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Digital Immersion Program 2022 for Digital Publishers

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Digital Immersion Program 2022 for Digital Publishers

Digital Immersion Program is a Google News Initiative (GNI) in partnership with FT strategies for digital publishers. It is a 5-day interactive virtual workshop designed for key decision-makers in accelerating a publisher’s journey towards digital reader revenue.

Participants will complete the program with a series of quick wins that can be of immediate use through fusing strategic thinking with tactical action. Also, they’ll get an actionable framework for sustained growth.

The digital growth program is training for news publishers that aims to grow their digital skills. In addition, transform its online business through the program in South Africa in May 2022.

This program will be launched in collaboration with the consulting arm of the Financial Times (FT Strategies)

Requirements

This is a program fashioned for publishers at the beginning of their digital reader revenue journey. The focus is on organizations looking for fast and actionable solutions to aid their transition into digital reader revenue.

To participate, you should 

  • Be typical local and hyper-local publishers
  • Have a website with content not just an e-edition of the publication
  • Be yet to offer digital subscriptions/memberships or at a very early stage of the process
  • Have a typical headcount (operations and newsroom) of about 9-50
  • Possess typical online monthly unique visitors; <250,000

Overview

Each day in the Program will focus on different aspects of your transitioning into the digital journey.

Firstly, it will start with a digital reader revenue diagnostic review. This is where publishers go through different stages of the reader lifecycle. This will go on throughout the week, engagement, namely attraction and monetization.

Furthermore, on the 5th-day participants will come together with the knowledge acquired to develop an ambitious North Star goal. They will as well design a roadmap to bring their strategy to life.

To sum it up, the program is for publishers at a nascent stage of their digital reader revenue journey. Those looking for rapid and actionable solutions to kickstart.

To apply for the program, kindly use this link

AI Startup, InstaDeep Raises $100M from AI Capital, BioNTech, Google

Hassan Barakat
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AI Startup, InstaDeep Raises $100M from AI Capital, BioNTech, Google

InstaDeep has raised $100M in Series B financing, led by Alpha Intelligence Capital and CDIB.

The Tunisian and London-based enterprise AI startup develops decision-making systems to address real-world issues.

The company behind Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine; BioNTech, Chimera Abu Dhabi, Deutsche Bahn’s DB Digital Ventures, Google, G42, and Synergie participated in the round.

Founded by Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim in 2014. The Tunisian startup has its headquarter in London with offices in Paris, Tunis, Lagos, Dubai, and Cape Town.

It employs powerful machine learning techniques to integrate AI into enterprise applications.

On a teleconference with TechCrunch, Beguir, the CEO, stated the eight-year-old company’s AI and machine learning handle a variety of problems.

The company claimed in a statement that it is now working with Deutsche Bahn on a moonshot product to automate railway scheduling.

InstaDeep and BioNTech announced a multi-year strategic partnership two years ago to launch a collaborative AI innovation center.

The goal of the lab was to use the most recent developments in AI and machine learning to generate new immunotherapies.

One of its most successful efforts was the creation of an early warning system (EWS) for detecting high-risk SARS-CoV-2 strains in late November.

InstaDeep also works with Google’s AI research divisions to develop an early detection system for African desert locust epidemics, as well as working on AI initiatives and publishing collaborative research with DeepMind and Google Research.

All three organizations are investors in InstaDeep’s recent financing round, which is a typical feature in these collaborations.

“As our partners and clients, they’ve seen firsthand what the InstaDeep platform and team can accomplish,” Beguir explained.

“So we consider it as a significant milestone, as well as a vote of confidence in our talents and products that they are investing in after years of working closely with us on difficult problems.”

From 2014 through 2018, Beguir and Slim bootstrapped InstaDeep, reinvesting revenue from clients into hiring additional employees and expanding the company.

To scale its systems, the Tunisian startup raised a $7 million Series A round in 2019 from AfricInvest, a pan-African private equity firm, and Endeavor Catalyst, a New York-based venture capital firm.

The corporate AI business wants to use the fresh capital to speed up the launch of revolutionary AI technologies in biotech, logistics, transportation, and electronics manufacturing.

Its use of finances strategy also includes improving its computing infrastructure, expanding into the United States, and recruiting more personnel.

