Tala, a Los Angeles startup that makes microloans to consumers and small business owners in emerging markets, is announcing today that it has raised $110 million in funding. The new Silicon Valley venture capital firm RPS Ventures, cofounded by Kabir Misra, former managing partner at Softbank’s $100 billion Vision Fund, is leading the round. Tala’s backers include PayPal, billionaire Steve Case’s VC firm Revolution, Chris Sacca’s Lowercase Capital and Data Collective, among others. The new funding values Tala at nearly $800 million, according to an investor. Tala has raised more…
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Instagram yanks marketing firm Hyp3r off its systems for grabbing users’ data
Hyp3r was scraping profiles, copying photos and siphoning off data supposed to be deleted after 24 hours, according to a Business Insider investigation. Instagram said Hyp3r had “violated” its policies and had been sent legal papers telling it to stop collecting data. Hyp3r said it complied with privacy regulations and the terms of service for the social networks it targeted. Business Insider said Instagram’s owner, Facebook, should have been more diligent about preventing data grabbing in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The investigation claimed Hyp3r had been “stitching”…
Read MoreNigeria proposes law to tax local online purchases
Online purchases in Nigeria could soon come with a tax bill in part of plans to raise more revenue to fund a record budget, Nigeria’s government is considering a 5% Value Added Tax (VAT) specifically for online purchases. Babatunde Fowler, head of Nigeria’s federal tax agency, says the government may appoint banks as agents to deduct 5% VAT on all local online purchases with a bank card. The policy could be in place by early next year, Fowler said in an interview with Premium Times, a local online newspaper. This…
Read MoreKenya based Direct Pay Online (DPO) acquires SA’s PayFast, a payment firm
Nairobi-based online payment service provider Direct Pay Online (DPO) has acquired PayFast, a payment processor based in South Africa. A statement said the transaction by the DPO Group was executed through a mix of shares and cash, with the PayFast management team remaining key shareholders in the Group. Following the transaction, DPO Group said it will be providing services to over 100,000 merchants across 18 African markets. “The integration of PayFast into DPO’s services will increase the range of payment options available to DPO’s business customers, whilst providing a Pan-African…
Read MoreNot coming to Ethiopia to Invest unless central bank rectifies the wrongful appropriation of diaspora shares – Sophia Bekele Eshete
The monies and profits confiscated from the sale of the diaspora shares should be returned in full Op-Ed By Sophia Bekele Eshete, Addis Fortune | July 20, 2019 The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) passed a guideline about relinquishing shares in banks owned by foreign nationals of Ethiopian origin in 2016. The majority of the public, particularly the intellectuals and legal experts who understood what happened with the sale of the shares by the central bank and the financial institutions, know that it was a huge mistake. Various voices have…
Read MoreNegotiated fares taxi hailing app inDriver, targets more African cities
Online ride hailing service, inDriver, which allows passengers to negotiate the fare with drivers, has begun recruiting drivers in Harare for the service, which it intends to launch in the capital towards the end of this month. inDriver, which is headquartered in New York, has 26 million users in more than 200 cities throughout the world. The service is already operating in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The inDriver app is used by passengers and drivers to be linked up and negotiate fares. The app can also be used…
Read MoreBy 2025, there will be commercial 5G services in at least seven African markets
Digital technologies are having a profound impact on the way people live, work, play and communicate. This is especially true in Sub-Saharan Africa where such technologies increasingly provide access to life-enhancing services for individuals and communities that would otherwise be excluded, due to infrastructure, skills and funding shortages. Key trends in the region’s digital landscape, including a youthful demographic and the increasing digital disruption of industries, point to growing demand for next-generation connectivity. It is universally accepted that high-speed, reliable and robust network infrastructure is critical to the growth of…
Read MoreFrench TV Canal+ acquires ROK film studio from IROKOtv for an undisclosed amount
French television company Canal+ has acquired the ROK film studio from VOD company IROKOtv for an undisclosed amount. The company founded by Jason Njoku in 2010—and backed by $45 million in VC—IROKOtv boasts the largest online catalog of Nollywood film content in the world reports TechCrunch Based in Lagos, ROK film studios was incubated to create original content for IROKOtv, which can be accessed online anywhere in the world. Actress and producer Mary Njoku—IROKOtv CEO Jason Njoku’s wife—founded ROK studios and will stay on as Director General under the Canal+…
Read MoreRegulate? Mobile-based online lending firms may be money laundering channels says Central Bank of Kenya governor
Mobile-based online lending firms should be regulated to avoid their usage as channels for introducing illegally-obtained cash into the financial system, Central Bank of Kenya governor Patrick Njoroge has said. In a presentation to parliamentarians Wednesday, Dr Njoroge singled out Tala, Branch and Okash — three highly-popular digital money lenders — as credit-only mobile lending institutions that could be easily used to launder illicit cash. Money laundering, which involves transferring and disguising illegally obtained cash to make it look legitimate, is mostly used by criminals and the corrupt to clean…
Read MoreEurAfrican Forum 2019: Siyanda Mohutsiwa: “A shared imagination is behind some of society’s greatest achievements”
CASCAIS, July 9, 2019 For the second year, Portugal was the stage of the EurAfrican Forum 2019, that gathered 450 participants from Europe and Africa on July 4-5, with the theme “Partnership of Equals: Sharing Values, Sharing Prosperity” – a new approach and paradigm for the relationship between Europe and Africa, changing the narrative for both continents to create an accountable, prosperous and sustainable future together. As Siyanda Mohutsiwa, Satirical Writer from Botswana and living in the USA stated, “A shared imagination is behind some of society’s greatest achievements: technology,…
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