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LATEST TECH NEWS: Kenya’s OkHi expands to Nigeria. 2 other things and a trivia you need to know today, December 11, 2020

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

1. Kenya’s OkHi expands to Nigeria as new market

Kenya’s OkHi has joined a list of African startups seeking to tap into Nigeria’s huge market size of 206 million people, according to new stats confirmed by population censorship authority. The decision to expand comes with support funding from Fintech king, Interswitch.

According to press, OkHi and Interswitch, through the partnership and investment, will look to tackle a problem that costs Nigerian businesses an estimated US$2 billion a year in the lack of postal addressing infrastructure.

Six years ago, OkHi was co-founded by Timbo Drayson, who while at Google led the launch of Google Maps across emerging markets and built Chromecast. Today, the Nairobi-based OkHi has developed technology that enables any business to collect an accurate address from their customer, verify it, and navigate to it.

Industry insights revealed that aside from capital, Interswitch is also OkHi’s key strategic partner for its Nigerian expansion. It must be noted, however, that the launch in Nigeria followed OkHi’s success in Kenya, where OkHi is reducing cost of delivery by 20 per cent and delivery times by 40 per cent.


Tech Trivia:

Pick the odd app in the pack

A. TikTok
B. Likee
C. Skype
D. Instagram

Answer: See end of post.


2. MINT Incubator opens applications for Egyptian startups

In a bid to helps startups grow and become investment-ready, EGBank and Cairo Angels have opened applications for the latest edition of the MINT Incubator. Since the first launch in 2018 when Cairo Angels and EGBank partnered to launch the three-month equity-free incubator, there have been several editions. Incubator experts, who are familiar with the programme, have commended the initiative, acknowledging that the programme features a series of mentoring sessions and workshops covering topics such as finance, sales and marketing, growth hacking, accounting basics, legal and governance, attracting and retaining talent, and branding.

Read also: LATEST TECH NEWS: Nigeria’s Indicina raises 6-figure funding round. 2 other things and a trivia you need to know today, December 10, 2020

As part of its support and complimentary package, each participant also receives free co-working space. Growing its lot, and scaling another step high, for the first time, MINT Incubator will feature a fintech-focused track, along with the usual sector-agnostic track, which is designed for startups at the minimal viable product (MVP) stage. Speaking on the need for this, the board noted that the incubator, this year, aims to help startups grow their business and become a more attractive investment opportunity. It is, therefore, expected to culminate in a Demo Day, with participating startups pitching live to an audience of the top angel and venture capital investors in the region.

3. Africa’s Sea Monster emerges winner of prestigious global award

Sea Monster, a Cape Town-based, animation, gaming, and AR/VR company, has emerged winner of Data & Insight category at the renowned International Content Marketing Awards held in the United Kingdom. The company clinched the prize with its innovative design and implementation of the Livin’ it Up financial education mobile game. According to press, the product was designed for Capitec Bank, winning the Cape Town-based company international acclaim. Speaking on the development, Glenn Gillis, CEO of Sea Monster, who commented on the company while receiving the illustrious award, expressed excitement, acknowledging that the competition was, indeed, a tough one.

He said: “We’re humbled by the award, not only because of the huge competition we were up against, including many European heavyweights, but because we won this for the best use of data and insights, which is becoming such a critical element of modern marketing. We’re also extremely proud that, once again, South African innovation has been acknowledged in this way internationally. It seriously places what we can achieve here on the global map, and shows that our home-grown solutions can compete with the best in the world.” The International Content Marketing Awards was established by the UK-based not-for-profit association, the Content Marketing Association (CMA), to reward and recognise Players in the content marketing industry.


Tech Trivia Answer: Skype

Among the short video apps, Skype is odd. As a leading telecommunication app, Skype is a telecommunications application that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches over the Internet. Skype also provides instant messaging services. Users may transmit text, video, audio and images.

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