InstaDeep now employs more than 170 people. More than 130 people work in AI research, engineering, machine learning, and DevOps, with half of the workforce working in South Africa, Nigeria, and Tunisia.

Africa was not included in InstaDeep’s analysis of AI’s contribution to global economic growth when it first launched.

While that picture hasn’t altered much, InstaDeep is one of the few African firms, along with South Africa’s Aerobotics and hearX Group, that are attempting to shift the existing quo and give Africa a voice in the future of AI.

“We’ve managed to create a culture of high standards and demonstrate that African talent is capable of competing, working, and cooperating with the best,” Beguir added.

“That’s the narrative we’ve been able to develop.” Today, we’re delighted to have a team that spans Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with some extremely dedicated African AI researchers and engineers making a difference.

Many investors and watchers in the African tech and AI industry dismissed InstaDeep’s desire to partner with the likes of DeepMind and Google when the business started with “two computers, $2,000, and a lot of passion,” Beguir said on the call.

If technology has taught us anything, it’s that geography isn’t a barrier to attracting worldwide customers.

This is especially true for AI and deep tech, as long as businesses have access to information, experienced talent, and an open AI community.

Beguir, who is half Tunisian and half French, was born and raised in Tunisia but studied engineering and mathematics in France and the United States.

Following a traditional professional path, Beguir founded InstaDeep to demonstrate that African talent could be competitive, make a difference in deep tech, and collaborate and compete with the finest in the world.

“It is feasible to build an internationally competitive company with strong African origins that is also well integrated into the world, focusing on true deep-tech innovation and doing things that haven’t been done before,” stated the CEO.

“That has been our story thus far, and we can’t wait to take it to the next level with our investors and partners, in order to have a good impact on the ecosystems in which we operate and all of our partners.”

OZÉ Raises $3M to Scale Its Digital Recordkeeping, Led by European VC, Speedinvest

Hassan Barakat
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OZÉ Raises $3M to Scale Its Digital Recordkeeping, Led by European VC, Speedinvest

OZÉ raises $3M pre-Series A round.

The Ghanaian fintech startup provides medium and small firms with digital recordkeeping tools which include embedded financing products.

Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, Savannah Capital, and other unnamed angel investors participated in the startup’s latest funding round, which was led by European early-stage VC Speedinvest.

This development comes after OZÉ received $700,000 seed funding last year.

Several other startups that provide finance, bookkeeping tools, and an operating system to handle small and medium businesses’ operations have grown dramatically in the last 18 months. Some of them are Kippa, Bumpa, and Sabi Cash.

Following a series of visits around Africa by McCormick, who observed the issues small businesses confront and their critical need for financial and recordkeeping tools to grow, CEO Meghan McCormick and chief operating officer Dave Emnett founded OZÉ in 2018.

OZÉ business software assists medium and small enterprises in keeping track of revenues, expenses, payables, receivables, and client information.

This information is evaluated to give organizations customized recommendations, reports, daily business tips, monthly business seminars, and on-demand access to a business coach.

OZÉ gathers performance and behavioural data based on how businesses use the platform, which it uses to identify credit risks and develop alternative credit scores.

The company collaborates with financial institutions (banks and fintechs) to provide loans to businesses in need.

“Loans made using the platform can be collateral-free, larger, and paid back over a longer-term without raising risk,” the company stated in a statement.

Credit and recordkeeping services are provided by similar systems, but McCormick swiftly points out what sets her organization apart.

“I believe that the close integration between record keeping, credit, and now payments are significant competitive features in terms of the business model that we can operate.”

“And it sets off a flywheel in a manner that simply being a record keeper and firm or simply being a digital lender wouldn’t,” the CEO explained.

“The majority of small firms are aware that they should retain records. However, retaining any records, digital or not, is a change in behavior. As a result, we’ve put a solid behavioural science foundation inside our software to help OZÉ become habit-forming.”

Because of OZÉ’s position as a coach, partner, and advisor to the businesses on its platform, they have access to a network of other business owners with whom they may learn, grow, and do business.

She explained that the platform is attempting to implement the concept of making accounting social.

