LATEST TECH NEWS: Flutterwave launches SME e-commerce portal. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, April 30, 2020

These 5 latest stories from the tech space will keep you updated with trends today.

1. Flutterwave launches SME e-commerce portal

African digital payment company Flutterwave has launched a new offering, Flutterwave Store, a portal for African merchants to create digital shops to sell online. According to the San Francisco and Lagos-based fintech startup, by design, its product is less Amazon and more eBay — with no inventory or warehouse requirements.

Although, Flutterwave has clarified that the move doesn’t signify any attempt to shift away from its core payments business. Industry reviews revealed that the company accelerated the development of Flutterwave Store in response to COVID-19, which has brought restrictive measures to SMEs and traders operating in Africa’s largest economies. Like Nigerian-owned ListBuy, after creating a profile, users can showcase inventory and link up to a payment option.

2. Zimbabwean-founded fintech startup Xpensi plans Sub-Saharan African expansion

Zimbabwean entrepreneur Iphi Mhlanga, has announced that his Irish-based company, Xpensi, is considering taking its business to African shores. The company, Xpensi, an expense management and employee engagement platform, currently operating with Irish and British clients digitises the expense reimbursement cycle for businesses through a web app that allows a user to capture and submit their expenses.

With an eye on Africa, the Sub-Sahara especially, Xpensi looks to offers a dedicated solution to customers. According to the CEO, Xpensi’s product roadmap is robust, and with the appropriate investment partners can make Xpensi a huge success in Africa. Industry analysts have suggested that Xpansi’s success in Africa is possible if it has a strong foundation and a strong advisor team in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.

---

Tech Trivia:

The name Yahoo! was derived from

A. It’s founders’ names
B. An acronym
C. Its company Location
D. An interjection

Answer: See end of post.

---

3. COVID-19 reveals lapses in ecommerce and remote work culture in Africa

Following the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19, reports from experts have noted that African investors and entrepreneurs have lagged in areas ecommerce and remote working culture. Since the outbreak, a larger percentage of Africans are found struggling to become accustomed to a new way of living. According to press, measures, therefore, put in place by the government and private sector players to tackle the coronavirus will usher in the new normal, in a post-Covid-19 world.

Read also: LATEST TECH NEWS: Nigeria’s Stears raises USD600k. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, April 28, 2020

Leading tech investors have suggested that it has become incumbent to look at the ever-changing landscape and identify solutions that will shape the future. While a party of investors have suggested concentrating ecommerce investment, a party has underscored the need to think about the future of work, hence, supporting the embrace of remote culture for improved work delivery where necessary.

4. Resistant AI closes $2.75M seed investment led by Index and Credo

Prague based Resistant AI has closed a $2.75M seed round. The security startup’s machine learning technology is designed to be deployed on top of AI systems used for financial decision making to protect customers in markets such as financial services and ecommerce from attacks such as targeted manipulation, adversarial machine learning and advanced fraud.

According to the security company, the seed round was co-led by Index Ventures (Jan Hammer) and Credo Ventures (Ondrej Bartos and Vladislav Jez). Company inventory indicated, however, that the round saw participation from Seedcamp; Daniel Dines, CEO of UiPath; Michal Pechoucek, CTO of Avast and other unnamed angel investors.

5. Arone drone service to launch 2 Micro-AVports in Nigeria

Nigerian drone delivery startup, Arone, is set to launch two of what it describes as its “Micro-AVports” this year. The aerospace technology and mobility startup, with this development, hopes to build what is expected to become Africa’s biggest aerial logistics network.

Following a fund raiser in 2019, Arone has been building and testing its platform, facilitating the on-demand delivery of parcels intra-state and inter-state using drones. In November 2019, The Nigerian company successfully conducted tests for its 2.5kg and 20kg payload capacity delivery drones with semi-autonomous flight capabilities. According to Emmanuel Ezenwere, founder and CEO of Arone, these ports will be located in Enugu State, where Arone is headquartered, and Lagos State.

Tech Trivia Answer: An Acronym -Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle

Yet Another Hierarchically Officious Oracle is the snake-length acronym for Yahoo Inc., the large Internet portal that has, at various times, described itself as a platform company, a social networking company, an advertising company or a content company. Yahoo emerged from the efforts of Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now