Author: Staff Writer

S SBC) AfriTech, the leading global tech accelerator program in Africa, received 1804 applications for its 2019 cohort – an astounding 80% increase from last year. Now, the very best have been selected. The top 22 tech teams have been invited to attend the Final Selection Days to be hosted at Amazon Web Services’ Head Office in Cape Town from 10 to 11 July 2019. Of the 22 teams that were chosen, seven are from South Africa, six hail from Nigeria and two are from Kenya, with Uganda, Togo, the United Kingdom, Morocco, the United States, Senegal and Zimbabwe each…

SA Taxi has advanced its efforts to overcome the financial, structural and legislative hurdles facing the taxi industry by providing qualifying taxi owners with access to more affordable vehicle finance. The ground-breaking transformational ownership transaction, which secured the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) a 25% stake in SA Taxi as part of a deal worth R1.7 billion, has enabled SA Taxi to lower its cost of funding a minibus taxi. SA Taxi is now able to offer vehicle finance at interest rates as low as 15.5% per annum to lower risk grade customers, thereby expanding its product offerings to…

The MTN SA Foundation has partnered with Bellavista S.H.A.R.E., a division of Bellavista School, and USA-based non-profit Curious Learning, to pilot an award-winning child literacy app which significantly enhances reading fluency and comprehension. This is a response to calls growing louder for government, corporates and all citizens to step up to help solve a growing literacy crisis. The pilot of the ground-breaking app, called ‘Feed the Monster’, helps make learning the fundamentals of reading more meaningful and fun while reaching out to a wide community. In recognition of the importance of using the mother tongue to foster literacy at foundation…

Eighteen (18) young South Africans were selected to receive one of nearly 200 scholarships from the Avon Foundation’s Global Scholarship Programme. The programme offers financial support for Avon Representatives, their children and grandchildren to support their studies, education and career goals. These students from across the country will be awarded a bursary to support their tertiary education ambitions. They include: Ashima Alam Jadine Chetty Muchanyara Chitando Bernice Delport Andrew Howitt Nkosikhona Khumalo Mogatlogedi Malefo Nomagugu Sibong Mbane Sarini Moodley Patience Mutsvairigwa Okejimi Olufunke Monise Parazee Twane Roux Priyanka Sewnarain Aanisah Tootla Aletta Etrisia Van Wyk Philisiwe Zuma Jade Moodley Avon…

A new application round has opened for the R12.8million CDI Growth Fund to boost SME growth and job creation. The CDI Growth Fund is a grant fund specifically for growing South African small businesses who need a cash injection to scale up further and create jobs. Since its launch in 2017, it has already contracted with 38 SMEs, who have collectively created over 160 jobs. The CDI Growth Fund is managed by CDI Capital, which was incorporated as a subsidiary of the Craft and Design Institute (CDI) in 2016 to catalyse funding for SMEs. The funding has been enabled through…

IBM today announced the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) as the first African partner on the IBM Q Network. Wits University will also be the gateway for academics across South Africa and to the 15 universities who are part of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA). Quantum computing promises to be able to solve certain problems – such as chemical simulations and types of optimization – that will forever be beyond the practical reach of classical machines. IBM first made quantum computers available to the public in May 2016 through its IBM Q Experience quantum cloud service and has…

Cape Town-based firm HAVAÍC announced on Tuesday that it has concluded a pre-Series A first round of funding for an undisclosed amount with Taz Technologies Inc (trading as MPost). MPost has commenced it’s Series A equity fundraise, targeting a minimum of $2 million.  It already has serious interest and commitments from various international investors. HAVAÍC has secured the rights to advance a significant share of this round. Developed by Kenyan founders Abdulaziz (Aziz) Omar and Twahir Mohamed, MPost is an innovative, simple and affordable solution that utilizes consumers’ mobile phone numbers to create internationally accepted postal addresses, virtual Post Office…

PayU, a unit of Naspers, announced today the acquisition of Iyzico – a digital payment services provider and one of the most hotly tipped FinTech start-ups in Turkey – for $165 million. The acquisition, which adds to the over $500 million PayU deployed across FinTech investments and M&A, is a further step in the company’s mission to become the leading payments provider in high growth markets and the world’s leading FinTech investor. The acquisition will allow PayU to consolidate its position as a leader in the payments space and accelerate scale and efficiency in Turkey, where there is a huge…

UK-based autonomous and driverless vehicles specialist Intercept IP announced on Tuesday its new plans to enter the South African usage-based insurance telematics market through a collaboration with Digicall. Digicall is to be the official distributor and reseller of Intercept IP’s technology in the Southern African region, following an agreement between the two parties. South Africa is one of the world’s leading markets in insurance telematics and stolen vehicle recovery. Millions of devices have been deployed over the last 20 years, but the key market players are now looking to enhance the performance of their technology and the services they offer,…

Avon the multinational beauty and cosmetics icon has been selected as one of the finalists in the prestigious Sunday Times Generation Next Awards which will take place on Thursday, 13 June. The nomination for the much-coveted award is a testament to the growing appeal of Avon products among the Generation Alpha, the tech-savvy young children of millennials, who are emerging as marketing’s power players, decision makers and very powerful influencers. Now in its 15th year, the Sunday Times Generation Next Youth survey, in association with leading youth market specialists, HDI Youth Marketeers, polls more than twelve thousand youths from around…