Author: Elan

African startup founders are being encouraged to look beyond venture capital as regulators and investors consider how local capital markets can support business growth. At Moonshot 2026, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission urged founders to explore crowdfunding, debt markets and local stock-market listings as additional routes to raising capital. SEC director-general Emomotimi Agama said startups could begin by raising money from trusted communities before exploring broader capital-market options. He also pointed to commercial paper as a way for companies to test investor appetite for debt financing. The discussion adds a new dimension to the funding debate across African technology markets.…

Two large companies with a long history in Mozambique are in court battles with the government, challenging Frelimo attempts to ensure foreign trade goes through party oligarchs and their allies. Both involve apparently illegal actions by government. The latest action in both cases was 10 days ago, on 22 October. The first case involves Export Trading Group (ETG), which on 16 October 2024 filed a $120mn international arbitration claim (detailed below) against the Mozambique government to recover the value of 40,000 tonnes of pigeon peas, maize and rice seized under a ruling by a Nacala judge later dismissed over corruption.…

Hackers exploited Binance’s internal artificial intelligence tools to compromise engineers before stealing $6.34 billion in cryptocurrency, the exchange disclosed.In its Nov. 3 security report, Binance said attackers used a compromised employee computer and an internal AI tool on Oct. 20 to take control of two engineers responsible for its wallet infrastructure.The attackers subsequently obtained access to a container deployment permission token, which helped them penetrate the exchange’s wallet-signing operations on Oct. 29 and initiate unauthorized transactions across several blockchain networks.The disclosure puts AI at the center of one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record, adding to concerns about how…

Acecore, a Nigerian startup that builds home energy storage systems, won TC Battlefield 2026 at Moonshot by TechCabal in Lagos on Thursday, October 29, taking home the $10,000 grand prize. Supplya, which gives informal retailers stock on credit, came second and won $5,000. Navidyn, a maritime robotics startup, came third with $2,500. Caleb Iwuoha, Acecore’s founder and chief executive, told the judges at Wednesday’s final that the system’s casing and battery management software were “all built here in Nigeria by our very own hands.” Acecore sells a home battery system and a smart socket that lets users control their appliances.…

I’m good with the Linux command line. I use it daily and even teach basic Linux operations to a few students. But I was thinking about it the other day and realized: I can get around and do a lot using the Terminal, but am I truly fluent with the command line? I don’t think I am. Every so often, I like to test Claude, whether it’s for gaming tweaks, research, or other stuff. I wanted to see how it would do on something useful, so I devised an experiment that asked a simple question: can an LLM design a…

Funding disconnect African banks are among the most profitable in the world, yet credit to the private sector remains thin. At the Africa Financial Summit in Luanda, policymakers and financiers are weighing how to turn local capital into loans, jobs and growth. By Mathieu Galtier in Luanda African Development Bank president Sidi Ould Tah during the opening ceremony of AFIS 2026 in Luanda, 3 November. © David Silva/AFIS Published on November 03, 2026 at 15:38 pm (GMT +1) African banks are profitable: according to McKinsey, their return on equity reached 19% in 2024, against around 10% globally. The sixth Deloitte-AFIS…

Africa operations are driving Orange growth, says regional CEO – African Business Africa operations are driving Orange growth, says regional CEO – African Business

New Jersey’s securities regulator has rescinded its 2023 cease-and-desist order against Coinbase’s staking service, lifting a ban that stopped residents staking new funds on the exchange for over three years.The Oct. 30 notice, signed by Acting Bureau Chief Keith A. Alt, withdrew the order and its $5 million penalty without prejudice and without a ruling on the merits. The wording leaves the Bureau of Securities free to bring a fresh enforcement action against Coinbase in the future. Coinbase disclosed the move in its third-quarter filing, stating the regulator informed the company on Oct. 29 of its plan to rescind. CEO Brian…

Brazil’s largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, has suspended deposits and withdrawals after a security incident that analysts say drained more than $40 million. The exchange has since said that no customer lost money. “We identified and swiftly contained a security incident in one of our systems early this morning,” Mercado Bitcoin said in a statement on X, translated from Portuguese. It said no customers were harmed and no data was breached. The exchange called the suspension a precaution. Its teams are investigating, tracking the assets and coordinating with the authorities. Who disclosed that over $40 million was taken from Mercado…

Let’s kick off November with a new collection of desktop wallpapers! Designed by creatives from across the globe, the wallpapers come in a variety of screen resolutions and can be downloaded for free. Enjoy!November can feel rather gray in many parts of the world, so what better way to brighten the month than with some colorful inspiration? Our new collection of desktop wallpapers has you covered.Following our monthly tradition, which has been going on for more than 15 years already, the wallpapers in this post were designed by artists and designers from across the globe. All of them come in…