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

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Sun King, ElectriFI, Twitter, Suplyd, Visa, YouTube, Meta Platforms, Bondaval, Elon Musk, Partly, Taeillo were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

A Lagos-based startup, Taeillo, during the week, secured $2.5 million in funding from Aruwa Capital to scale its online furniture e-commerce platform.

Also, Global Tech giant, Visa, announced plans to invest $1 billion in over the next five years in Africa to boost digital transformation.

Let’s get into details.

Our package this week opens with the story of off-grid solar energy provider in Africa and Asia, Sun King, as the company secured a $70 million equity investment led by LeapFrog Investments.

Chief executive officer, Anish Thakkar, disclosed this in a statement seen by Ripples Nigeria on Friday.

What you should know: Sun King had closed its Series D round at $330 million and, going on to raise over $550 million in debt and equity since its inception.

Up next, the European Union (EU), through the ElectriFI Country Window initiative for Mozambique, launched a EUR 15 million package to support early-stage renewable energy companies active in the country.

This was contained in a statement from Antonino Maggiore, European Union Ambassador to the Republic of Mozambique, on Friday.

What you should know: The funding was raised under the European Development Fund and from the program PROMOVE Energia, managed by the EU Delegation with the Government of Mozambique.

On the latest with Twitter, the platform during the week, suspended an account allegedly tracking Elon Musk’s private jet.

ElonJet, a Twitter handle managed by a 20-year-old university student, Jack Sweeney, was found using data sources to track the movements of Musk’s private jet.

What you should know: The suspension was followed with a series of other suspension of accounts of top journalists in the US, including accounts of newsmen of CNN, WaPo and NYT.

In Egypt, procurement platform, Suplyd, secured $1.6M in pre-seed funding from Endure Capital, Seedstars, Camel Ventures, Falak Startups, and many angel investors.

Gohar Said, Suplyd CEO, confirmed the raiser in a media release on Thursday.

What you should know: Launched earlier this year, Suplyd serves as a procurement platform for hotels, restaurants, and catering (HoReCa) businesses in Egypt.

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

What’s the latest with Visa in Africa, Global Tech giant, Visa, during the week, announced plans to invest $1 billion in over the next five years in Africa to boost digital transformation.

This was contained in a statement from Visa Chairman and CEO Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. on Thursday.

What you should know: The fund will help Visa expand its African operations and strengthen partnerships with key stakeholders like merchants, governments, financial institutions, mobile network carriers, and fintech companies.

Find out what YouTube is doing to crack down on abusive users. Popular video streaming service provider, YouTube, has introduced a new feature that will notify users of their abusive comments and take more action.

The company stated this in a released statement on Wednesday that it had tested the feature before moving to roll it out.

What you should know: The new feature, which is an AI-powered detection system, is currently available only for English-language comments, but the streaming service aims to include other languages in the future.

From Mark Zuckerberg’s company, here is what we know. American multinational technology company, Meta Platforms, is boiling in another lawsuit after two Ethiopian researchers accused Meta of enabling violent and hateful posts.

Meta spokesperson Erin McPike, in a statement on Wednesday, commented on the lawsuit filed by the researchers.

What you should know: The researchers alleged that Meta allowed violent and hateful posts from Ethiopia to flourish on Facebook.

Also, a London-based B2B insurtech, Bondaval, has secured $15 million in Series A funding led by Talis Capital led by Talis Capital.

Talis Capital general partner Tom Williams, who will join Bondaval’s board, disclosed the funding in a statement on Wednesday.

What you should know: The round included participation from returning investors Octopus Ventures, Insurtech Gateway Ltd, Truesight, and Expa, and new investors FJ Labs and Broadhaven Ventures.

Finally, a Lagos-based startup, Taeillo, during the week, secured $2.5 million in funding from Aruwa Capital to scale its online furniture e-commerce platform.

Taeillo disclosed this in a statement on Monday.

What you should know: Aruwa Capital is a Nigeria-based early-stage growth equity and gender-lens fund.

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