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Nigerian bookkeeping digital platform, Pastel, secures $5.5m. 2 other stories and a trivia

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This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today

1. Nigerian bookkeeping digital platform, Pastel, secures $5.5M led by TLcom

A Nigerian bookkeeping and digital platform for merchants, Pastel, has on Monday secured a seed raise of $5.5M led by pan-African venture capital firm TLcom Capital.

The new raiser was confirmed in a media release by Izunna Okonkwo, co-founder and chief growth officer (CGO) of Pastel.

The digital bookkeeping company, according to Izunna, is building digital tools to unlock the potential of small businesses in developing countries.

Okonkwo noted that VC firms such as Global Founders Capital (GFC), Golden Palm Investments, DFS Labs, Ulu Ventures, Plug and Play, and Soma Cap participated in the seed round.

Okonkwo cofounded the company with Abuzar Royesh and Olamide Oladeji.

Okonkwo while commenting on the raiser claimed Pastel was formerly Sabi Cash and said:

“Our thought process was as soon as we got traction, the next step was to capture some value.

“So we added features to the Sabi app and what we’re building now is a little bit more.”

Tech Trivia: Which of the following languages uses tags to define objects?
A. Java
B. C#
C. PHP
D. XAML
Answer: see end of post

2. South African agritech startup, Homefarm, secures $100k seed round

A South African agritech startup, Homefarm, has announced securing R1.7m (approximately $100,000) in a seed funding round.

PixelBlue, the parent company of Homefarm, disclosed the raiser in a media release on Monday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that CapaciTech, a start-up investment agency, invested in the seed funding round.

Read also:Egypt’s app-based startup, BONBELL, closes $350k initial funding. 2 other stories and a trivia

Homefarm claims it’s a fully automated indoor farm and farming-as-a-service with models that allow users grow their food.

Michael Currin launched Homefarm along with his team in 2017.

CapaciTech chief executive Matthew Emanuel expressed optimism about the funding.

“We are confident about the positive trend in the smart indoor farming tech space, and feel very positive about playing an active part in Homefarm’s journey,” he added.

3. Bahrain identity verification platform, Faceki, secures undisclosed seed funding

A Bahrain-based ​identity verification platform, Faceki, on Monday, announced securing an undisclosed amount in a Seed funding round led by ​Nama Ventures.

Hamza Al-Ghatam, Co-founder and CEO of FACEKI, made the announcement in a press release seen by ripples Nigeria.

Hamza Al-Ghatam cofounded the startup in 2020 with Dr. Mustafa Marhama and Nabeel Radhi.

According to the press statement, the funding saw participation from Vision Ventures and other angel investors.

Ripples Nigeria understands that the new funding comes on the heels of an earlier funding round secured from Bahraini business angel network, Tenmou.

FACEKI helps organizations combat online fraud and identity theft through a fraud protection platform that offers cloud biometrics and digital identity verification solutions powered by AI and machine learning.

“We aspire to eliminate identity fraud and help organizations make their customer onboarding experience simple, safe, and more secure,” said Hamza.

Hamza stressed that the new funding will be used to expand global footprint, as well as push innovation.

Trivia Answer: XAML

XAML stands for “Extensible Application Markup Language” and is pronounced, “zam-uhl.” XAML is a markup language developed by Microsoft and is used for creating application interfaces.

It is similar to HTML, which defines the content of a webpage. Like other markup languages, XAML uses tags to define objects. Tags can be nested within other tags to define objects within objects.

By Kayode Hamsat

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