S’Africa’s MultiChoice partners U.S. media conglomerate, Comcast. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. South Africa’s MultiChoice partners U.S. media conglomerate, Comcast

S.Africa’s MultiChoice has announced a partnership with a U.S.-based media conglomerate, Comcast, to create an Africa-wide streaming service.

The company disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

According to the company, the new streaming service will bring together MultiChoice’s expanding investment in local content with a sizable pipeline of foreign material licensed from NBCUniversal and Sky.

Despite having the largest market share in Africa for pay TV, Netflix, Amazon’s streaming service, and Disney have made it difficult for MultiChoice to expand its reach with Showmax.

“This is an appropriate time to step up its ambition and investment in the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) /over-the-top (OTT) segment,” the company said.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that MultiChoice will hold 70% of the new streaming service, which will be based on MultiChoice’s Showmax streaming technology.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal will be the owner of the remaining 30%.

Tech Trivia: Which of the following is a type of flash storage?
A. BAND
B. NAND
C. SAND
D. ZAND
Answer: see end of post

2. Snapchat launches Snap Streak pause feature

Formerly known as Snapchat, Snap Inc. has announced an update that allows users to pause Snap Streaks.

Read also:Snapchat launches new feature to teach sign language. 1 other thing and a trivia

The company announced in a post on Thursday.

For many Snapchat users, keeping up with Snap Streaks—where you send a snap to your pal once every 24 hours—is highly crucial.

Through the new feature, the company gives users the option to pause their Snap streaks, ensuring that they won’t be broken if they decide to stop using the app for a while.

“A lost Snap Streak doesn’t mean your friendship has gone cold, so starting today, we’re making it easier to take a break with a new feature we’re testing to let you reignite the spark and restore one Streak for free with just one tap,” the company said in an announcement.

The American company will let users pause only one streak for free during this test phase.

3. Emkan closes $31 million ECP I fund to back early-stage startups

Emkan Capital, a venture capital firm based in Saudi Arabia, has announced the closing of its $31 million Emkan Capital Fund I, (ECP I).

Ghassan Aloshban, General Partner at Emkan Capital confirmed the development in a press release on Thursday.

With a focus on the finance, e-commerce, and logistics sectors, ECP I seeks to invest in pre-Seed and Seed firms in Mena.

According to the release ECP I attracted investment from organizations and companies all across the world, particularly securing a third of the funds from partners in Silicon Valley.

“We are excited to launch such an important fund, which will help bridge the knowledge and funding gap that is stifling many founders’ ambitions and limiting growth opportunities,” said Aloshban.

He added that ECP I will oversee strategic investments in pre-seed and seed-stage companies with high-growth potential in key technology subsectors.

Trivia Answer: NAND

NAND is the most common type of flash memory. It is used in several types of storage devices, including SSDs, USB flash drives, and SD cards.

By Kayode Hamsat

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