Nigeria’s Indicina secures $3m seed round led by Target Global. 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 Indicina secures $3m seed round led by Target Global

A Nigerian digital lending startup, Indicina, has Monday announced securing a seed round of $3 million led by Target Global.

Chief Executive Officer, Yvonne Johnson, confirmed the latest funding in a statement made available to journalists.

The seed round saw participation from Greycroft and RV Ventures while the firm’s partner Ricardo Schäefer will join Indicina’s board.

Indicina, which is a digital lending platform, offers technology solutions that empower businesses and offer credit to customers.

Based in Lagos, the startup was founded in 2018 by Carlos del Carpio, Jacob Ayokunle, Yemi Ajao, and Yvonne Johnson.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that Johnson is also an angel investor in other startups such as Flutterwave, Eden, and Thndr.

Johnson, while commenting on the raiser, said: “We want lenders to be better informed about the decisions around credit so they can go to market faster with their digital product.

“So we’ve never had a business model that included our balance sheet, which we’ve always worked with the lenders.”

Tech Trivia: Which of the following best describes a halftone image?
A It is monochrome.
B It is grayscale.
C It is made up of lines.
D It is comprised of a series of dots.
Answer: see end of post

2. Airtel Africa acquires additional $42m spectrum

Multinational telecommunications and mobile money services company, Airtel Africa, has announced the acquisition of an additional 58 megahertz of spectrum to support 4G expansion in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Read also :Nigeria’s Humansquad secures pre-seed investment. 2 other stories and a trivia

Airtel Africa, on Monday, confirmed that the additional spectrum worth $42 million will spread across the 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz bands.

With a presence in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East, Central and West Africa, the latest acquisition will help bolster its service delivery in DRC.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that as of March 2019, Airtel had over 99 million subscribers in the continent as it offers mobile voice and data services as well as mobile money services to customers.

Airtel Africa is majorly owned by the Indian communication services company, Bharti Airtel.

Speaking on the development, the company said:
“This additional spectrum will support our 4G expansion in the market for both mobile data and fixed wireless home broadband capability, providing significant capacity to accommodate our continued strong data growth in the country.”

3. Egypt’s ShipBlu partners with location tech company what3words

An ecommerce shipping experience platform in Egypt, ShipBlu, has announced partnering with location technology company, what3words.

ShipBlu, in a statement on Monday, noted that the partnership will enable shoppers to provide their what3words address in English or Arabic at checkout through the ShipBlu integration.

What3words, which is a proprietary geocode system, is designed to identify any location with a resolution of about 3 meters.

Commenting on the partnership, Ali Nasser, CEO and Co-Founder of ShipBlu, said it is expected to boost accuracy and eliminate the need for phone calls with requests for addresses and nearby landmarks to ensure deliveries find their way to customers.

He said: “Our mission is to leverage technology to provide the most reliable and enjoyable shipping experience in the market, one that both shoppers and merchants can look forward to.

“Our partnership with what3words allows us to do so while leading the way to more efficient and environmentally-conscious operations. I am confident that other providers will see the value in our approach, and together we can really launch this technology across the entire logistics industry in Egypt.”

Trivia Answer: It is comprised of a series of dots.

A halftone, or halftone image, is an image comprised of discrete dots rather than continuous tones. When viewed from a distance, the dots blur together, creating the illusion of continuous lines and shapes.

By halftoning an image (converting it from a bitmap to a halftone), it can be printed using less ink. Therefore, many newspapers and magazines use halftoning to print pages more efficiently.

By Kayode Hamsat

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now