On the credit side, OZÉ can use cash-based performance data from businesses to provide better loans by gaining psychological insight into automatically recorded transactions.

The number of active monthly users on OZÉ increased by 1,200 percent last year. From Q3 to Q4 of 2021, the number of loans given on the platform climbed by 200 percent, according to the business.

According to OZÉ, 97 percent of business owners who use the platform have growing, successful, or both businesses.

Following its recent fundraising, OZÉ will expand its team, attract more clients, deepen its foothold in Ghana and Nigeria, and initiate development plans into new African markets, according to McCormick.

IT Web Cloud & Data Centre Summit 2022

Boluwatife Aponmade
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IT Web Cloud & Data Centre Summit 2022

Digital refurbishment is presently going in a very fast space and organizations now have to rethink their IT methods and augment their IT infrastructure to increase their capabilities, efficiency, and performance drastically.

In this digital era, if companies have to survive and remain in business, they need to move beyond issues of maintenance and other reactive tasks and ensure that they focus on innovations in their main business. The modernization of cloud and data center infrastructure and applications is a step in that direction. It is a step towards achieving a brilliant business that is important for survival in the digital business ecosystem that enterprises have been plunged into.

The ITWeb Cloud & Data Centre Summit 2022 will focus on several critical topics, including cloud repatriation; public, private, and hybrid cloud; hyper-scale data centers; the complexity of the cloud; multi-cloud; cloud sovereignty; access control; agile working methodologies; containers, to mention a few.

Attend a very large gathering of qualified end-users of the data center, infrastructure, architecture, technologies, and solutions, who are enthusiastic about adopting and implementing technological solutions that will aid in mastering the multi-cloud environment and push innovation for their businesses in the digital world.

The C-Suite Executive Roundtables Conference and Sponsor Displays will hold on 23 February 2022 while the Agenda with two tracks is on 24 February 2022.
If you want to sponsor ITWeb Cloud & Data Centre Summit 2022, you will be provided with an unparalleled opportunity of networking with a qualified, decision-maker end-user audience from across the industry in South Africa – a marketing chance you don’t want to miss out on!

The summit will kick off with agenda on 24 February 2022. This will set the scene and increase your understanding of the relationship between the two pillars of the digital economy. The Agenda can be divided into two streams for you to zoom in and focus on them individually.

The two tracks are Cloud and Data Centre. The Cloud track will explore how your organization can operate, be safe, and very innovative in the multi-cloud environments while the Data Centre track will explore the state of data centers in South Africa after the digital disturbance that has come about since the arrival of COVID-19 and occurrences due to circumstances like remote working, learning and an increase in e-commerce.

Register your complimentary seat here. Please note that the ITWeb reserves all right to refuse attendance to whoever is unfitting of the job descriptions, and individuals from vendor organizations or solution providers will be charged upon registration.

Apply: 2022 Lead2030 Challenge for SDG5

Mena Adediran
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Apply: 2022 Lead2030 Challenge for SDG5

Applications are open for the 2022 Lead2030 Challenge for SDG5. Supported by 100+ Accelerator and powered by AB InBev, the challenge aims to discover and support solutions which will empower women and bridge the equality gap thereby promoting a more prosperous and sustainable world.

The challenge is open to innovative solutions from women-founded companies that give solutions to any of the following:

  • Infrastructure solutions that provide women-owned or operated small enterprises with opportunities to improve their access to energy, sanitation and security
  • Digital skills training solutions that measurably and lastingly improve the knowledge and practices of women-owned/operated small enterprises, with the potential for significant scale
  • Affordable, accessible financial products (e.g. low-interest loan products, insurance)
  • Renewable energy technology with super high efficiency for trucking, rail, ocean and air including biofuel, electric, wind, solar and water – that are accessible for the entire market
  • New packaging materials to eliminate/reduce plastic, increasing recycled content and/or new ways to incorporate our supply chain waste into our packaging materials
  • Alternatives to increase recycling and reuse PET
  • New solutions to improve water quality or availability in high stressed watersheds.

What’s the Prize?

The winning solution will join the third cohort of organisations that are supported by 100+ Accelerator. The program participants will go through the following key elements:

Pilot
The first three months of the program happen in-market (executing a pilot in a specific geographic zone). The beginning of the program will require three to five days in New York City for a minimum of 1 and maximum of 3 company representatives (preferably CEO/CTO).

