Ten African startups to pitch at Y Combinator’s W21 batch demo day. 2 other things and a trivia

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

1. Ten African startups to pitch at Y Combinator’s W21 batch demo day

Ten African tech startups, featuring in the Y Combinator Winter ‘21 batch, will today (Tuesday) pitch to an audience of investors and other interested parties at a virtual demo day.

The Winter 2021 batch, which sees selected startups receive S$125,000 in seed funding, will avail them the opportunity to benefit from further investment opportunities at the demo day.

Featuring on the list are Nigeria’s Mono, which helps digital businesses access their customers’ financial and identity data; Ivory Coast’s Djamo, a challenger bank for consumers in French-speaking Africa; Kenya’s Kidato, an online school for K-12 students.

Others include Dayra, NowPay, Vend Ease, Sendbox, Prospa, and Flux and Flextock.

Press noted that the YC will host Demo Day live via Zoom, giving each startup one minute to make presentation at the one-day event.

Recall that a long list of African startups have in the past benefited from the accelerator including Flutterwave, Paystack, Cowrywise, Kobo360, MarketForce, Kudi, WaystoCap, WorkPay, Healthlane, Trella, 54gene, CredPal, NALA, and Breadfast.

Tech Trivia: When was the first artificial satellite launched into space?

A. October 1940

B. January 1940

C. October 1957

D. January 1957

Answer: See end of post.

2. Nigeria launches national policy on VSAT installation core skills

In a bid to address key challenges in the information technology sector and empowering youth in the country, the Federal Government on Monday, launched a national policy on Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) installation core skills.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, who led the possession in Abuja, noted that the development was designed to improve the country’s digital economy.

He revealed that the VSAT installation core Skills are manpower resources required by staff of the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) in the satellite industry.

He underscored the significance of digital technology in the drive for innovation and job creation.

He said: “Digital technology drives innovation and creates job opportunities which lead to economic prosperity.

“To develop and promote the digital economy for Nigeria, a National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria was developed and launched by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the 28th of November, 2019.

“The Policy has eight pillars and a number of them map to this activity. These include pillar #2 (Digital Literacy and Skills), #3 (Solid Infrastructure), #5 (Digital Services Development and Promotion) and #8 (Indigenous Content Development and Adoption).

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“Broadband connectivity plays a critical role in the development of our digital economy and this is in line with the solid infrastructure pillar.”

3. Ghana’s digital farming platform closes funding from Ingressive Capital

Ghanaian end-to-end digital farming platform Complete Farmer, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ingressive Capital.

The fund is expected to see the startup expand into other markets.

Industry review revealed that the four- year-old startup allows users to own shares in tech-enabled farms.

The management makes this possible by implementing a crowd-farming model with a total of 7,200 acres of production serving commodities to Asia, Europe and the rest of the world.

Complete Farmer’s platform currently supports over 2,000 acres of farmland across six regions in Ghana, and the startup plans to expand its operations to Kenya and Togo.

Tech Trivia Answer: October 1957

On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space.

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