Carbon partners Visa to enable payments across Africa. 2 other things and a trivia

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

1. Carbon partners Visa to enable payments across Africa

Fintech startup, Carbon, has announced signing a new partnership deal with one of the world leaders in digital payments, Visa, as it looks to offer both digital and physical issuance of Visa cards to its customers.

Carbon, which is a pan-African fintech company providing access to basic financial services for Africans, noted that the new deal is a strategic five-year partnership to help it further scale its venture.

According to Carbon, its company will be launching Visa debit cards in the third quarter of 2021.

This will come about a year after shifting from being a leading digital lending company to becoming a digital bank offering a range of financial services.

With Visa, Carbon is expected to deploy an instant issuance process in three key markets including Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.

Tech Trivia: What’s the biggest tech acquisition in history?

A. Dell’s buyout of EMC in 2015
B. Google’s buyout of Motorola in 2011
C. Nvidia’s buyout of Arm in 2020
D. HP’s buyout of Compaq in 2002

Answer: See end of post.

2. e-Card startup Givingli closes $3 million seed round

LA-based startup, Givingli, has closed a $3 million seed round led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six.

Founded by American couple, the start up is aiming to challenge how Gen Z sends digital greeting cards.

According to the founders, they stumbled into the world of digital greetings and gifts after abandoning physical invitations for their wedding and exploring how the digital greetings space had evolved.

Aside capital injection from the Reddit co-founder, the round also saw the participation of Snap’s Yellow Accelerator.

Speaking on the raise and startup prospects, CEO Nicole Emrani Green, noted that the growth recorded so far has been courtesy of referrals from existing user.

He said: “Initially, we thought it would mainly be birthdays and categories like weddings, graduation, etc., and I think we just threw in some ‘just because’ cards, but then that became the most popular category, by far.

READ ALSO: Egyptian startup Minly secures $3.6m seed round. 1 other thing and a trivia

“I think that it’s what kicked off our virality, because obviously with every Givingli sent you’re pulling someone else in and then the conversation continues.”

3. Ghanaian fintech startup Zeepay secures fresh $7.9m Series A

Zeepay, a Ghanaian fintech startup, has secured a US$7.9 million Series A funding round to help it further expand.

The startup focuses on digital rails to connect digital assets such as mobile money wallets, cards, ATMs, bank accounts and digital tokens to international money transfer operators.

Zeepay has its footprints in more than 20 African markets, and in April 2020 was awarded an Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) license.

With the trade license, Zeepay can operate as a mobile financial services company authorised by the Bank of Ghana, the regulator of banking and financial services.

The new raiser is not the first capital raised by the startup as it secured a US$940,000 seed funding round in December last year.

Also in April, it acquired Zambian counterpart Mangwee.

According to local media, GOODsoil VC committed a follow-on investment to the tune of US$800,000, while the startup further raised an additional US$3.3 million in debt capital to drive balance sheet activities.

Tech Trivia Answer: Dell’s buyout of EMC in 2015

Dell’s acquisition of enterprise storage company EMC for $67 billion in cash and stock stands as the tech industry’s largest buyout. This took place in 2015.

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