Tech

South Africa’s Lulalend secures $35m series B. 2 other stories and a trivia

Published

1 year ago

February 2, 2023

Ripples Nigeria

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

1. South Africa’s Lulalend secures $35 million series B

A South African digital lender, Lulalend, has secured $35 million series B.

Trevor Gosling, co-founder & CEO of Lulalend, confirmed the funding in a statement on Thursday.

The company offers short-term loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, which are frequently unable to access working cash.

The payment startup uses an online application procedure and internal credit criteria.

“In what is an increasingly challenging investment landscape we are excited to have finalised our series B funding round,” stated Gosling.

Lightrock led the Series B round, with participation from new investors, including the German development finance institution DEG, Triodos Investment Management, and Women’s World Banking —alongside lead investors from its $6.5 million Series A round: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Quona Capital.

The startup was cofounded by Trevor Gosling and Neil Welman in 2014.

Tech Trivia: What type of cable has ratings of Cat5, Cat6, and Cat7?
A. USB
B. Thunderbolt
C. Lightning
D. Ethernet
Answer: see end of post

2. Twitter opens appeal window for suspended accounts

Microblogging platform, Twitter, announced a new way for suspended accounts to appeal.

The Elon Musk-owned company disclosed this on Twitter Safety handle, seen by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

Recall that Elon Musk promised to grant “amnesty” to suspended and previously banned accounts when he assumed control of Twitter.

He has since restored many contentious, high-profile users, including Donald Trump.

“Starting today, anyone can request that we review a suspended account for reinstatement under our new criteria,” the tweet read.

Starting today, anyone can request that we review a suspended account for reinstatement under our new criteria. You can submit an appeal here: https://t.co/av9ppXW9of https://t.co/rgvflHgy15

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 1, 2023

The company noted that it intended to achieve a better balance between encouraging fruitful online dialogue and protecting its users with its new policy for suspending accounts.

3. OpenAI launches premium subscription plan for ChatGPT

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Plus, a premium subscription plan at $20/month.

This was contained in an announcement on the company’s official Twitter handle seen by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

OpenAI bills itself as an AI research and deployment company that is focused on ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

‘We are piloting ChatGPT Plus, a subscription plan that offers faster response times and reliability during peak hours. And, of course, the free tier of ChatGPT is still available,” the tweet read.

We are piloting ChatGPT Plus, a subscription plan that offers faster response times and reliability during peak hours. And of course, the free tier of ChatGPT is still available. https://t.co/2hEBw6h5Se

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 1, 2023

ChatGPT, or Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, is an OpenAI chatbot that enhances language models for conversation.

The new subscription plan, ChatGPT Plus, according to the release, will be available for $20/month.

Trivia Answer: Ethernet

Ethernet, pronounced “E-thernet” (with a long “e”), is the standard way to connect computers on a network over a wired connection.

It provides a simple interface connecting multiple devices, such as computers, routers, and switches.

By Kayode Hamsat

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