Female-led startup, Klasha, secures additional $2.1m seed round. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Female-led startup, Klasha, secures additional $2.1 million seed round

A female-led Cross-border commerce solution startup, Klasha, has secured an additional $2.1 million seed round co-led by American Express (AMEX) Ventures and Global Ventures.

Klasha’s Chief Executive Officer, Jessica Anuna, confirmed in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the additional $2.1 million completes its $4.5 million seed round.

The Gender lens startup bills itself as a provider of multiple products for the cross-border commerce space in Africa.

Playing in the cross-border commerce space in Africa, Klass was founded in 2018 by Jess Anuna and headquartered in San Francisco Bay Area, United States.

The startup has an app, dubbed KlashaCart that allows users to shop from different retailers using naira.

Anuna, while commenting on the raiser, said:

“The biggest product development is this app allowing these consumers to shop from selected stores like Boohoo.com, pay using their Klasha wallet, which you can fund by multiple different African currencies and get delivered to their door.

“The core mission of Klasha is to streamline cross border commerce from Africa to the rest of the world. And in turn, give the rest of the world access to African consumers on the ground who want and need these goods globally.”

Tech Trivia: What verb describes deleting a friend from a social networking website?
A Defriend
B Unfriend
C Block
D Ignore
Answer: see end of post

2. African payments company, MFS Africa, acquires US fintech, Global Technology Partners

A digital payments company, MFS Africa, has advanced move to acquire Us-based Global Technology Partners (GTP).

Read also :Two Nigerian startups shortlisted among top 45 African startups. 2 other stories and a trivia.

The acquisition will see the companies leveraging on each other’s platform to expand further into Africa and the US.

Founder and Managing Director of MFS Africa, Dare Okoudjou confirmed the latest acquisition in a statement on Tuesday.

According to Dare, the acquisition is projected to boost the African technology ecosystem.

MFS Africa is a South African-based digital payment company that offers mobile financial solutions for senders, money users, and service providers.

The fintech company was founded in 2009 by Dare Okoudjou.

GTP, however, was founded in 2003 with headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that GTP is being used by more than 80 banks across 34 countries in Africa and beyond.

Welcoming the latest acquisition into the fold of MFS, Okoudjou said: “This is an important step for us and the African technology ecosystem, on several levels.

“The acquisition of a US company of the size and nature of GTP by an African technology company is something of a first, and we are delighted to welcome the GTP team to the MFS Africa family.”

3. South Africa’s micro-transaction platform, uKheshe, launches tap-on-phone payment solution

A South African micro-transaction platform, uKheshe, has launched a new tap-on-phone payment solution that will not require certification.

Paul Selibas, President of Channel Solutions for Ukheshe Technologies confirmed the development on Tuesday, noting that the latest solution will be helpful to SMEs.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the Tap-on-Phone technology will allow approved merchants to simply download a supported app and use their existing Android mobile phone as a payment terminal.

uKheshe, which is now Masterpass certified, is a micro-transaction platform that allows you to pay and get paid.

Playing in the fintech space, the Johannesburg-based startup was founded in 2018 by Jason Penton.

Selibas while commenting on the latest development said:

“Ukheshe is driving down the barriers to entry in payment acceptance for businesses through simpler, more affordable functionality and low-friction sign-up. We are setting the trend; disrupting the traditional POS system.

“I think there will be many players rushing out to follow suit, because this is a game-changer.

“The cost of a terminal is a hurdle to these businesses, not to mention the additional distribution and maintenance concerns. This new technology combats the high costs of app certifications in developing and implementing tap-on-phone solutions.”

Trivia Answer: Unfriend

When you “friend” a user on a social networking website, you add that person to your list of online friends. When you remove a person from your friend list, you “unfriend” that user.

Unfriending may be done for many reasons. For example, if an online friend is contacting you too often or writing on your wall too much, you may want to remove that user from your list of friends.

You may also wish to unfriend a user if a relationship with that person has ended. When you unfriend someone, that person no longer has “friend” access to your profile page.

By Kayode Hamsat

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