Africa

Nigeria-Born Tope Awotona Poured His Life Savings Into Calendly. Now He’s One Of America’s Wealthiest Immigrants

Tope Awotona, the 40-year-old founder and chief executive of Calendly, leans back in his chair and lets loose a loud guffaw. “You call it on message, I call it the truth,” he says, slapping his hands on the table. The truth, as Awotona has it, is that everyone needs Calendly, his scheduling software, to lead better, …

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A founder who’s been pivotal to the Nigerian startup scene will sell her company for $320 million

Equinix, a California-based provider of internet and data center services, announced today (Dec. 7) that it will buy MainOne, the first private company to land a submarine cable company in West Africa, in a $320 million deal that highlights Africa’s growing internet-driven economy. Based in Nigeria, MainOne started laying its 7,000 km fiber optic cable network that …

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Rwanda Coding Academy signs deal with Samsung

Tech giant Samsung Electronics recently announced a partnership with Rwanda Coding Academy that will, among others, pave the way for the exchange of the latest technologies to improve the quality of skills delivered at the campus. The partnership followed last week’s visit by the Samsung officials to the northern province-based campus. “We are really excited …

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Do white founders in Africa have an easier time getting capital?

The topic of inequity in funding local startup founders in Africa is a recurring one in the continent. Even as investor interest in the continent strengthens and funding for African startups increases, the reality is that most of it goes to startups led by white people. A longstanding view is that it’s easier for them to …

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Seven African start-ups shaking up the global tech ecosystem

Young African start-ups are making headway in cutting-edge sectors and catching the eye of leading organizations, including the World Economic Forum. There are no mistaking certain signals, even if they are weak ones, like the recent nod from the Israeli research center StartupBlink to Africa’s growing prominence in the global start-up ecosystem. Providing research and …

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Africa’s booming fintech scene has Jeff Bezos back for more

Fintech remains the most funded sector in Africa’s startup ecosystem. Chipper Cash, a cross-border, peer-to-peer payment service, further substantiated this with yet another huge investment. The fintech startup, which was founded by Ugandan Ham Serunjogi and Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled in 2018, closed a $100 million Series C round this week which it will use to introduce …

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Silicon Valley Is Now Paying Attention To East Africa’s Motorbike Taxis

The biggest ever investment for an e-mobility startup in Sub-Saharan African has been made. San Francisco-based Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF) just pumped USD 3.5 Mn into Ampersand—a Rwandan startup among the leaders in the region’s motorbike taxi market and Africa’s first electric motorcycle company. “This investment shows that e-mobility in 2021 is just as much about motorbike …

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Terawork

Nigerian freelance startup, TERAWORK is providing growth opportunities for African offline professionals

The coronavirus has given Africa’s growing gig economy a boost with outsourcing and remote work embraced more because of the need for social distance. In the past few years, Africans have begun taking advantage of several remote work platforms modelled after popular ones like Fiverr and Upwork. As established in this article, many of these platforms have either …

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Boston startup Ajuma is building a new way to work in West Africa

Comprising 17 countries and over 407 million people, West Africa is poised for an economic revolution. That’s the viewpoint of local entrepreneurs Daniel Heinen and Sydney Vandyck, who are looking to innovate the way West Africans work with their startup, Ajuma Technologies.  Founded in 2018, Ajuma has created a marketplace platform that matches customers to small …

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Pharrell Launches Black Ambition, An Accelerator For Black And Latinx Entrepreneurs

Producer and rapper Pharrell Williams is coupling his entrepreneurial spirit and activism with the launch of Black Ambition, an incubator for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs launching startups in tech, design, healthcare and consumer products. Williams, 47, is the frontman for the initiative that awards grand prizes ranging from $1 million for a national competition to …

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