Hey guys,
It’s finally Friday! As usual, we entertain you with the ‘African Tech News Roundup’ where we bring you the highlights of African Tech News over the week.
Enjoy!
MTFC announces 2nd edition of Innov8Agric Challenge to promote Innovation in Agric Entrepreneurship
We start the big news, that applications are now open for the Innov8Agric Challenge. The challenge is a key event that will happen at the Meet The Farmer’s Conference. This challenge calls on to all farmers, agripreneurs and innovators to produce viable solutions in any part of the Agric Value Chain. Finalists will receive an all paid expense paid trip to Dubai where they will compete for a grand Prize of 5,000 USD. Deadline for the application is 30th June. Interested? Apply here.
Uber to List on New York Stock Exchange
Popular ride-hailing firm Uber has made its move to go public as it plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange. The decision to enlist came as ride-sharing rival, Lyft prepares to list on the Nasdaq, an American stock exchange. The firm will launch its initial public offering (IPO) in April and might be valued as high as $120bn (£91.4bn). Read Article Here
Farmcrowdy Lands Additional Seed Funding of $1 million
We follow up with news that Farmcrowdy, one of Nigeria’s foremost agricultural platforms, just received $1 million seed funding from investors including Techstars, Ajayi Solutions, Cox Ventures and Social Capital. This additional seed investment will help Farmcrowdy scale operations, expand into 20 Nigerian states, and bring more small-scale farmers and sponsors into its program. Read Article Here
Call for Submission: FCMB, Passion Incubator Tech Pitch Perfect Challenge
On innovation, FCMB has partnered with Passion Incubator to launch Tech Pitch Perfect Challenge. Fintech startups with innovative solutions can apply and pitch creative e-payment, e-collections and e-savings solutions that encourages saving and investments for business-to-customer transactions. Two selected startups will go home with a cash prize of 1 million naira and shared co-working access for a year at Hub One. Deadline for Submission is 8th April 2019. Interested? Apply here
Honeywell Group’s Itanna calls for Submission
Still on innovation, Itanna, an Accelerator Program sponsored by Honeywell has called for submissions from all tech-enabled startups. The company is looking forward to receiving hundreds of applications from tech-enabled start-ups across Africa. Itanna aims to increase the number of cohort companies to 10 and the investment amount to $30,000. Applications are open from 18 March 2019 to 19 April 2019. Interested? Apply here
On investment, PEG Africa, a West African pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar company, has raised a US$25-million Series C funding round, taking its funding total to US$50-million with an aim to expand service delivery to the region. This new round of funding follows a US$13.5 million round in 2017 and two other rounds in 2016. The company plans to use this latest round of investment to further establish itself as a market leader in West Africa. Read Article Here
PEG Africa Raises $25m to Accelerate Off-grid Solar Expansion in West Africa
There is also news that the UK Government, through a private infrastructure development group, InfraCo Africa, is investing Ksh. 220 million (US$2.2m) in the development of two solar plants in rural Kenya. The solar plants will each have a capacity of 10 MWAC, to give more people access to affordable, clean energy. The Samburu and Transmara projects will directly contribute to achieving clean energy in Kenya. Read Article Here
Liquid Telcom & Microsoft Gold Partner Provides Hybrid Cloud Solutions across Africa
Earlier in the week, Liquid Telecom and Microsoft Gold have partnered to provides hybrid cloud solutions across Africa. Liquid Telecom brings cloud-optimized connectivity offering- the benefits of low latency, high capacity and resiliency to businesses across Africa. With the availability of Microsoft’s Azure regions in South Africa, the customers will be able to access a hybrid cloud solution residing within South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. Read Article Here
Nigeria’s Thrive Agric Picked for YCombinator’s 2019 Winter Batch
Thrive Agric, Nigeria’s agritech startup has been invited among a set of 23 companies that make up the 2019 Winter batch of over 200 companies. YCombinator is one of the world’s most successful accelerators. They have crossed ₦36 trillion ($100 billion) in market value across all the startups in their portfolio since 2005 and the YC alumni include Dropbox, Airbnb, and Reddit. Read Article Here
France to Invest in African Entrepreneurship & Innovation with £2.5 billion by 2022
Next on the Weekly roundup, Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic of France has announced efforts to support the revolution of entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa through a new initiative, Choose Africa. Coordinated by the AFD Group and Proparco, France will devote 2.5 billion euros for financing African start-ups, VSEs and SMEs by 2022. Read Article Here
Google’s Launchpad Africa Accelerator Announces African Shortlist
Finally, 12 tech startups have been selected to form the third cohort of the Google Launchpad Africa accelerator, which assists startups to exploit Google’s technologies to scale their businesses. The names of the startups selected for the accelerator programs in Africa, Brazil and India were revealed in a blog post by Google Developers earlier this month. Applications for the Launchpad Accelerator Africa 3 cohort closed on 13 January. Read Article Here
That’s it for the weekly roundup!
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