Ongoing mentorship
100+ Sustainability Accelerator will offer in-person and remote corporate development and programming to further support startups as they scale.

Investment
100+ Accelerator will invest up to $100K in the winning solution. The aim of this investment is to bring startups into the AB InBev investment portfolio.

One Young World Summit
One representative of the winning solution will be invited to participate in the One Young World Summit 2022 which will be held in Tokyo from 16 – 19 May.

What’s the Criteria?

  • Solutions that are clearly aligned with the SDG5 Challenge
  • Founded by a person aged 18-30
  • Led and founded by at least one female founder
  • Product/service already in market or ready to enter the market
  • Solutions must have positive social impact
  • Impacts of solutions must be measurable
  • Must be efficient to survive independently through resources generated and investments raised
  • Potential to perform as well after expanding and entering other regions.

Deadline: February 18, 2022

To apply, go here.

Former President Jonathan Tasks Nigerian Engineers on Digital Revolution Innovation

Hassan Barakat
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Former President Jonathan Tasks Nigerian Engineers on Digital Revolution Innovation

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has urged Nigerian engineers to capitalise on the digital revolution’s prospects by innovating competitively to ensure that the country and the African continent do not miss out on the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s growth and development opportunities.

The current industrial revolution, which is characterised by the dominance of the Internet and a fusion of technologies, is reshaping and changing the world at a rapid pace, according to the former President, who added that Africa cannot afford to miss out, as it did in previous technological revolutions.

Dr. Jonathan made the remarks during the investiture of Engr. Tasiu Sa’ad Gidari-Wudil as the 33rd President of the Nigerian Society Of Engineers (NSE) on Friday in Abuja.

He also urged engineers to lead the charge for long-term growth and development.

The former President went on to say that engineering is the cornerstone for progress, technological innovation, and national transformation and that the country has immense natural resources to assist the development of alternative and renewable energy sources.

“I believe that our engineers are the key to our economic and technological success, whether in the current information technology and knowledge economy or traditional brick and mortar infrastructure development,” he stated.

“In the nation’s development momentum, our engineers should take the lead in pushing for sustainable growth.”

“It’s fortunate that the individual in charge of  NSE today is an experienced electrical engineer with a flair for invention.”

“I believe he is keeping a close eye on global developments in the energy sector, as the world is gradually shifting to renewable energy, with fossil fuels receiving less attention due to environmental concerns,” he added.

He went on to say that considering that the country has a ray of abundant all-year-round sunshine, several kilometres of ocean coastline, and various bodies of water with significant waves, currents, and wind, it will become a force to be reckoned with in this regard it diligently apply developing alternative and renewable energy sources.

Smiles Dental Care Startup Raises $23 Million From Alpha Wave, Others

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Smiles Dental Care Startup Raises $23 Million From Alpha Wave, Others

Smiles an online dental care startup has announced raising $23 Million in its series A funding from Alpha Wave, Others. In other words, this funding is a global opportunity to expand into other markets such as North Africa and the Middle East.

The funding round was led by Alpha Wave Incubation (Falcon Edge Capital), alongside existing investors Chiratae Ventures and Sequoia India’s Surge.

Furthermore, the list of investors include Angel investors such as

  • Lenskart founders Amit Chaudhary and Peyush Bansal
  • Mosaic Wellness’ Revant Bhate
  • CRED’s Miten Sampat and
  • Haptik’s Aakrit Vaish

Smiles was founded by Hitesh and Jatin Kakrani with a focus area on Invisible Aligner treatments. Ever since this treatment surfaced, it is the most preferred technology over traditional braces for smile correction.

Smiles and the dental care revolution

Going by the enormous opportunity in the dental care sector in India, Africa, and abroad, Smile’s technological approach is impressive.

Most importantly creating a comprehensive offline base of dentists and building an aligners business.

The Indian dental care market is highly fragmented to date without any significant technological disruption for decades. However, with increasing in technological awareness, Smiles.ai is set to break the market.

With an increase in disposable incomes and rising millennial aspirations, the dental industry is going through a transition. 

