March 2019 – Africa Tech Digest

Egyptian entrepreneurs join global Endeavor network

16Mar

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Apps, East Africa

Egyptian entrepreneurs join global Endeavor network

Mounir Nakhla, co-founder of Egyptian ride-hailing startup Halan, and the three co-founders of mass transit system Swvl have been chosen to join the global Endeavor network, offering access to mentorship and acceleration services. The global Endeavor initiative launched in Nigeria and Kenya last year, and has accepted a host of African entrepreneurs into its network in recent months. The organisation works to catalyse long-term economic growth by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating the best high-impact entrepreneurs worldwide. It supports entrepreneurs that have passed through the initial startup phase and demonstrate the potential for rapid expansion and scale. At its most recent International Selection Panel (ISP) in San Fra...

South African voter details exposed on IEC website

15Mar

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Cybersecurity, Southern Africa

South African voter details exposed on IEC website

The South African National Elections will be held on 8 May 2019, and voters have been encouraged to register online through the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) website. The online portal has not always been the most secure platform, however, and a security flaw revealed in 2017 allowed attackers to potentially manipulate the registration system. This week, MyBroadband was made aware of another security flaw affecting the IEC online registration portal – this time affecting those applying to vote from overseas. Citizens who wish to vote in the 2019 elections while overseas must inform the IEC of their intention and submit a VEC 10 application online. The VEC 10 application must be submitted through the elections registration portal before 13 March 2019 to be proce...

Nigerian motorcycle taxi app Gokada to open driver training school

14Mar

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Apps, West Africa

Nigerian motorcycle taxi app Gokada to open driver training school

Lagos-based on-demand motorcycle taxi app Gokada has celebrated its first birthday with the launch of its new office in Ilupeju, which will house a state-of-the-art driver training school to train and verify up to 500 riders at a time. Gokada customers can order a motorbike ride through the company’s website, or by using its geo-location -based smartphone app. In 12 months of operation, the startup has secured close to 1,000 bikes and completes around 5,000 rides across Lagos’ Mainland each day. It has now launched its new office, which will house its driver training school. The school, which is due to open in April, will assist with the smoother, more efficient training of more Gokada drivers. “Gokada was built on a super simple premise; moving Lagos citizens around the traffi...

South Africa will be tracking social media fake news ahead of the 2019 elections

13Mar

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Social Networks, Southern Africa

South Africa will be tracking social media fake news ahead of the 2019 elections

Can South Africa really hold a general election on 8 May 2019 in a way that it really represents the views of its people? One might have thought this was an academic question. The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa is well respected and the country's legal system is robust. There are certainly enough political parties – around 285 are registered even if most are unlikely to participate in the May 2019 elections – for the national and nine provincial legislatures. However, there have been worrying signs about the use of disinformation during previous elections and these need to be heeded. Google is deploying some of its vast resources to train political parties, journalists and editors how to spot and fight fake ...

Kerb, an ‘Airbnb for parking spaces’ launches in Kenya

12Mar

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Apps, East Africa

Kerb, an ‘Airbnb for parking spaces’ launches in Kenya

Kerb, an Australian ‘Airbnb for Parking’ has launched in Kenya to allow car users find parking easily as well as let homeowners rent out their spare spaces to make extra cash. Launched in Australia in October 2016 by Rob Brown and Matt Salmon , Kerb is live across the world in 19 languages and localized in 300 cities. The Kenya launch will be shortly followed by a regional expansion across East Africa. “We’re really excited about the benefits that Kerb is going to have for users”, says Co-founder Rob Brown. “The app allows you to list an entire car park up in minutes, and each individual bay can be customised by availability, price and vehicle type.” Kerb changes the conventional view about where people can park their cars, motorbikes, boats and even helicopters! Kerb’s tech...

Microsoft to open office in Lagos dedicated to developing mixed reality and artificial intelligence

11Mar

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

AI, West Africa

Microsoft to open office in Lagos dedicated to developing mixed reality and artificial intelligence

Alex Kipman, a Microsoft Technical Fellow and the co-creator of HoloLens, announced on Twitter Microsoft is opening an engineering office in Lagos, Nigeria. The Cognition Africa engineering team is looking for a software engineer to assist with the building of Mixed Reality Cloud Services that bring those technologies to a wider range of devices. For more information, click here. https://twitter.com/akipman/status/1104062105844559878

Nigeria’s AMPZ.TV, Ghana’s OZÉ & Kenya’s WayaWaya named regional winners in MEST Africa’s $50,000 pitch competition

11Mar

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

East Africa, Start-ups

Nigeria’s AMPZ.TV, Ghana’s OZÉ & Kenya’s WayaWaya named regional winners in MEST Africa’s $50,000 pitch competition

Five promising start-ups from across Africa have been chosen as regional winners in MEST Africa’s annual Pan-African pitch competition, moving one step closer to winning $50,000 in equity investment, a place in the MEST Africa incubator of their choice and global mentorship to help their company scale. Winners will pitch on a global stage in the finals at the 4th MEST Africa Summit, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, June 10-12. Out of nearly 1000 applicants from across the continent, 10 finalists were chosen to pitch at the regional finals in Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town and Abidjan, held February 27-28th. Winners from each region include: Nigeria –AMPZ.TV, the ‘LinkedIn for Sports’ that is developing the next generation of Etos, Drogbas and Aubameyangs through te...

South Africa tech startup InvestSure raises $685k funding round

10Mar

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Southern Africa

South Africa tech startup InvestSure raises $685k funding round

South African insurtech startup InvestSure has raised ZAR9.6 million (US$685,000) in funding to broaden its offering and expand into new markets. Launched in May of last year, InvestSure is an insurance offering for investors, protecting shareholders against losses in shares of listed companies caused by allegations of management misleading or deceiving shareholders. The funding has been secured from Hannover Re Africa subsidiaries Lireas Holdings and Compass Insure, as well as venture capital firm 4Di Capital, following two years of incubation at Compass Insure, and totals ZAR9.6 million (US$685,000). InvestSure said the direct investment from the specialist insurer was a big statement on the potential impact it could have in the market as it becomes available across a...

9Mar

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Telecommunications

MTN to launch ‘WeChat of Africa’

MTN Group has announced it will launch an instant messaging (IM) service akin to China’s WeChat and Facebook’s WhatsApp as it seeks to expand revenue from digital services and mobile money. With the IM platform, which will form part of the group’s mobile money initiatives, MTN wants to build what group CEO Rob Shuter calls the “WeChat of Africa”. WeChat, developed by Naspers affiliate Tencent, is by far the largest IM app in China and offers a wide range of in-app services from chat to payments. The app will be launched in MTN markets in West Africa first as part of a “beta-testing” phase. The plan is to introduce it to all the countries in which it operates, including South Africa. A key differentiator will be the ability for users to exchange messages who don’t have a data pl...