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

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Get Funded Africa (GFA), AfriGOPay, ABC Fund, Finverity, Oxfam, Spotify, Effy, Zoom, Payday were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

Zoom announced Tuesday teaming up with OpenAI to add AI-generated summaries, message drafts, and more to its video conferencing app through its Zoom IQ AI-powered assistant.

Also, Investors globally have been urged to consider Africa as an investment destination, especially as the world picks up from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that left it devastated.

Let’s get into details.

The Chief of Defence Space Administration, Air Vice Marshall Ayo Jolasinmi, has announced plans by the country to launch new Satellites II and III into space.

The CDSA made the announcement while speaking during a recent visit to the Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (retd.), in Abuja.

According to Jolasinmi, the orbit was working perfectly and the service would need the support of the ministry to service it frequency.

Investors globally have been urged to consider Africa as an investment destination, especially as the world picks up from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that left it devastated.

Steven Freidmutter, CEO of SF VENTURES, made the call during a virtual session hosted by Get Funded Africa (GFA) on Friday, March 31, 2023. Ripples Nigeria was the media partner for the event.

GFA, a software development company, specializes in providing access to funding, data, business know-how, mentorship, talent, and storytelling to African startups.

Access Bank has partnered with AfriGOPay to become the first bank to issue a live card, AfriGO Card.

Deputy Managing Director for Retail Banking at Access Bank, Mr. Victor Etuokwu, disclosed this in a statement seen by Ripples Nigeria on Friday.

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) worked together to create the AfriGO card program.

An Agri-Business Capital Fund (“ABC Fund”) has invested €4.21 million (about $4.5 million) in the agri-tech industry across Africa.

Jerry Parkes, CEO of Injaro Investments, confirmed the funding in a statement on Friday.

ABC claimed it had financed food production businesses in Benin, Mali, and Uganda, as well as a microfinance institution based in Nigeria.

London-based fintech, Finverity, has secured $5 million in an equity funding round that saw overwhelming investor interest.

The startup made the announcement in a press release forwarded to Ripples Nigeria on Thursday, March 30, 2022.

Outward and Acrobator Ventures, alongside new and current investors, participated in the round.

Oxfam Novib and Goodwell have teamed up to set up Pepea, a €20 million ($21.7m) fund, to provide financing to early-stage startups in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia.

Goodwell Investments managing partner, Els Boerhof, confirmed the funding partnership in a statement on Thursday.

The venture debt fund, according to the company, was established with support from Oxfam Novib Impact Investments and will specialize in mezzanine finance, or debt that may be converted into equity.

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

Audio streaming and media services company, Spotify, has announced a donation to Ghana’s Vibrate Space through its $100 Million Creator Equity Fund to support Ghana’s creative community.

Spotify’s Global Head of Artist and Audience Partnerships, Joe Hadley, confirmed the development in a statement seen by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

Vibrate Space is a community recording studio and music business program that offers education and mentorship for young Ghanaian artists so they can create, connect, and collaborate and operated by Surf Ghana in Accra.

French energy renovation company, Effy, has secured $22 million in its first external funding round.

Founder and CEO Frédéric Utzmann confirmed the funding in a media release seen by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

The company works on energy renovation for public buildings, residential buildings, and industrial facilities.

Over 1,000 tech experts, including Elon Musk, have called for a six-month pause on the development of advanced artificial intelligence systems, such as OpenAI’s GPT.

In an open letter published by the Future of Life Institute, a non-profit campaign group, the signatories warned of an “out-of-control race” to develop and deploy more powerful digital minds that no one can understand, predict or control.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the letter urged all AI labs to immediately halt the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, and for governments to institute a moratorium if a pause cannot be quickly enacted.

Ventures Platform, a pan-African investor, led the $1 million funding round for Fez Delivery, a last-mile logistics firm with locations throughout Nigeria.

Founder and CEO, Seun Alley, confirmed the funding in a statement on Tuesday.

The company said it plans to use the seed investment to deepen its work in Nigeria while it considers expansion into other African markets, including Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.

A Tanzanian fintech company, NALA, has announced receiving a Payment Service Provider (PSP) license from the Central Bank of Tanzania with a commitment to invest $1m to pursue the opportunities available to them.

The tech company disclosed this on its official Twitter handle seen by Ripples Nigeria on Tuesday.

The fintech company says it’s on a mission to provide fair and transparent financial services to empower people with control over their finances.

Zoom announced Tuesday teaming up with OpenAI to add AI-generated summaries, message drafts, and more to its video conferencing app through its Zoom IQ AI-powered assistant.

Smita Hashim, Chief Product Officer at Zoom confirmed the development in a blogpost on Tuesday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that this development means deploying a combination of AI models: those it has developed in-house, those developed by leading AI companies such as Open AI, or, for select customers, their models.

A neobank that provides Africans with global (USD, EUR, and GBP) accounts, Payday, has announced securing a $3 million to expand technological infrastructure.

Founder Favour Ori, who confirmed the development in a statement on Wednesday, stated that the oversubscribed seed investment was led by Moniepoint Inc.

The funding also saw participation from Techstars, HoaQ, DFS Lab’s Stellar Africa Fund, Ingressive Capital Fund II, and angel investors such as MFS Africa chief Dare Okoudjou and Norebase CEO Tola Onayemi.

Berlin-based startup, Hygraph, has secured $30M to expand its market footprint.

The company announced the Series B funding in a media release on Wednesday.

Previous backers OpenOcean and SquareOne, as well as new individual investor Boris Lokschin also participated.

Spanish ridesharing service, Cabify, has announced securing $110 million in funding to spur its expansion in Spain and Latin America.

Cabify CEO Juan de Antonio disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that Cabify closed the funding round with participation from investors like Orilla Asset Management and AXIS, through Fond-ICO Next Tech.

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