Hitesh Kakrani, Co-Founder of Smiles.ai said,

“We are leading this change in India by combining dental care operations and technology expertise”.

The managing director of Alpha Wave Incubation, Anirudh Singh said;

“With the use of technology as a key differentiator and driver, Smiles is set to disrupt the market. While maintaining its capital efficiency, it will establish itself as the leader in the market”

In conclusion, the company said India’s dental care industry will be a $15 billion market by 2023 and is growing 20% year-on-year (YoY). However, most customers are largely from offline channels and individual clinics account for most business in the sector.

 

 

Frain Technologies Raises $473,000 Pre-seed Funding Round to Expand Product Offerings

Hassan Barakat
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Frain Technologies Raises $473,000 Pre-seed Funding Round to Expand Product Offerings

Frain Technologies raises $473,000 pre-seed funding round.

Subomi Oluwalana, co-founder and CEO of the Nigerian developer-tooling business, launched it in February 2021 after quitting his job as a backend developer at Nigerian fintech Tangerine Life.

For several months, the team tried to offer APIs to businesses with co-founder and COO Emmanuel Aina, but with little success.

While refining their solution to make it more economically feasible, the team discovered that webhooks were a common issue among startups looking to establish APIs.

Webhooks are simply the glue that holds APIs together. They are a crucial infrastructure component for most API firms (like Stripe, Twillo, or Paystack).

In essence, a failed webhooks event has a direct impact on customers, hence Frain created Convoy, a cloud-native webhook service that allows developers to transmit webhook events to their users in minutes.

Engineers had to create and maintain this infrastructure component in-house prior to the creation of Convoy when developing APIs.

The service has been well accepted since its inception, with a number of companies, including Buycoins, Termii, GetWallets, and Dojah, adopting it in production.

Rally Cap Ventures led the $473,000 pre-seed funding round. Musha Ventures, Future Africa, Eric Idiah, Tomiwa Lasebikan, Prosper Otemuyiwa, Odunayo Eweniyi, Timi Ajiboye, Opeyemi Awoyemi, and several other angels are among the investors.

Frain Technologies will use the funds to bring Convoy to maturity both locally and globally, as well as develop additional products.

“We are ecstatic to have gained these investors’ support and endorsement, and we plan to increase and expand our product offerings in the next months, as well as the number of clients we serve.”

We feel Frain Technologies is in an exciting period. We’re big fans of open-source and developer tools, and we’re supporting a new wave of global dev tool entrepreneurs.

“Out of Lagos, Nigeria, we’re constructing the next HashiCorp, GitLab, and GitHub,” Oluwalana added.

Rally Cap Ventures CEO Hayden Simmons said his business invests in key infrastructural API firms that help fintech solutions scale across emerging economies.

“It was evident from the moment I met Subomi and Emmanuel that they are deeply dedicated experts working in an important field.”

“It was evident after sharing with our portfolio companies that their product is in high demand not only within Africa, but also globally,” he said.

Morocco’s Chari Secures $100M in Bridge Round As It Looks to Pilot BNPL Services

Hassan Barakat
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Morocco’s Chari Secures $100M in Bridge Round As It Looks to Pilot BNPL Services

Morocco’s Chari secures $100M in a bridge round.

New investors in the bridge round included Khwarizmi Ventures, Air Angels, and Afri Mobility, AKWA Group’s venture capital arm.

Y Combinator, Rocket Internet, Global Founders Capital, Plug n Play, Orange Ventures, Harvard University Management Company, Village Capital, and P1 Ventures were among the previous investors in Chari’s $5 million seed round, which raised $70 million in October.

Chari digitizes the largely fragmented FMCG business in Morocco and Tunisia, like many other B2B e-commerce startups throughout the continent.

Chari is a mobile app that allows small businesses in these two nations to order products from collaborating FMCG corporations and local manufacturers and receive them in under 24 hours.

Karny.ma, a Moroccan ledger book, was bought by the YC-backed business last October. About 50,000 retailers use the Khatabook-like platform for credit and bookkeeping. It enables these businesses to manage the credit they extend to their customers.

The acquisition of Karny and the bridge round are part of Chari’s goal to provide payment services. It puts the company in a great position to offer financial services to its retailers, particularly buy now, pay later.

