Tech
Nigeria’s Errand360 raises pre-seed funding. 2 other things and a trivia
This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today.
1. Nigeria’s Errand360 raises pre-seed funding
Errand360, a bicycle community delivery platform has announced raising an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding to expand across Africa.
The startup was built to serve users looking for quick and short errands within their communities and on-demand delivery services.
Errand360 launched earlier this year, and has since been using its fleet of bicycles to serve users with a variety of delivery services in Lagos.
Founder, Adele Adetola, noted that the business model was inspired by the increasing demand for fast and affordable delivery services within the state.
He said: “We spotted a need for fast and affordable deliveries, and a need for short errands for people within a community, and this is what inspired our model.”
Led by Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe of Tekedia Capital, the round will be used to acquire infrastructure, expand, and grow its business across the whole of Africa.
Tech Trivia: Facebook allows people to connect with others by adding them as what?
A Connections
B Followers
C Friends
D Users
Answer: See end of post
2. Cameroon’s Agrix Tech develops AI app to control crop disease
Agrix Tech, a Cameroonian startup, has developed a mobile app that helps farmers control crop diseases utilising machine learning technologies.
Agrix Tech was founded in August 2018 as a venture deploying into use machine learning technologies to overcome vital agricultural challenges on the continent.
Adamou Nchange Kouotou, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Agrix Tech, while commenting on the novel idea, noted that the vision was to reduce loss by farmers to diseases.
He said: “Most of the small-scale farmers in developing countries are self-taught farmers who lack proper knowledge in crop diseases and pests’ management.
“Because of that, 49 per cent of agricultural produce in Africa is lost due to crop diseases and pests. With our app, we aim to instantly equip those farmers with this important skill that will enable them to adopt a better crop disease management strategy for their farm and therefore become more productive.
“We sell advertising spaces to agri firms on our app, and we sell user licenses to people who want to use our app on a large scale, such as agricultural consulting companies.
“The penetration rate of smartphones in rural areas in Africa is still very low. It forced us to iterate on our business model many times before we finally landed on the current one.”
3. Edtech startup BrightChamps, raises $51M at nearly $500 million valuation
Indian edtech startup, BrightChamps, has raised $51 million in a new financing round to value at nearly $500 million.
READ ALSO: Nigeria’s TalentQL launches tech career kickstarter initiative. 2 other things and a trivia
The new financing round was led by Premji Invest (the private investment office of technology billionaire Azim Premji).
BrightChamps teaches kids programming and other skills in over 10 markets including several in Southeast Asia, as well as the U.S., and Canada.
Commenting on the development, BrightChamps co-founder and chief executive Ravi Bhushan, noted that he was inspired to start off with the idea seeing the need for kids to be educated to understand tech.
He said: “It’s not an India problem. Schools across the globe are teaching kids how to change the style of text in Microsoft Word in the name of technology.
“Children have the option to learn skills in any local language they prefer.
“We are growing solely with the money we have earned from our customers.
“Education, as you can tell, has been my passion since the childhood. I am here to build an iconic brand.”
Tech Trivia Answer: Friend
A friend, in the traditional sense of the word, is a close acquaintance. An online friend, however, is simply a person added to your list of friends on a social networking website.
For example, on Facebook, you can select a user and click “Add as Friend” to send a friend request to that user. When the user receive your friend request, he or she may choose to accept or decline the invitation. If the user accepts your request, he or she will be added to your list of friends.
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