60 black-led startups to benefit from Google’s $4m fund. 1 other story and a trivia

This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today

1. 60 black-led startups to benefit from Google’s $4 million fund

American search engine giant, Google, has announced a $4 million dedicated to fund 60 Black-founded startups in Africa.

Google’s Head of Start-up Ecosystem in charge of Africa, Folarin Aiyegbusi, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday while announcing the opening of applications for Google for Start-up Black Founders Fund for Africa.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that Google for Startups Black Founders Fund was launched after the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement.

Recall that in 2020, there were a series of civil unrest and protests related to racially charged events.

The events peaked in May when Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis Police Department officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, leading to his death.

According to Aiyegbusi, the recently launched black-focused initiative is designed to help startups scale as members of Google for Startup Black Founders Fund (BFF).

He said: “The Black Founders Fund Africa demonstrates our commitment to supporting innovations in underserved areas.

“Black-led tech startups face an unfair venture capital funding environment; that is why we are committed to helping them thrive on being better and ensure the success of communities and economies in our region.

“The fund will provide cash awards and hands-on support to 60 Black-led start-ups in Africa, which we hope will aid in developing affordable solutions to fundamental challenges affecting those at the base of the socio-economic pyramid in Africa.”

Tech Trivia: What protocol is used to deliver webpages to web browsers?
A SMTP
B HTTP
C FTP
D UDP
Answer: see end of post

Read also :Cairo-based fintech startup Dayra secures $3m. 2 other things and a trivia

2. 10-year old ImpalaPay merges with Moovebeta in Kenya

An Adanian Labs Africa incubated fintech startup, Moovebeta, has today announced merging with 10-year-old B2B Fintech company, ImpalaPay.

The co-founder and CEO of Moovebeta, Peris Wanjiru, confirmed the latest merger in a statement on Thursday.

ImpalaPay, which is a Kenyan fintech blockchain company, built the first P2P mobile money multi-currency cross border platform with Bharti Airtel in 2014.

Moovebeta, also of Kenyan origin, is an e-commerce and fintech startup that helps users move value using a voucher system.

Commenting on the merger development, Wanjiru said:

“We are very optimistic to becoming a strong fintech contender in the new financial world in Africa, given that we are blockchain-focused in our offering to support the continent’s growing payment demands in a currently fragmented ecosystem.

“We are building with the future in mind, understanding the evolution and transformative nature of the digitalization movement taking place in the continent.”

Trivia answer: HTTP

Stands for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol.” HTTP is the protocol used to transfer data over the web.

It is part of the Internet protocol suite and defines commands and services used for transmitting webpage data.

When you access a website, your browser sends a request to the corresponding web server and it responds with an HTTP status code.

If the URL is valid and the connection is granted, the server will send your browser the webpage and related files.

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