Africa’s ShEquity raises $1.2m to support female-led businesses. 1 other story and a trivia.

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

1. Africa’s ShEquity raises $1.2m to support female-led businesses

An African investment network, ShEquity, has announced receiving a co-investment of $1.2 million to support female-led or women-owned businesses in Africa.

Pauline Koelbl, Founder and Managing Director of ShEquity, confirmed the development in a statement on Thursday.

According to Pauline, the co-investment was funded by USAID Trade Hub.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that ShEquity facilitates access to a pool of de-risked deals to investors while empowering female entrepreneurs with female-led financial resources.

Founded by Pauline Koelbl in 2021, the investment network offers female beneficiaries operational support needed to unlock their full potential.

The fund, Pauline said, will be put to use to reduce the gender gap and help women entrepreneurs expand their businesses.

“If Africa is to reach its full economic potential, smart investment for African women entrepreneurs needs to be dramatically increased.”

“The lack of financing, combined with insufficient business support, put potential women entrepreneurs and those seeking to expand their already successful businesses in a growth deficit or low-income trap, widening the gender gap and reinforcing negative biases,” she said.

Tech Trivia: What type of message must be 140 characters or less?
A Facebook Status Update
B be Twitter Tweet
C YouTube Comment
D Email Subject
Answer : see end of post

Read also :EdTech products for online learning trample on students’ human rights —Report

2. UK’s Bloom raises $377m financing round led by local investors

A United Kingdom-based startup platform, Bloom, has announced raising a £300m ($377m) financing round led by Credo Capital and Fortress Investment Group LLC.

The startup’s CEO, James Hickson, made the announcement in a statement on Thursday.

Bloom provides founder-friendly capital and tools to help digital entrepreneurs understand how their business compares to benchmarks as well as their financial health.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that Bloom was founded during the global pandemic in Luxembourg by James Hickson with a mandate to provide capital to grow businesses that operate predominantly online.

Hickson, who wrote about the opportunity as a means to innovate, said:

“We are not another revenue-based lender. We estimate that ecommerce merchants have incurred £125-£200 million in excess fees based on the current pricing status quo.

“That’s money that could have been used for more stock, increased ad spend, or customer incentives. We saw an opportunity to innovate rather than simply join the herd.”

Trivia answer: Tweet

For most of history, “tweet” has been the sound a bird makes. However, with the advent of Twitter, the word “tweet” has taken on a whole new meaning.

A tweet is an online posting or “micro-blog” created by a Twitter user.

Each tweet is limited to 140 characters or less. This limit makes it possible to show several tweets on one page without certain tweets taking up a lot more space than others.

However, it also means that tweets must be brief, so you must choose your words wisely.

By Kayode Hamsat

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