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LATEST TECH NEWS: Ghana’s mPharma raises $17-million. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, May 27, 2020

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

1. Ghana’s mPharma raises $17-million

Accra-based mPharma has announced its new raiser of $17-million. The medicine benefits and inventory manager firm, which aims to increase patient access to affordable high quality medications, was founded in 2013 by Gregory Rockson, Daniel Shoukimas and James Finucane.

According to reports, the raiser came with the appointment of Helena Foulkes, former president of CVS, the largest pharmacy retail chain in the US, to join the company’s board. The firm, in a public statement on Tuesday, May 26, noted that the CDC Group, UK’s development finance arm led the round. However, existing investors including former Novartis CEO and chairman Daniel Vasella, Silicon Valley investor Jim Breyer and Dompe Holdings also took part in the investment round.

2. S’Africa’s Inclusivity Solutions closes $1.3m in Series-A round

LATEST TECH NEWS: Ghana's mPharma raises $17-million. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, May 27, 2020

Cape Town based insurtech startup, Inclusivity Solutions, has, for the second time, secured a $1.3-million investment. The investment, which was a part of its Series-A round, was announced by the startup in a statement on Wednesday, May 27. The 5 year old company was founded by CEO Jeremy Leach, designs, builds and operates inclusive digital insurance solutions.

According to press, this investment came from Goodwell Investments, SA Umkhathi Wethu Ventures (UW Ventures) in partnership with Allan Gray, and fintech MFS Africa. Valuation stats of the company reveals that this investment brings the startup’s total Series-A round to $2.6-million.


Tech Trivia:

How many characters did Twitter originally restrict users to?

A. 100
B. 120
C. 130
D. 140

Answer: See end of post.


3. Zambian hub opens applications for BongoHive FinTech Challenge

In a bid to identify and develop fintech entrepreneurs to boost financial inclusion, Zambian innovation hub, BongoHive has opened applications for its annual FinTech Challenge. Although, run in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Zambia, the BongoHive FinTech Challenge is open to entrepreneurs who have a fintech business idea or an early-stage startup.

Read also: LATEST TECH NEWS: Utopia opens call for Lagos Urban Innovation Challenge. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, May 26, 2020

Commenting on this development, BongoHive noted that it wants to work with entrepreneurs that are addressing financial inclusion, focused on challenges related to savings, investment, interoperability, financial literacy, credit savings, and differently-abled citizens. Going by its proposed plan, the challenge will be implemented through two one-day ideation sessions for 30 participants each.

4. Sanofi unveils names of 11 startups for AfricaTech Challenge

As the world looks forward to the commencement of Sanofi’s AfricaTech Challenge, the organising team from the global pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, has announced the names of 11 startups that will take part in an online pitch next month as part of its AfricaTech Challenge.

According to Sanofi, the pitch will take place on Thursday, June 11, and will include four challenges, which is expected to replace the 2020 edition of VivaTech that was to be held in Paris. Commenting on process and remuneration, the team has stated that a standing winner for each of the four challenges will be announced at the end of the pitch.

5. Google removes millions of negative TikTok reviews

In a bid to intervene in the recent poor rating of Chinese TikTok, leading digital player Google has removed millions of negative TikTok reviews. After gaining hundreds of millions of users in India, ByteDance’s TikTok appis now facing criticism in its biggest overseas market as disturbing videos surfaced on the platform.

Following the emergence of these negative videos, phrases such as BanTikTok, DeleteTikTok, and BlockTikTok have trended on Twitter in India in the past three weeks as users expressed disgust over some videos that were circulating on this Chinese giant ByteDance’s jewel app, TikTok. The backlash has resulted in millions of Indians giving the app a one-star rating on its Google Play Store listing and posting poor reviews that are critical of the app. According to industry reports, the app’s overall rating globally has tanked from 4.5 as of earlier this month to as low as 1.2 — until Google intervened.

Tech Trivia Answer: 140

Twitter originally restrict users to tweet a maximum of 140 characters. Recently, this number has been doubled to allow 280 character length. Although, the most common length of a tweet back then when Twitter only allowed 140 characters was 34 characters. But now that the limit is 280 characters, the most common length of a tweet is 33 characters. Historically, only 9% of tweets hit Twitter’s 140-character limit, now it’s 1%.

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