Egypt’s MNT-Halan secures $400M in new raiser. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Egypt’s MNT-Halan secures $400M in new raiser

Egyptian fintech startup, MNT-Halan, has secured $400 million in equity and debt financing.

The digital bank, which was created to bank the unbanked, confirmed the funding in a statement on Wednesday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the investment included $140 million from two recent securitized bond issuances and $260 million in equity financing.

Playing in both finance and e-commerce ecosystem, the company said it seeks to continue to serve underbanked and unbanked customers in the North African country.

About $200 million of the equity came from Chimera Investments, a company in Abu Dhabi.

“We are thrilled to be part of Egypt’s greatest fintech success story,” said Seif Fikry, CEO of Chimera Abu Dhabi, in a statement.

MNT-Halan says the investments “demonstrate continued confidence in its value proposition, management team, and superior technology.”

Tech Trivia: What is another name for a portable computer?
A. Desktop
B. Tabletop
C. Laptop
D. Palmtop
Answer: see the end of post

2. OpenAI launches tool to detect AI-generated text, including from ChatGPT

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has developed a method to determine whether a text was produced by a human or AI-generated, including from ChatGPT.

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The company revealed the development in a release on Wednesday.

The new tool comes barely two months after ChatGPT caught public attention.

Ripples Nigeria earlier reported that Chinese search giant, Baidu Inc., announced its intent to launch a new app to rival the American-owned AI tool.

“In our evaluations on a ‘challenge set’ of English texts, our classifier correctly identifies 26% of AI-written text (true positives) as ‘likely AI-written,’ while incorrectly labeling human-written text as AI-written 9% of the time (false positives),” OpenAI wrote.

The new OpenAI Text Classifier will, however, only function on content with at least 1,000 characters long, or 150–250 words.

3. Emerge partners Coca-Cola Al Ahlia Beverages on new solar project

Coca-Cola Al Ahlia Beverages, Coca-bottler Cola’s distributor in the UAE, has struck an agreement with Emerge, a joint venture (JV) between Masdar of the UAE and EDF of France on a new solar project.

Mohamed Akeel, Chief Executive Officer of Coca-Cola Al Ahlia Beverages, confirmed the partnership in a statement seen by Ripples Nigeria on Wednesday.

Ripples Nigeria understands that the partnership is expected to birth a 1.8-megawatt (MWp) solar photovoltaic (PV) plant for its Al Ain facility.

“Our agreement with Emerge will allow us to reach yet another sustainability milestone – a big aspect of which is the integration of more renewable energy into our operations,” Akeel said.

For the 1.8-megawatt peak (MWp) project, Emerge will offer a complete turnkey solution, taking care of the design, procurement, building, operation, and maintenance of the plant for 25 years.

Trivia Answer: Laptop

Laptop computers, also known as notebooks, are portable computers you can take with you and use in different environments. They include a screen, keyboard, and a trackpad or trackball, which serves as the mouse

By Kayode Hamsat

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