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

Envisionit Deep AI, Mastercard, Figma, TikTok, Hollydesk, Coincover, Planet42, Workpay, Tracksuit, Bolt, were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

A digital asset protection company, Coincover, during the week, announced a new partnership with Cobo on Thursday.

Also, Cloud-native airport management software startup, AeroCloud, secured $12.6 million in a Series A round of funding.

Let’s get into details.

Female-led healthtech startup, Envisionit Deep AI, during the week, raised a $1.65 million investment from New GX Ventures.

The female founder, Dr. Jaishree Naidoo, who was in charge of pediatric radiology at a South African hospital, confirmed the funding in a statement on Friday.

The funding follows closely after the startup emerged as the Southern Africa regional winner at the African Startup Awards.

To provide smallholder farmers and rural communities with financial inclusion, Mastercard, announced a partnership with Obopay.

Shailendra Naidu, CEO of Obopay confirmed the partnership in a statement on Friday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that Obopay will connect the online Prepaid cards with the offline digital wallets at the backend.

The United States, during the week, announced plans for an antitrust lawsuit to thwart Adobe’s purchase of Figma.

An internal source disclosed the development in a statement seen by Ripples Nigeria on Friday.

Adobe had announced the deal to acquire a cloud-based designer platform, Figma professionals, in September.

Teen sensation social networking app, TikTok, is set to debut in automobiles, starting with Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius, who confirmed the development in a statement on Thursday, noted that the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class will hit the market in the fall of 2023 as the first vehicle to incorporate the app feature.

Ripples Nigeria understands that the Mercedes E-Class is getting more apps than just TikTok.

Hollydesk, an expense management platform, has secured $1 million in venture loan investment to help Egyptian small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) manage and track their daily spending.

Mahmoud Moussa, CEO of Hollydesk, confirmed the funding in a media release seen by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

The Egyptian startup offers a set of tools that helps businesses keep track of and manage expenses, automate approval processes, and provide reports to examine spending trends.

A digital asset protection company, Coincover, announced a new partnership with Cobo on Thursday.

Cobo, which bills itself as the largest digital asset custodian and blockchain infrastructure provider in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, may be on the lead in the industry.

Dr. Changhao Jiang, Co-Founder & CTO at Cobo, confirmed the partnership in a statement where he claimed the partnership would take digital asset infrastructure to the next level.

South African car subscription service, Planet42, secured 100M equity and debt funding.

The Co-founder and CEO, Eerik Oja, confirmed the funding in a statement on Wednesday.

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

Naspers, through its early-stage investment vehicle, Naspers Foundry, co-led the $15 million equity round alongside ARS Holdings.

A Kenyan HR startup, Workpay, announced securing $2.7 million in a pre-Series A funding round.

This was contained in a media release by the startup’s co-founder and CEO, Paul Kimani, on Wednesday.

Workpay claims to be a comprehensive staff management program designed to coordinate timekeeping, payroll, and salary payments.

A New Zealand-based brand tracking startup, Tracksuit, announced securing $5M to make brand tracking more accessible.

Matt Herbert, co-founder and co-CEO of Tracksuit, confirmed the funding on Wednesday in a statement.

When Tracksuit first debuted in 2021, it had an easy-to-use dashboard that tracked parameters including brand awareness, consideration, preference, and usage and compared them to a company’s competitors.

Multinational ride-hailing company, Bolt, raised €500 million ($530 million) to invest in Africa over the next two years.

The development was confirmed by the founder and CEO, Markus Villig, on Tuesday.

Bolt began operations in South Africa in 2016 and has since expanded to include ride-hailing and delivery services in six additional African nations, including Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and Tunisia. The platform currently has over 47 million users and 900,000 drivers.

A cloud-based restaurant technology, FOODICS, partnered with SEA Ventures to digitally empower entrepreneurs in the F&B sector.

Suhail Jaber, General Manager of Foodics, confirmed the partnership in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the agreement intends to improve the quality of new projects, automate operations management, and provide a wide range of support services to improve the environment for entrepreneurship in and around Saudi Arabia.

Cloud-native airport management software startup, AeroCloud, secured $12.6 million in a Series A round of funding.

AeroCloud co-founder and CEO George Richardson confirmed the funding in a media release on Tuesday.

AeroCloud’s Series A round was led by U.S. VC firm Stage 2 Capital, with participation from Triple Point Ventures, I2BF Global Ventures, Praetura Ventures, Playfair Capital, and Haatch.

A Kenyan B2B construction tech startup, Jumba, secured $4.5M in a seed round.

Co-founder and CEO Kagure Wamunyu disclosed this in a statement on Monday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the round was led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Enza Capital, which led its $1 million pre-seed round last year, Foundamental, Seedstars International Ventures, Logos Ventures, SpeedInvest, First Check Africa, and Alumni Angel Network.

Employees of African cross-border payments platform, Chipper Cash, are battling a second wave of layoff, with many unsure if their jobs are intact.

The new layoff comes barely ten weeks after the startup laid off about 12.5% of it’s total workers.

The company’s V.P. of revenue, Stefano Pardi, who shared the news on LinkedIn, noted that the development was indeed a bad event as the company had to further cut down on its staff strength.

A London-based gamified home fitness tech, Quell, announced a $10M Series led by Tencent.

The Co-founder and CEO, Cameron Brookhouse, confirmed the funding in a media release on Monday.

The three-year-old startup was founded by Cameron Brookhouse, Doug Stidolph, Lorenzo Spreafico, and Martin Tweedie.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is set to charge its users for blue tick verification.

The co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, announced this in a post on his Facebook page on Sunday.

He said the company would roll out the new product offering, “Meta Verified” service in Australia and New Zealand during the week.

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