LATEST TECH NEWS: WhatsApp launches on-demand payment gateway. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, June 15, 2020

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

1. WhatsApp launches on-demand payment gateway on platform

Facebook-owned messaging service Whatsapp, on Monday, launched a new feature to facilitate payments, and fast-track business transactions on its platform. The new product, which is going live in Brazil on trial, operates as a digital bud of Facebook Pay, an existing product launched last year by Facebook, its parent company.

Reviewing the service of the new product, users can now send and receive money with the facility of the innovative integration of payment gateway and merchant like Mastercard. According to Whatsapp, the technology supports users to loop their WhatsApp account to their Visa or Mastercard credit/debit card. Although, this service is only available in Brazil at the moment, WhatsApp has, however, stated that it has “built an open model to welcome more partners in the future.”

2. Swedish Sinch to acquire India’s ACL Mobile in multimillion dollar deal

Swedish mobile voice and messaging firm Sinch has agreed to buy Indian firm ACL Mobile for £56 million, a sum equivalent to 70 million in dollars. This new investment, despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, becomes the fourth acquisition deal the telecommunications firm entered into at the height of a global pandemic.

According to the Swedish firm, acquiring ACL Mobile would enable it to leverage the Indian firm’s connections with local mobile operators in the world’s second largest internet market as well as in Malaysia, and UAE to expand its end-to-end connectivity without working with a third-party firm. Before the acquisition, the 20-year-old ACL Mobile, with headquarters in Delhi, Dubai, and Kuala Lumpur, enables businesses to interact with their customers through SMS, email, WhatsApp and other channels.

Tech Trivia:

What was the first computer virus released in the wild?
A. Brain
B. WinVir
C. Creeper
D. Melissa
Answer: See end of post.

 

READ ALSO: LATEST TECH NEWS: Tesla in race to be world’s most valuable car maker. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, June 12, 2020

3. Egyptian Chefaa secures pre-Series A investment from international VCs

Egyptian on-demand medicine delivery platform, Chefaa, has announced a new raiser, a pre-Series A investment round from US venture capital fund and accelerator 500 Startups, Saudi Arabian fund Vision Ventures, Womena and a number of other investors.

The three-year-old startup founded by Dr Rasha Rady and Doaa Aref allows patients to order prescriptions and other products from pharmacies. Although, the new deal was made public on Sunday, June 14, the startup, however, did not disclose the exact size of the investment. According to the startup, the investment is expected to help expand its services.

4. S.Africa’s LifeCheq closes investment from Futuregrowth

In a bid to further demonstrate commitment towards the support of tech entrepreneurs, Futuregrowth, which has previously invested in South Africa’s fintech Yoco; has joined the league of investors of LifeCheq, a startup that offers digitised holistic personal finance. Founded in 2015, the startup rides on a vision to make expert advice accessible to professionals and entrepreneurs.

LifeCheq has argued that it entered into the business space following its observation that some public domains were currently not served adequately by the existing financial advice industry. According to Amrish Narrandes, Futuregrowth’s head of unlisted equity transactions, his organisation as an investor was attracted to LifeCheq’s ability to use technology to offer a financial service in an attractive way to a far broader market.

5. Philippine’s Tonik receives $21 million to launch digital bank across country

Philippine’s two-year old Tonik Financial, a two-year-old startup, on Monday raised $21 million in a new financing round. This new investment, according to the company, is expected to launch its digital bank in the Southeast Asian market by September this year. As the wave of digital banks flourish, this new $21 million investment goes on to testify to its wide adoption in other countries outside Western nations, where it first originated.

Reports noted that Sequoia Capital India and Point72 Ventures led the Series A round. However, Tonik, further revealed in a corresponding publication detailing the new deal that existing investors such as Insignia and Credence equally participated in it. Till date, the startup has raised $27 million of capital injection.

Tech Trivia Answer: Brain

While the first computer virus (Creeper) was released on the ARPANET as a harmless experiment, the first computer virus to be released in the wild didn’t have malicious intent either.

Called “Brain,” the program was created in 1986 by the Farooq Alvi brothers of Pakistan as a method to deter copying the medical software they wrote. It targeted IBM PCs and would replace a floppy disk’s boot sector with a copy of the virus and flag the real boot sector as bad.

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