Author: Elan

With African startups raising $2.16 billion through September, venture investor Wale Salami urged backers to scrutinize founder pay and cash reserves, arguing that funding alone does not show how carefully companies spend. Africa: The Big Deal put financing for January through September 4% below the $2.24 billion raised a year earlier. Equity funding moved in the opposite direction, rising 23% to $1.5 billion. Those totals track money raised, while Salami’s argument concerns how companies use it. Salami, who founded and leads the Midlothian Angel Network, set out his case in an Oct. 19 BusinessDay column. He said investors should examine…

Nigerian government lures foreign investors with $78bn ‘deal room’ – African Business Nigerian government lures foreign investors with $78bn ‘deal room’ – African Business

Zcash’s proposed NU7 upgrade would close the spending route out of its oldest privacy pool, Sprout, which still held about 22,309 ZEC on Oct. 17. Holders could keep their private keys and still lose the ability to move those funds on the upgraded network.Mainnet activation remains undecided. The NU7 deployment specification leaves the activation height unassigned, with a final decision planned for Oct. 20 after testnet experience. Nov. 5 remains the target, conditional on that decision.The zkp.baby dashboard recorded 22,309.44195128 ZEC in Sprout at block 3,521,260, updated at 19:10:09 UTC on Oct. 17.The change is set out in ZIP 2003,…

“Federal university lecturers rarely repeat exam questions verbatim; what they repeat are core topics.” When Dare Adeola and Olamide Onigbanjo set out to build UniBeta at the University of Lagos, they made the quintessential early-stage mistake: trying to build an “everything app.” They crammed timetable scheduling, street vox pops, peer tutoring, and a campus marketplace hawking thrift streetwear and perfumes into a single platform. The result? The outsourced mobile app arrived riddled with bugs, repeatedly failed Apple App Store and Google Play reviews, and nearly wiped out their savings. Worse still, they ran headfirst into the brutal reality of Nigerian…

What can digital transformation teach us about AI adoption? Paul Boag revisits his book Digital Adaptation to show how lessons from the past can help organizations navigate the challenges of AI today.The way I see most organizations roll out AI feels more like a farce than a strategy. If it were turned into a movie, reviewers would say it was unbelievable. Nobody could be that stupid.Yet here we are. And what makes it all the more frustrating is that we have been here before.Back in 2014, I wrote a book for Smashing Magazine called Digital Adaptation, looking at the mistakes…

Illustration supplied by Kaspersky. Findings supplied to AfricaBusiness.com point to practical questions for employers and educators about verification, confidential information and the difference between using AI often and using it well. Among 364 South African AI users surveyed, 83% said they used the technology several times a week or more. Yet fewer than half reported always taking precautions when interacting with AI services. The findings, supplied by Kaspersky in response to questions from AfricaBusiness.com, offer a snapshot of how one group of users incorporates AI into work, study and personal life. They also raise a question for employers and universities:…

Grégoire Schwebig, co-founder and CEO of AfricaWorks Investment Partners, which has closed its second real estate fundHere are summaries of the most widely read stories from the past week on Africa Private Equity News.1. Kholo Capital provides mezzanine debt to DCCKholo Capital’s Mezzanine Debt Fund I has provided R275 million ($17 million) in mezzanine debt to DCC Holdings, a South African distributor of technology products from manufacturers including HP, Dell and Lenovo. The funding will refinance existing debt and support DCC’s growth plans. Read the full articleA MESSAGE FROM OUR SUPPORTERSPwC South Africa advises Solar Group on Omnia offerPwC South…

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Solana has had no reported mainnet outages in two years, but concentrations in stake, hosting and client software should be monitored, according to a report.

E-hailing company Bolt has agreed to work with drivers on several major issues, including pricing and unblocking previously deactivated drivers. This forms part of the resolutions reached at an open dialogue held with representatives of the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON), about the operational and economic challenges affecting their experience on the platform. This development comes in the wake of a four-day strike by the drivers over plummeting revenues occasioned by low fares, high commissions, ever-increasing operational costs, and app companies that simply do not care. Other issues raised include high deactivation rates, especially by Bolt, and…