“Chari will use the funds from this bridge round to put BNPL’s services to the test with its current clients.” Chari will buy a local credit company if the findings are positive, allowing shop owners to lend money to their customers and expand their business, according to CEO Ismael Belkhayat in a statement.

Karny provides Chari with crucial information about the loans that grocery businesses issue to their consumers, allowing Chari to credit-assess unbanked shop owners and determine the most appropriate payment terms for each.

In summary, Karny data enables Chari to learn about the things sold by shop owners to their end customers, as well as the amount lent.

Chari will now offer payment terms and BNPL alternatives to some of its shop owners based on their date of registration, order frequency, average basket order, and amount of money lent to their end users via its internal closed-loop digital wallet.

Chari has chosen a few business owners to try this, according to Belkhayat, who co-founded the company with Sophia Alj. Merchants can have a negative balance on their digital wallets if they meet the four criteria; the limit is -$100 to -$500 and they can only keep it for 30 days without being charged.

Chari intends to expand this BNPL service to Tunisia and other French-speaking countries in Africa once it has perfected its operations in Morocco.

Due to the fast adoption of e-commerce and the pandemic’s consequences, BNPL services are beginning to see significant growth throughout Africa.

Several BNPL services cater to consumers, such as Carbon Zero in Nigeria, Payflex in South Africa (recently acquired by Australian BNPL Zip), and LipaLater in Kenya (recently raised $12 million in equity and debt).

Others serve businesses like TradeDepot, a Nigerian company similar to Chari, while some make infrastructural plays like Nigeria’s ThankUCash.

Companies typically raise debt financing for their BNPL projects; as previously stated, the majority of the participants have done so.

Chari, on the other hand, chose not to. The reason, according to Belkhayat, was that the debt venture funds with which Chari was in talks wanted to charge the company interest rates as high as 15%.

“Since this is simply a pilot, I prefer to raise the money at a high value from funds that could support me with my approach.”

He explained Chari’s high seed value and why it only raised stock. “I get a little diluted, but in exchange, I receive a lot of advice from experienced founders,” he remarked.

“If the pilot is a success, I’ll need a lot more money for working capital, therefore I’ll raise debt instead of diluting equity.”

Touch and Pay a Nigerian Tech Startup Joins the W22 Y Combinator Accelerator Program

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Touch and Pay a Nigerian Tech Startup Joins the W22 Y Combinator Accelerator Program

Touch and Pay is a cowry card payment system that is now on the list of the next batch of the W22 Y Combination acceleration program. This sums up the number of Nigerian tech startups in the program to 5.

The other 4 startups that made it to the list with full funding include IdentityPass, Topship, Moni, and Doja. The probability of having more Nigerian tech startups on the list is high as most of them are receiving great attention from the international community.

Touch and Pay (TAP) aims at utilizing the backing of the Y combination acceleration program to digitize cash-based transactions. Similarly, it hopes to expand into the African markets. This will create a true cashless ecosystem by clearing up cash across various sectors with the use of technology.

TAP is set to build a distinct mobile payment and services platform capturing online and offline transactions seamlessly. It will focus specially on the microtransactions process.

Brief about Touch and Pay

The company was founded by Olamide Afolabi and Micheal Oluwole beginning operations in 2017. TAP aims to reduce the amount of physical cash in circulation by encouraging the electronic means for payments of goods and services.

The company ventured into various sectors before settling for digitizing transactions in the transportation sector. As a result, they partnered with LAGBUS, a Lagos state transportation system known as BRT.

So far, the company has about 1.5 million Lagosians who are users of its cashless rides. They are also using its recently launched cowry cards as means of payment for BRT buses.

Being on the W22 Acceleration Program

Upon the inclusion of the company in the W22 acceleration program, the CEO and co-founder of the company, Oluwole Afolabi said,

” Touch and Pay have plans of digitizing the entire informal market with contactless cards. Perhaps, true financial inclusion can be achieved this way”

The company is set to change the payment structure in Nigeria and across Africa by encouraging financial inclusion. In addition, ensuring 99.9% reliance on cashless transaction processes in all the sectors of the Nigerian economy.

 

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