TechNigeria: A weekly digest of what went down in Nigeria’s tech space

uLesson, Teesas, Greenbles, HealthPlus, Equinix, GIG Mobility, and TradeDepot. These are some of the names that made the headlines this week.

Edtech startup, Teesas, during the week, signed and unveiled Nollywood filmmaker and producer, Mercy Johnson, as brand ambassador.

Also, African edtech startup, uLesson, secured fresh $15M led by Nielsen Ventures and Tencent.

Let’s get into details.

Teesas, a Lagos-based edtech startup, signed and unveiled Nollywood filmmaker and producer, Mercy Johnson, as brand ambassador.

The unveiling event took place in Lagos at the startup’s Ikeja headquarters on Thursday.

Teesas, according to its service portfolio, is an Africa-focused edtech startup delivering ground-breaking educational content in local and national languages.

African edtech startup, uLesson, during the week, announced securing fresh $15M led by Nielsen Ventures and Tencent.

The new raiser sets new milestone for the African edtech space being the largest disclosed investment by an African player.

According to the startup, the new investment saw the participation of five investors: Tencent, Nielsen Ventures, and existing investors Owl Ventures, TLcom Capital and Founder Collective.

Greenbles, a Lagos-based agritech startup that connects households to fresh food farmer vendors, was selected into the second cohort of Foundry’s SME programme.

Greenbles disclosed this in a press release where it listed its entry into the SME programme as a major milestone for the year.

The foundry programme is expected to train selected founders on how to build and sustainable businesses in a fast paced economy as Nigeria.

HealthPlus, Nigeria’s acclaimed first integrative pharmacy, launched West Africa’s first-ever ePharmacy and digital prescription Platform.

The facility, according to the HealthPlus, will assist Nigerians located anywhere in the country to get a prescription from a certified pharmacist and have the medicines delivered promptly.

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Commenting on the development, Chief Transformational Officer, Chidi Okoro, described the new platform as a game changing application that will facilitate the interaction between patients (customers) and health-service providers nationwide.

Equinix, an American internet connectivity giant, is reportedly in talks to acquire Nigeria’s connectivity behemoth, MainOne for $320 million.

The acquisition, according to media sources, is expected to be finalised by Q2 2022.

Nigeria’s MainOne was founded in 2010 by female entrepreneur, Funke Opeke who went on to lay the first private submarine cable (7000 kilometres) in Africa connecting West Africa with Portugal in Europe.

GIG Mobility (GIGM) Africa’s largest tech-driven mobility company, has announced the addition of “bills payment & e-wallet” functionality to its GIGM app.

The introduction of these new features is consistent with GIGM’s commitment to digital innovation and technology expansion beyond road mobility.

GIGM is dedicated to providing its thronging users with a convenient and hassle-free experience “by delivering easy-to-use and modern mobility products to Africans.

TradeDepot, a Nigerian B2B e-commerce and embedded finance platform, has closed a US$110 million in an equity and debt Series B funding round.

The funding is expected to support the delivery of buy-now-pay-later services to five million SME retailers and drive further expansion of its merchant platform across the continent.

The startup was founded in 2016 to connect consumer goods brands in Africa directly to a target market of several million retail outlets across the continent.

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