Author: Elan

** For the best experience, download the free Africa Private Equity News app Android | iOS **The International Finance Corporation has disclosed a proposed commitment of up to $20 million into the Lightrock Africa Fund II (LRAF II). IFC also revealed a $5 million co-investment envelope.LRAF II aims to raise $150 million-$200 million. The fund will pursue a generalist strategy, primarily targeting Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria, while also exploring opportunistic investments across the rest of the continent.Lightrock plans to build a portfolio of eight to 12 fast-growing companies. It expects to invest $10 million–$20 million per deal and target…

** For the best experience, download the free Africa Private Equity News app Android | iOS **Starsight Energy Africa Group, a provider of clean energy solutions for commercial and industrial customers across sub-Saharan Africa, has secured $15 million mezzanine debt funding from British International Investment.The funding will drive clean energy growth in Starsight’s existing West African operations, with Nigeria earmarked to receive the majority of the funding. It will finance a substantial growth pipeline of renewable solar energy projects whilst also ensuring best-in-class service is maintained to existing clients including asset replacement.“Partnering with BII marks a significant milestone for the…

Why most African startups fail before product-market fit | TheCable error: Content is protected from copying.

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted a proposal, or a pull request, on Saturday that would merge the backend programs used by nodes to interact with Ethereum’s Beacon Chain, which handles consensus and staking, and the protocol’s execution layer into one unified code structure to simplify node setup.Ethereum node runners, also called validators, currently have to run two separate programs, which each require setup and synchronization to coordinate and communicate the data produced by Ethereum’s consensus and execution layers.This raises the technical complexity of running a node or providing validation services for the Ethereum network, preventing ordinary users from running their…

Commerce-focused digital agency OATS Africa has secured a new milestone after becoming the first Nigerian agency partner of Cloudways, the managed cloud hosting platform used by developers and digital agencies around the world.  The partnership is the latest step in a journey that started as freelance work and gradually grew into a digital agency building tools and infrastructure for online businesses.  From Freelance Beginnings to a Digital Agency  OATS Africa started in 2019 as a freelance operation founded by Olaniyan Abdul-Gafar, who began building websites and online stores while studying at the University of Lagos.  At the time, the goal…

Microsoft has released an out-of-band hotpatch update, KB5084597, to fix three remote code execution vulnerabilities in the Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) management tool. The update targets Windows 11 Enterprise devices enrolled in the hotpatch program that did not receive the fixes through the standard March 2026 Patch Tuesday cumulative update.The three vulnerabilities are tracked as CVE-2026-25172, CVE-2026-25173, and CVE-2026-26111. All three were addressed in the March 10 Patch Tuesday release for standard Windows 11 devices.How Attackers Can Exploit These RRAS VulnerabilitiesAccording to Microsoft’s advisory, an attacker authenticated on the domain could exploit these flaws by tricking a…

Congo-Brazzaville holds elections Sunday in a vote expected to extend 82-year-old President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s more than four decades in power in the oil-rich central African country. Observers say voter turnout could reach a record low. Six candidates are standing against Sassou Nguesso but the main opposition is divided and largely absent, leaving him set to win another five-year term. The former paratrooper colonel is already one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, along with Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya. The president has toured the country during the election campaign, which ended Friday, backed by the…

Maputo — The Mozambican Minister of Communications, Américo Muchanga, has claimed that the the government’s new regulations on telecommunications will not restrict use of the Internet. Speaking in Maputo on Thursday in response to requests for information from members of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Muchanga said the regulations are aimed against cybercrime, and at guaranteeing the security of the state, of institutions and of individuals. Nonetheless, the regulations have been strongly criticized by civil society bodies because they could allow the authorities to shut down the Internet on spurious grounds of “national security’. Various civil society…

Meta Platforms is considering sweeping layoffs that could affect up to 20% of its workforce as the company ramps up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. This is according to a Reuters report citing three sources familiar with the matter. The potential job cuts are part of efforts to offset the massive cost of AI investments, including a plan to spend $600 billion on data centres by 2028. Meta has not set a date for the layoffs, and the magnitude has not been finalised. Top executives have recently signalled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told them to…