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Kenya’s Jumba secures $4.5m in seed round. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Kenya’s Jumba secures $4.5m in seed round

A Kenyan B2B construction tech startup, Jumba, has secured $4.5M in a seed round.

Co-founder and CEO Kagure Wamunyu disclosed this in a statement on Monday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the round was led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Enza Capital, which led its $1 million pre-seed round last year, Foundamental, Seedstars International Ventures, Logos Ventures, SpeedInvest, First Check Africa, and Alumni Angel Network.

Jumba makes it possible for the widely available building material sellers (locally known as hardware stores) to refill and for real estate developers to get the supplies they require for their projects.

“We are growing very fast, and our problem has always been that we have way more demand than we can meet,” said Wamunyu.

Tech Trivia: Software that monitors activity on your computer is called what?
A. Shareware
B. Scareware
C. Spyware
D. Freeware
Answer: see end of post

2. Second wave layoffs hits Chipper Cash

Employees of African cross-border payments platform, Chipper Cash, are battling a second wave of layoff, with many unsure if their jobs are intact.

Read also:CcHUB launches $15m fund pool to back startups across Nigeria, Kenya. 2 other stories and a trivia

The new layoff comes barely ten weeks after the startup laid off about 12.5% of it’s total workers.

The company’s V.P. of revenue, Stefano Pardi, who shared the news on LinkedIn, noted that the development was indeed a bad event as the company had to further cut down on its staff strength.

The layoff is a significant one as it sheds nearly a third of the company’s 350 employees.

Reacting to the development, Stefano Pardi, VP of Revenue at Chipper Cash said:

“Friday was a sad day for Chipper Cash, as many talented people were let go. For my network: there is an incredibly talented pool of individuals across the US, UK, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and more.”

Chipper has now joined the ranks of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and a plethora of others who have fired a sizable number of employees this year.

3. London-based gamified home fitness tech, Quell, closes $10m led by Tencent

A London-based gamified home fitness tech, Quell, has announced a $10M Series led by Tencent.

The Co-founder and CEO, Cameron Brookhouse, confirmed the funding in a media release on Monday.

The three-year-old startup was founded by Cameron Brookhouse, Doug Stidolph, Lorenzo Spreafico, and Martin Tweedie.

Quell takes a gamified approach to the market, with resistance bands designed for a more active gaming/workout experience.

“We’re starting to see signs of this relaxing a little earlier than many analysts predicted, with several of the VCs we’ve spoken to gaining confidence as they observe resilience in the private markets and see LPs continuing to invest in new funds,” says Brookhouse.

Khosla Ventures, Heartcore Capital, Social Impact Capital, and Naval Ravikant also participated in the round.

Trivia Answer: Spyware

Spyware is a type of malware designed to spy on the victim’s computer activity and report it to another computer over the Internet.

Spyware can capture information like Web browsing habits, e-mail messages, usernames, and passwords.

By Kayode Hamsat

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