Happy new month guys!
Welcome to a new week. Here’s today’s edition of the Big 5 Daily.
We have news that the Board of the AFDB has approved a €12.5 million equity investment in Adiwale Fund 1, a first-generation private equity fund targeted at high growth potential Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Francophone West Africa. The €75 million fund, will take minority stakes in SMEs that are well established in their market, who have a competitive advantage and can rapidly scale up. Average deal size for the fund will range from €3 to €8 million.
Also, we have news that, SA President, Cyril Ramaphosa has unveiled a $95 million fund to be invested in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and startups operating in the country, in order to grow the South African economy. The scheme will fund SMEs with turnover between $1.40 million and $35.23 million and will support ten prominent black businesses, 200 SMEs, and five black entrepreneurs over the next five years. Just like any VC funding initiatives, it will help in the mentoring of the enterprises to be invested in.
Next on the Big 5, Absa and Pivotal Software has partnered to hold SpringOne tour in South Africa. This event is the first of its kind and it aims to bridge the skills shortage gap and also improve networking opportunities in the developer’s community. Taking place on 8-9 April in Johannesburg, and on 11-12 April in Cape Town, SpringOne Tour aims to give the public and businesses insight into the SpringOne cloud-native Java platform and content.
Moving on, Mastercard has agreed to become an investor in Jumia to form a strategic partnership that will grow e-commerce operations and support the digital transformation in Africa. The companies will build on Mastercard’s presence across Africa, bring its deep knowledge and expertise in payment solutions and technologies to spark new innovations and spur development in new customer segments. As part of the deal, the companies have also agreed to build on their current efforts to accelerate the adoption of electronic payment platforms among consumers and merchants.
Finally, Facebook has added a new feature “Why am I seeing this post?” to News Feeds. This is to give users information concerning why a post appeared on their News Feed alongside personalization control links. This aims to give users transparency into how Facebook’s News Feed algorithm works.
That’s it for the Big 5 Daily.
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