Happy pre-Friday!
It has been a really good year for Ebanx.
Just one year after its debut in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, the payment company has expanded to more African countries; Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Egypt, Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia. It also recently made its debut in the Asian market by launching in India.
In today’s edition
PayDay in talks to sell after $3million raise
Chipper cash wants to verify users with AI
Openserve confirms Sat-3 cable repair
Google’s AI Bard gets new features
The World Wide Web3
Event: Moonshot Conference
Opportuinities
PayDay in talks to sell after $3million raise
Nigerian fintech PayDay, after securing a $3 million seed funding round six months ago, is now in talks to be sold.
What’s the gist? Per a member of PayDay’s management, the company was open to acquisition before its seed funding round which was led by Moniepoint. In March, a report speculated about Moniepoint acquiring PayDay, with a journalist privately predicting a three-month deal. According to an insider close to the situation, Moniepoint had expressed their intention to acquire PayDay contingent upon specific conditions or criteria that needed to be satisfied before proceeding with the acquisition. However, the deal remained in limbo, with sources suggesting that Moniepoint’s board was not enthusiastic about the acquisition. It’s possible that PayDay did not meet the required conditions for the deal to progress as initially anticipated.
Despite Moniepoint pulling out of the deal, talks to sell the company are still ongoing. Nonetheless, negative publicity may also be hindering the company’s sale.
A wave of bad press: In August, PayDay suspended customer accounts to recover funds lost to fraud. Per a source, the company did not disclose the losses until a prominent blog accused them of mishandling customer funds. Furthermore, some Nigerian employees claim their salaries were slashed in July—three months after the $3 million raise, while the CEO, Favour Ori, maintained a $15,000 monthly salary. These salary reductions coincided with the departure of key employees, including co-founder and COO Ogechi Obike.
Zoom out: As the company continues discussions about a potential sale, sources disclose that Ori has reduced his involvement in the company and has been working full-time at GitHub, implying that PayDay was a side hustle.
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Chipper Cash wants to verify users with AI
In its latest move, the African cross-border payment company has launched Chipper ID, an AI-powered suite of verification services. The feature is aimed at solving Africa’s industry-wide customer onboarding and compliance issues.
A 5-in-1 suite: The suite consists of five core product areas: facial verification, document verification, Liveness, an AI system that detects authentic users, a screening bot for comprehensive compliance and a back office portal hub.
ICYMI: Chipper Cash is among the few African companies to reach unicorn status.Since its launch in 2018, the company has raised a combined $300 million while recording $100 million in revenue with five million registered users.
While Chipper Cash might have experienced great highs, the startup has been in the news lately for its valuation cuts and layoffs. Chipper Cash has had multiple rounds of layoffs since December last year, with its latest round of layoffs in August affecting the COO. In the same month, the company cut its valuation by 70%.
Zoom out: Chipper Cash’s new feature offers a new inroad into shielding African businesses from fraud arising from inauthentic users. The feature would also help reduce the KYC gap on the continent
Openserve confirms Sat-3 cable repair
Openserve, South Africa’s Telkom subsidiary has confirmed that the broken SAT-3 subsea cable has been fully repaired.
ICYMI Last month the subsea cable broke off the coast off the Democratic Republic of Congo due to two separate rock falls in the Congo Canyon submarine. The SAT-3 cable breakage was one of three major west coast undersea internet cables that were severed in the past month. The West Africa Cable System (WACS) and SAT-3 undersea cables snapped simultaneously. As a result of the cable breakage, South Africans experienced reduced internet speeds.
With all three cables being repaired, South Africans will now enjoy normal internet connectivity.
Zoom out: The recent cable breakages show the need to rethink internet connectivity on the continent away from the traditional subsea cable. While subsea cables have been the backbone of internet connectivity for decades, recent disruptions highlight the importance of exploring alternatives.
Google releases new features for its AI chatbot Bard
On Tuesday, Google revealed new updates for its Bard chatbot.
What are the updates? Google has updated its AI chatbot, Bard, with the ability to access and use Google’s full suite of tools, communicate in multiple languages, and perform fact-checking. These updates are the biggest to Bard since it was widely released to the public six months ago. Bard can now also draw on information from Google’s other services, such as YouTube, Maps, Flights, and Hotels. Furthermore, Google has also taken steps to address some of the concerns that have been raised about AI chatbots, such as their tendency to generate inaccurate information known as “hallucinations”. Bard now has a “double-check” button that allows users to evaluate the accuracy of its responses, and the company has said that it is constantly working to reduce hallucinations.
Lastly, Bard now supports conversation sharing, enabling one user to share a chat with another, who can then expand on the conversation.
Zoom out: Overall, the new updates to Bard make it a more powerful and versatile AI chatbot. It remains to be seen how widely adopted Bard will become, but it is clear that Google is investing heavily in this technology.
The World Wide Web3
Source:
Coin Name
Current Value
Day
Month
Bitcoin
$27,280
+ 0.07%
+ 3.88%
Ether
$1,645
+ 0.81%
– 2.25%
BNB
$217
+ 0.52%
+ 0.26%
Cardano
$0.2507
– 1.19%
– 6.91%
* Data as of 06:20 AM WAT, September 21, 2023.
Events
The Moonshot Conference
Tickets are still selling out fast for the gathering of the most audacious players in Africa’s tech ecosystem.
You and your friends can get an exclusive discount to secure your seats if you haven’t yet.
If you are an aspiring economist entering your first year of undergraduate studies in the 2024 academic year, the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Economic Research Department in collaboration with the SARB Academy, invites you to apply for competitive SARB bursaries in the field of economics, economics and econometrics, economics and mathematical statistics and economic science. Apply by September 30.
An opportunity is on the horizon for Zambian entrepreneurs and startup visionaries as X3M Ideas Zambia announces the X-Pitchathon to empower startups across various industries. A competition for MSMEs to win over $50,000 in prizes inclusive of brand and marketing support. Apply by September 28
Applications are open for the Fast Forward Accelerator 2024. The accelerator provides training and resources applicable to the challenges only a tech non-profit entrepreneur knows. Through the Accelerator, you will receive a $25,000 philanthropic grant, build community among your cohort, meet dozens of mentors from the tech and social sector, and connect with people who can help you scale. Apply by September 30.
Calling all emerging conservation photographers and storytellers! Applications are open for the Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant 2023($2,000 prize). Four successful grantees will receive a fully-funded assignment to choose a conservation photo story on location (including day rate and travel), under direct mentorship from the Ocean Storytelling Grant team. Apply by October 13.