March 29, 2024

Web and Technology News

Ex-Uber executive reveals how driver earnings were slashed in Kenya

New details have emerged showing that Uber was planning to further reduce commuter charges in Kenya, months after the 35% cut of 2016, which is the subject-matter of a civil suit filed by drivers against Uber BV and its local subsidiary. Alissa Orlando, a former Uber executive in Kenya, said that she left the ride-hailing […]

TopUp Mama looking to solve sourcing challenges for restaurants

Stock-outs, unpredictable prices of farm produce and a lack of working capital are among the challenges that plague small restaurants and food vendors in emerging markets. These are some of the pain-points that TopUp Mama (previously Kibanda TopUp) is working to alleviate since its launch in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, last year, and they appear to […]

Meta disputes allegations of poor work conditions at its contractor’s hub in Kenya

A few weeks ago, a law firm threatened to sue American social-media giant Meta and its main subcontractor for content moderation in Africa, Sama, over alleged unsafe and unfair work conditions at the latter’s hub in Kenya. The law firm, Nzili and Sumbi Advocates alleged that Sama had violated various the rights, including those of […]

Meta disputes allegations of poor work conditions at its contractor’s hub in Kenya

A few weeks ago, a law firm threatened to sue American social-media giant Meta and its main subcontractor for content moderation in Africa, Sama, over alleged unsafe and unfair work conditions at the latter’s hub in Kenya. The law firm, Nzili and Sumbi Advocates alleged that Sama had violated various the rights, including those of […]

Google opens product development center in Nairobi, the first in Africa

Google has today announced the launch of a product development center in Nairobi, its first in the continent, to build “transformative” products and services for the African market and the world. This comes after the tech giant revealed plans to invest $1 billion over the next five years in October last year. The center is […]

ImaliPay gets $3M to offer financial services to underserved gig workers across Africa

The gig economy is experiencing profound growth in Africa. Yet, all that growth hasn’t changed the status of workers who are seen as contractors rather than employees. Because many of them, particularly in the two-wheeler space, lack access to some financial services, being contractors is disadvantageous. Some gig platforms have tried to embed financial services into […]

Visa unveils first innovation hub in Africa to drive product development

Global digital payments giant Visa has opened up an innovation studio in Kenya, its first in Africa and sixth globally, after posts in Dubai, London, Miami, San Francisco and Singapore. The studio will bring together developers, Visa’s internal and external clients, and other partners to co-create payment and commerce solutions. “Sub-Saharan Africa is a fast-growing […]

Moove raises $105M to scale its vehicle financing product across Asia, Europe and MENA

Moove, an African mobility fintech that provides vehicle financing to drivers of ride-hailing platforms like Uber and other gig networks, has raised $105 million in new Series A2 financing. Existing investors Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital and thelatest.ventures (the first two are lead investors from its Series A) led this round shared between $65 million equity […]

M-KOPA raises $75M as it clocks 2 million customers across four African markets

A 2019 World Bank report says 85% of Africans live on less than $5.50 per day. A large percentage of these adults are unbanked and underbanked; thus, they don’t have access to credit and also can’t afford important purchases outright. M-KOPA’s financing platform has proved helpful to this set of users since launching as an […]

M-KOPA raises $75M as it clocks 2 million customers across four African markets

A 2019 World Bank report says 85% of Africans live on less than $5.50 per day. A large percentage of these adults are unbanked and underbanked; thus, they don’t have access to credit and also can’t afford important purchases outright. M-KOPA’s financing platform has proved helpful to this set of users since launching as an […]

AWS brings its Local Zone mini data centers to 32 new cities

Latency is critical for a lot of workloads, yet the large cloud providers typically build their major data centers where the electricity is cheap and the local tax incentives high. In recent years, though, we’ve seen a new twist on this with projects like AWS’ Local Zones. These are small data centers adjacent to major […]

AWS brings its Local Zone mini data centers to 32 new cities

Latency is critical for a lot of workloads, yet the large cloud providers typically build their major data centers where the electricity is cheap and the local tax incentives high. In recent years, though, we’ve seen a new twist on this with projects like AWS’ Local Zones. These are small data centers adjacent to major […]

BasiGo secures $4.3 million in seed funding to accelerate mass transit EV adoption in Kenya

Kenya-based EV startup BasiGo has closed $4.3 million in seed funding, three months after setting up operations in East Africa’s biggest economy, to provide clean-energy mass transit vehicles in a country that is heavily-reliant on fossil-fuel buses. The startup said it will use the new funding to set up an assembly plant in Nairobi and […]