Biden appoints Chipper CEO on advisory council for African diaspora engagement

United States President, Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ham Serunjogi, co-founder and CEO of Pan-African fintech Chipper Cash, as a member of the country’s advisory council on African diaspora engagement.

Nigerian fintech, Risevest acquires Chaka

Techstars-backed fintech, Risevest has acquired Chaka, a digital trading platform. “I’m excited about how Chaka’s product will evolve and how we’re going to learn from the Risevest team,” Tosin Osinbodu, Chaka’s founder told TechCabal while confirming the deal that was closed on Tuesday (September 26).

Pan-African VC, P1 Ventures launches $50M fund to back early-stage startups

Pan-African Seed VC fund, P1 Ventures has completed the first close of its $50m fund to invest in African startups with transformational software businesses.

Microsoft-backed FAST accelerator selects 12 African startups for AI program

Out of the 12 startups in the FA23 cohort, nine are Nigerian, and one each from Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana. Also, fintech startups dominated the cohort.

X/Twitter is disabling its Circles feature

X/Twitter has today announced that it will be disabling its Circles feature. The feature is set to be shut down by the end of next month, leaving users with a major change in how they share content on the platform.

UK government increases global talent visa application fees

The UK government is set to significantly increase work and student visa application fees for foreign applicants, including Nigerians. The changes are set to come into effect on October 4, 2023, following legislation being laid in Parliament.

CBN launches portal for microfinance bank licence applications

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday announced that it has unveiled a digital platform for the submission of Microfinance Bank (MFB) licence applications.

Nigerian autotech startup, Fixit45 secures $1.9M for East African expansion

In a significant boost for Africa's automotive aftermarket sector, Fixit45, a Nigerian startup specialising in automotive spare parts, vehicle repairs, and maintenance services, has successfully raised $1.9 million in a pre-seed funding round. 

BD Insider 192: The second coming of 54gene’s ex-CEO

Abasi Ene-Obong, ex-CEO of 54gene has launched another genomics startup. We also brought you news about Starlink in Zim.

LatAm fintech, Ebanx expands into eight African countries

EBANX has expanded into eight African countries: Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The LatAm fintech unicorn is now present in eleven African markets.

Ghanaian agritech startup, Complete Farmer, secures $10.4 million pre-Series A funding

Complete Farmer secures a $10.4 million pre-Series A funding made up of $7 million in equity and $3.4 million in debt to connect farmers to global food buyers.

Nigeria drops two places on the Digital Quality of Life Index

The Digital Quality of Life Index is an annual study that ranks 121 countries by their digital well-being based on five core pillars—internet quality, internet affordability, e-security, e-infrastructure, and e-government.