Nigerian fintech startup, NowNow Digital Systems, secures $13m. 3 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Nigerian fintech startup, NowNow Digital Systems, secures $13m

A Nigerian fintech startup, NowNow Digital Systems, has secured $13 million in a seed round led by NeoVision Ventures Ltd., DLF Family Office, and Shadi Abdulhadi heralds.

The CEO & Co-founder of NowNow, Sahir Berry, confirmed the new funding in a media release seen by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

Launched in 2018, NowNow provides solutions to facilitate financial inclusion and job creation.

According to local media, Sahir Berry and Mahesh Nair cofounded the fintech startup.

Commenting on the new funding Berry said:

“With the secured funding, we look to not only provide services that include everyone financially but also upscale our agile ecosystem which ensures that our multidimensional offering remains a market leader.”

Tech Trivia: Which of the following is a valid cell reference in a spreadsheet?
A. D21
B. 37A
C. D:C4
D. 3-2B
Answer: see end of post

2. Bboxx acquires PAYG solar company, PEG Africa, to expand footprint in Africa

A UK-based power company, Bboxx, has announced the acquisition of pay-as-you-go solar company, PEG Africa, in a bid to expand its market footprint in Africa.

Mansoor Hamayun, CEO and co-founder of Bboxx, confirmed the acquisition in a press release seen by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

Bboxx, founded in 2010 by co-founders Christopher Baker-Brian, Laurent Van Houcke, and Mansoor Hamayun, is a manufacturer of plug-and-play solar systems.

“While we have made great strides in this mission, there is still plenty more to do. In West Africa alone, there are over 150 million people with no access to electricity.

“By gaining access to new markets and utilising PEG’s impressive operational experience, we will strive to change that,” Hamayun stated.

PEG is also a solar energy pioneer in West Africa with a presence in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Mali.

Read also:Egypt’s psychotherapy startup, Shezlong, expands to South Africa. 2 other stories and a trivia

3. Gravitee closes $30m funding round led by Riverside Acceleration Capital

French-based API company, Gravitee, has closed a $30 million funding round led by Riverside Acceleration Capital with participation from Kreos Capital, AlbionVC, and Oxx.

Rory Blundell, cofounder at Gravitee confirmed the new funding on Thursday in a media statement.

According to local reports, Gravitee is a startup building a tool for designing, securing, managing, and deploying APIs that support both asynchronous APIs and synchronous APIs.

Blundell cofounded Gravitee in 2014 alongside developers Azize Elamrani, David Brassely, Nicolas Géraud, and Titouan Compiegne.

“We remain committed to ensuring that Gravitee is the most feature-packed open source API solution on the market while delivering the robust scalability and features required by the most demanding of enterprise customers,” Blundell stated.

Ripples Nigeria gathered the new fund brings the total fund raised so far to $42 million.

4. Nigeria’s Metaverse Magna secures $3.2m seed to build Africa’s largest gaming platform

A Nigerian Nestcoin’s blockchain gaming platform, Metaverse Magna (MVM), has announced securing a $3.2 million seed fund to build Africa’s largest gaming decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

MVM’s General Manager, Yemi Johnson, while confirming the funding in a press release noted that several investors including; Wemade, Tess Ventures, LD Capital, Taureon, Gumi Cryptos Capital, HashKey, AFF, Polygon Studios, Casper Johansen (Spartan), and IndiGG participated in the round.

MVM bills itself as a distributor of mobile games in emerging regions and produces developer tools for game developers to make use of Web3 gaming’s burgeoning business models.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that MVM launched in 2021 was incubated by Nestcoin in partnership with Old Fashion Research.

“By 2023, we would love to see MVM leading the social gaming conversation in Africa, unlocking opportunities not just for gamers, but also for game developers,” Yele Bademosi, Nestcoin’s co-founder and CEO commented.

Johnson while also commenting on the raiser said:

“This investment is a huge leap in creating value for all our stakeholders and facilitating the expansion of MVM’s operations to provide opportunities for casual gamers through Hyper, our social gaming app with an embedded virtual wallet.”

Trivia Answer: D21

A cell reference, or cell address, is an alphanumeric value used to identify a specific cell in a spreadsheet.

Each cell reference contains one or more letters followed by a number. The letter or letters identify the column and the number represents the row.

By Kayode Hamsat

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