UberBODA launches in Nairobi and Egypt’s Swvl raises Series B funding
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Welcome to today’s edition of TC Daily. Did a friend or colleague forward this to you? Do take a moment to subscribe so you don’t miss out on future editions.
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSORS
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We’ve just launched new data on the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Port Harcourt, Nigeria! Get insights on challenges and opportunities for the city’s entrepreneurs and visualize the data on our interactive site: https://ecosystems.andeglobal.org/snapshot/port-harcourt/2018/
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| Egyptian mass transit startup Swvl has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series B round led by led by regional venture fund BECO Capital, along with Africa-based investor DiGAME and global VC fund Silicon Badia, per a press release published on Magnitt. Swvl announced an $8 million Series A back in April, 2018. |
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Uber has launched its motorcycle service, UberBODA, in Nairobi, Kenya, five months after it first launched in Uganda. Uber will have to compete with biggest rival Taxify’s offering, TaxifyBoda, and other local offerings such as GetBoda, VutaRide, SafeBoda, and BusyBoda.
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Orange and MTN Group have announced a joint venture to enable interoperable payments across the continent, per a press release we received. The platform, called “Mowali” (apparently an acronym for ‘mobile wallet interoperability’), will make it possible to send money between mobile money accounts issued by any mobile money provider. It’ll also be open to any mobile money provider in Africa, including banks, money transfer operators and other financial service providers.
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Professor Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance and Economic Development, has proposed that the government tax “satellite broadcasters and e-commerce platforms to provide local residents with services from offshore sources,” per Techzim. He added: “… in order to broaden the tax base, I propose to deem income earned by such non-resident service providers to be from a source within the country and liable to tax.”
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TechCrunch is headed to Lagos to host its second Startup Battlefield Africa competition on December 11, 2018. Sub-Saharan Africa’s best innovators, makers and technical entrepreneurs are invited to attend this year’s TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Africa. Get your tickets now!
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Got a health tech startup operating in Nigeria? We would like to hear from you. We are putting together a map and analysis of the health tech sector that highlights the solutions innovators are bringing to bear on the problems of access to quality and affordable healthcare in Nigeria as well as provide actionable insights for policy makers, investors and entrepreneurs. Sign up here so we can feature your startup and to help us better understand the sector.
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSORS
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“Labs by ARM” is a 12-week intensive corporate accelerator powered by Ventures Platform. The accelerator is designed to help early and growth stage fintech companies commercialize and massively distribute their innovations. Applications are still open for the next 2 weeks, please apply at armlabs.com.ng
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| You are invited to TC Townhall, Fintech 2.0, holding in partnership with Softcom on November 30. The forum will take a look at the next generation of financial technologies in Nigeria. Speakers include Adia Sowho (MD, Mines.io), Gbenga Agboola (CEO, Flutterwave), Titi Odunfa (MD, Sankore Investments), Dr. Yinka David West (Academic Director, LBS), Yvonne Johnson (fintech angel investor) and Tomi Amao (CIO, Softcom). Registration is now live, and seats are limited. See you there! |
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All Done.
Have a great weekend! We’ll see you next week.
– Akindare.
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