest. They developed Frostbits– an app that will help curb obstructive parking in Lagos and across states in Nigeria. Congratulations!
Have you heard? Transsion, a Chinese mobile phone is partnering Kenya’s Wapi Capital—founder of Kenyan fintech startup Wapi Pay, to launch a $100,000 investment for early-stage fintech startups in Africa. The $100,000 investment fund is open to startups focused on adtech, e-commerce, logistics, and media and entertainment from across Africa and it will begin on September 2019. Interesting initiative!
Also, Swvl, an Egypt-based on-demand bus transportation startup recently secured a 42 million Series B-2 round, which has left the company’s valuation at $157 million. This valuation makes the company one of the most valuable startups that are backed by VC’s in MENA.
Finally, British Airways has revealed that it will be rolling out VR in-flight entertainment to its first-class passengers. The service will be available for passengers traveling from London’s Heathrow airport to New York’s JFK airport. The service will be available for passengers traveling for the rest of 2019.
That’s it for today’s Big 5 Daily!
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