South Africa’s Stitch expands venture into Nigeria. 2 other things and a trivia

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

1. South Africa’s Stitch expands venture into Nigeria

Stitch, a South African API fintech startup, has announced expanding its venture into Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria.

The development followed a raiser that increased its equity raiser to US$6 million from the US$4 million.

The Stitch API allows developers to connect apps to financial accounts within minutes, allowing their users to share their transaction histories and balances, confirm their identities, and initiate payments.

According to sources familiar with the startup, the tool allows companies to innovate with new and improved services including personal finance, lending, insurance, payments and wealth management.

Stitch also enables fintechs to work with traditional financial institutions in a safer and more compliant way.

With the seed extension, Stitch can now fast-track development, launch their solution and continue to grow the team on the ground in Nigeria, as they prepare to expand further across the continent.

Tech Trivia: Which of the following is an example of optical media?
A DVD-RW
B Cassette tape
C Floppy disk
D Flash drive
Answer: See end of post

2. SIBC accelerator selects 40 inclusive African businesses

In its effort to scale up more ventures, SIBC has selected forty inclusive businesses from across Africa to participate in its accelerator.

The programme, which is hosted annually, is designed to help the most promising high-impact African entrepreneurs scale up their businesses.

According to SIBC, the programme is aimed at supporting entrepreneurs and create long-lasting connections with a wide range of ecosystem stakeholders through innovative training sessions and networking with other companies, mentors and potential financial backers.

READ ALSO: Cairo-based fintech startup Dayra secures $3m. 2 other things and a trivia

Today, the accelerator has helped scale-up nearly 200 African entrepreneurs with a strong social impact.

Upon completion, these businesses will have one week of intensive coaching and training during the final bootcamp in December in Marseille to help them enhance their skills and apply the lessons of the online coaching phase in order to put the finishing touches to their business plans.

In addition, the programme will culminate in two days of networking and the final part of the course where they will have the opportunity to speed-meet international investors during the EMERGING Valley Summit on December 13-14.

3. LinkedIn launches freelancer solution gig feature

Professional social networking site, LinkedIn, has launched a feature that facilitates freelance work.

The platform rolls out the new service to help users provide, or commission, adhoc work arrangements without engaging in any official employment contract.

According to LinkedIn, the new career-focused platform intends to tap into a small but growing market for websites that connect primarily white-collar professionals – such as app developers, accountants, software designers, and marketing specialists – with businesses or individuals who want their services.

Through this, the Microsoft-owned platform is putting itself in direct competition with the likes of Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr.

While the feature has similar features of both its competitors (Fiverr and Upwork), the LinkedIn end comes with a spin.

On the LinkedIn option, businesses can seek out freelancers, compare rates, and share posts for freelancers to respond to.

It’s rather unclear how much LinkedIn will charge for commissions as Fiverr takes 20% off each transaction completed through it.

Tech Trivia Answer: DVD-RW

Stands for “Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable.” A DVD-RW is like a DVD-R but can be erased and written to again. Like CD-RWs, DVD-RWs must be erased in order for new data to be added. DVD-RWs can hold 4.7GB of data and do not come in double-layered or double-sided versions like DVD-Rs do.

Because of their large capacity and ability to be used mulitple times, DVD-RW discs are a great solution for frequent backups. To record data onto a DVD-RW disc, you’ll need a DVD burner that supports the DVD-RW format.

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