Nigeria’s energy-tech company, Beacon Power, closes $2.7m round. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Nigeria’s energy-tech company, Beacon Power, closes $2.7m round

A Nigerian energy-tech company, Beacon Power Services (BPS), has on Friday announced closing a $2.7 million seed round funding led by Seedstars Africa Ventures.

The founder and CEO, Bimbola Adisa, in a media release on Friday confirmed that Persistent Energy, Kepple Africa Ventures, Factor[e,] and Oridun Capital Management participated in the seed round.

With a goal to improve the quality and duration of electricity supplied to Africa’s cities, BPS creates smart grids across the continent and uses data to reduce the considerable inefficiencies in the electricity distribution systems.

Aerospace engineer Bimbola Adisa founded the energy technology company in 2014 after several years of experience in power turbine manufacturing.

Adisa claims his experiences gave him exposure to the application of technology in the power sector to boost power generation in Nigeria and across Africa.

“Africa is home to the fastest growing cities in the world, but when most people think of energy access in Africa, they think of the rural areas with little or no access to electricity at all.

“However, it is impossible for Africa to develop without significantly improving electricity access and reliability across its major cities,” said CEO Adisa in a statement.

Adisa stressed that the new funding will be used to expand into market footprint beyond Nigeria and Ghana, and upgrade current products.

Tech Trivia: PPL is a metric used in what industry?
A. Digital publishing
B. Audio production
C. Game development
D. Online advertising
Answer: see end of post

2. Blockchain startup PayStand acquires Mexican FinTech, Yaydoo

A Blockchain-enabled B2B payments company, PayStand, has announced the full acquisition of Mexican FinTech, Yaydoo, to ‘open opportunities to automate supply chain finance.’

Read also:SA’s healthtech startup, Augmental Technologies, expands into US. 2 other stories and a trivia

PayStand CEO Jeremy Almon, confirmed the acquisition in a press release seen by Ripples Nigeria on Friday.

Paystand claims it is on a mission to create an open and equitable commercial finance system, starting with a zero-fee network for B2B payments.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that Yaydoo builds and distributes financial automation technologies that help businesses streamline B2B payments using software focused on procurement, spend management, accounts payable, and accounts receivable processes.

Speaking on the development, Jeremy Almond, CEO of PayStand, said: “Together, PayStand and Yaydoo will redefine the boundaries of B2B fintech across the continent.”

Jeremy also noted that the acquisition will be ‘one of the first global B2B blockchain platforms at a significant scale.’

3. UAE-based Procurified secures $1.1m seed round

A United Arab Emirates-based construction bid management platform, Procurified, has secured a $ 1.1 million Seed Round, led by UAE-based Aditum Investment.

The Dubai-based construction bid management platform confirmed the funding in a press release disclosing the company’s intent.

The company noted that the funding saw participation from US-based Signal Peak Ventures, Al Hathboor Group, Empede Capital and strategic Angels.

Marc Lemmens and Rupert Tait co-founded the company in 2019.

Procurified connects buyers to their vendors to automate a very manual excel and PDF-reliant process of project bidding.

“We are thrilled to partner with the great team at Procurified. Rupert and Marc are solving a very challenging problem in a big market. The Founders’ insight into these challenges is reflected in their product design and business model with a hyper-focus on reducing friction for customers to adopt and a very short ‘time to value’ from adoption,” Lachlan Hughes of Aditum commented.

The company further explained that the new funding will boost the company’s growth by increasing the talent workforce.

Trivia Answer: Online advertising

PPL stands for “Pay Per Lead.” PPL is similar to CP but measures the cost per lead from the advertiser’s perspective.

For example, if an advertiser pays $500 for 1,000 leads, the advertiser’s average PPL is $0.50 ($500 ? 1000).

By Kayode Hamsat

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