Shopify lays off 20% workforce after sale of logistics business. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Shopify lays off 20% workforce after logistics business sale

A Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Shopify, has announced the layoff of 20% of its workforce.

This comes on the heels of selling the logistics arm of its business to 10 year old Flexport in what it says was informed by its decision to focus on its primary line of business.

The CEO of Shopify, Tobias “Tobi” Lütke, made this known in a memo seen by Ripples Nigeria on Friday, titled “Important team and business changes.”

Tobi described the development as an effort “to pay unshared attention” to the company’s mission.

“We are changing the shape of Shopify significantly today to pay unshared attention to our mission,” he said.

“There are a number of consequences to this, and I don’t want to bury the lede: after today Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics; this means some of you will leave Shopify today. I recognize the crushing impact this decision has on some of you, and did not make this decision lightly.”

Tech Trivia: What comes before the @ symbol in an email address?

A. Domain name
B. Username
C. Password
D. Protocol

Answer: see end of post

2. Zone becomes Africa’s fastest-growing blockchain company

In the latest rating made by Financial Times, Zone, a blockchain network for payments, has been named Africa’s Fastest Growing Blockchain Company in 2023.

The rating has also been upheld by Statista, a leading market insights development institution.

By becoming the first blockchain company in Africa, Zone joins one of the few Nigerian fintechs to feature on the prestigious list.

Financial Times, through its annual ranking, identifies the top performers in Africa’s private sector, recognising companies with impressive growth and significant contributions to their respective sectors.

Speaking on the development, Obi Emetarom, co-Founder and chief executive of Zone, expressed his excitement about the announcement, saying that the team is “deeply honoured by this recognition from the Financial Times and Statista.”

“By fulfilling our mission, we are laying the foundation for a truly cashless world while expanding access to financial services and fostering a more inclusive and prosperous future for the African continent,” he added.

3. Nigeria’s Towntalk to invest in data infrastructure for risk protection

Nigeria’s Towntalk has announced plans to invest in data infrastructure as the world seeks to manage rusk and protect data.

This is revealed in a post from the team on Friday, noting that it planned to build a data infrastructure that leverages “hard to collect” location data and implements AI methodologies.

According to the startup, to achieve its ambition, it will develop a range of risk protection solutions for security, logistics and agriculture companies in Africa.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that Towntalk was founded in 2020, and has built a “data ecosystem” that is further enhanced by industry partnerships with leading security companies, such as Amarante International, a French security company.

The news followed its admission into one of 12 companies selected for the inaugural ARM Labs Lagos Techstars accelerator earlier this year.

“Literally any data that affects both safety and mobility of individuals and goods,” said Folake Edun, Towntalk’s CEO.

She added, “Our competitors are those companies using data on the continent to help facilitate better decision making, like Gro Intelligence or Pula, however the granularity and nature of our data means our competitors can leverage our data infrastructure to enrich their own solutions.”

Trivia Answer: Username

Every email address has two main parts: a username and domain name. The username comes first, followed by an at (@) symbol, followed by the domain name as in [email protected]. In the example above, “ridwan” is the username and “ripplesnigeria.com” is the domain name.

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