Tala Microloan Startup gains $110 Million In latest Funding

Mobile-based lenders pose money laundering risk, says CBK

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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Negotiated fares taxi hailing app inDriver, targets more African cities

Negotiated 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…

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French TV Canal+ acquires ROK film studio from IROKOtv for an undisclosed amount

DStv

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+…

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Startups and Partnerships, EurAfrican Forum enables cross pollination of ideas: Dr. Precious Lunga – Baobab Circle

Search Results Featured snippet from the web Dr. Precious Lunga is CEO and Co-Founder of Baobab Circle, a health technology company delivering innovative health solutions via phones across Africa. She will be joining the 2nd edition of the EurAfrican Forum in Portugal as a speaker.

Dr. Precious Lunga, CEO and Co-Founder of Baobab Circle, will be joining the 2nd edition of the EurAfrican Forum in Portugal as a speaker, taking place on July 4-5. The EurAfrican Forum exists to explore and promote the power of diasporas as a connecting force between cities, regions and continents, between cultures, companies and people. It is an action-oriented gathering of leaders that aims to foster stronger collaboration between Europe and Africa to promote a shared green and inclusive growth for the two continents, fostering mechanisms for collaboration and creating…

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Microsoft opens first Africa Development Centres in Nairobi and Lagos

It was almost three decades ago that Microsoft opened its first offices in Africa. In this time, they witnessed incredible growth on the continent – more internet connectivity, more digital capability and more innovation. Africans have expanded the applications of technology, changing the way communities bank, farm and even access healthcare. As the next step on Microsoft’s journey in Africa, and to better understand a continent rapidly adopting technology in the cloud, and at the edge, Microsoft launched its first Africa Development Centre (ADC). With two initial sites in Nairobi,…

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3D printing technology discovery could reduce costs of surgery in Kenyan

AI

As rugby-player Chris Muraguri wore his number 7 jersey while he recuperated at his one-roomed house in Nairobi, nursing a right foot double fracture, he surfed the internet looking for ways to speed up his healing. He was hoping to return to the rugby pitch as well as to his pharmacy class at the University of Nairobi. He came across 3D printing technology and made a skeletal prototype of his injured foot that he shared with his doctor, Prof Symon Guthua, a surgery consultant at the University of Nairobi. “Professor…

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Zipline launches on-demand drone deliveries in Ghana after Rwanda

Zipline, the San Francisco-based UAV manufacturer and logistics services provider, has launched a program in Ghana today for drone delivery of medical supplies. Working with the Ghanaian government, Zipline will operate 30 drones out of four distribution centers to distribute vaccines, blood and life-saving medications to 2,000 health facilities across the West African nation daily. “We’ll do 600 flights a day…and serve 12 million people. This is going to be the largest drone delivery network on the planet,” Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo told TechCrunch on a call from Accra. Zipline…

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Intel investing $13M in a startup building an AI chip that can transfer data 1,000 times faster

Intel is investing $13 million in Untether AI, a startup that’s working on a novel type of chip for artificial intelligence that promises to perform neural-network calculations at warp speed. Untether, based in Toronto, Canada, has already developed a prototype device that transfers data between different parts of the chip 1,000 times more quickly than a conventional AI chip. That’s an impressive achievement, but it should be treated cautiously since the prototype is far larger than an actual chip—and because other factors will contribute to the overall performance of the…

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Women VCs investments explains the inequality in their field

Female venture capitalists (VCs) have made steady progress over the past few decades, but still make up a small percentage of VCs overall. Data released today (Mar. 25) by grassroots initiative Women in VC reveals the limitations that female VCs are working under, and how they affect the progress of women in VC as well as female founders. The vast majority of female VCs are investing primarily in early-stage startups, in the seed and series A funding rounds. Part of the reason they are investing mostly in the early stages…

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Miss.Africa Digital Celebrates International Women’s Day With its Annual Seed Fund Application Drive

Miss.Africa Digital Seed Fund 2019

DCA Trust celebrated the Women’s Day by launching the 2019 Miss.Africa Digital Seed Fund Application Drive. Parallel to my advocacy on the philosophy of positive “tech disruption”, and how it has the ability to create a welcome change in our societies, if we regularly engage in doing something out of our comfort zone for our mind, body and spirit, I’m a great believer that we will find ourselves in a much better space as human beings, as well as be more effective in our work.” 2019: Year of work-life-balance, –…

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