uMunthu II secures €57m to fund African businesses. 1 other story and a trivia

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

 

1. uMunthu II secures EUR 57M to fund African businesses

Goodwell Investments and Alitheia Capital have confirmed closing a €57 million for their uMunthu II fund.

The successful raiser of the fund, which is dedicated to investing in early and growth-stage SMEs in Africa, was announced on Friday, June 9, 2023.

According to the team, the fund is particularly focused on businesses led by women in Africa.

READ ALSO:Nigeria’s Trade Lenda shortlisted for 2023 Go Global Awards. 2 other stories and a trivia

Speaking on the development, Goodwell and Altheia are highly optimistic about the potential for growth in emerging markets, particularly in Africa.

Els Boerhof, managing partner of Goodwell, lamented the general lack of access to affordable goods and services in Africa.

“The challenge is that even with this progress, millions of households lack access to affordable basic goods and services,” he said.

“At the same time, this group has significant buying power. The African market provides a huge opportunity for impact and economic growth, especially during turbulent economic times, as we learned once again during recent crises.

“African economies and specifically inclusive businesses that provide essential products are highly resilient and continue to grow, contrary to global developments. Because crisis or not, unmet demand for basic goods and services on the continent will rise for an ever-growing group of underserved users.”

TECH TRIVIA:What are small errors in an image caused by lossy compression called?

A. Thumbnails
B. Artifacts
C. Jaggies
D. Aberrations

Answer: see end of post

2. China issues guidelines to tackle online abuse

China has presented new draft of guidelines to punish online abuse as it seeks to curb the menace of perpetrators.

Globally, concerns have grown over cyber bullying and attacks that have especially targeted women and children in the world’s largest internet community.

The guidelines were drafted jointly by bodies including the Ministery of Public Security and the Supreme People’s Court, in response to the danger that online abuse poses to social order and the rights of individuals.

Cyber violence, which involves behaviours such as the spread of online rumours, insults and doxxing and in some cases, depending on the severity, will now be considered as actions punishable by criminal law.

Should the country confirm the request, Chinese police will be tasked to promptly assist victims.

The draft is awaiting comments, and June 25th has been earmarked for the matter.

Trivia Answer: Artifact

An artifact, or compression artifact, is a small distortion in a digital image, video, or audio file caused by a lossy compression algorithm. Artifacts occur when compression algorithms discard some of the original media data to create a lower-detail approximation of the original file.

The inclusion of some artifacts into a media file is the cost of significantly reducing a file’s size to make it use less bandwidth when downloading or streaming.

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