Author: Akin Naphtal

Bosch is increasing its previously stated investment in semiconductor production in order to stay on top of the ongoing chip shortage. The company is adding an additional $296 million, on top of the $473 million Bosch already pledged to spend in 2022 last year, to new manufacturing facilities. Most of last year’s capital was earmarked for Bosch’s new 300-millimeter wafer fabrication facility in Dresden, with about $57 million set aside for Reutlingen, near Stuttgart, where Bosch began production in December. This new funding will go almost exclusively to Reutlingen to create new production space and a total of 44,000 square…

MarketForce, the retail B2B and end-to-end distribution platform founded in Kenya, has raised $40 million in Series A funding for its merchant inventory financing and expansion across Africa. MarketForce, which was launched in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda last year after growing beyond Kenya and Nigeria, plans to introduce buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options to help merchants access fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCGs) on credit. It also plans to enter additional markets in East and West Africa. Through its merchant super app RejaReja, informal traders can source goods (hundreds of SKUs) directly from manufacturers and distributors, make and pay for orders digitally, accept payments for utility bills and…

Google in Africa says the increase in software development in Africa has increased tremendously, with Nigeria adding 5,000 new professionals in 2021. According to the Managing Director, Nitin Gajria in a statement pointed out that the rise was impressive in spite of the pandemic and global economic challenges the continent’s developer experienced. Gajria stated that its findings were based on the Ecosystem Report 2021 conducted across 16 Sub-Sahara African countries. The Managing Director reiterated that the findings came through fielded and analysed surveys of software developers as well as interviews with local experts. He continued that with the use of internet by small and medium…

Orange, one of the world’s leading multi-service telecommunications groups with a presence in 18 African countries, along with its subsidiary Sonatel, the leader in Senegalese telecommunications solutions, will partner with SES, the leader in global content connectivity solutions, to deploy and manage the first O3b mPOWER gateway in Africa, allowing the African continent to enjoy easy access to high-performance and low-latency connectivity services. The three companies announced that the gateway for O3b mPOWER, SES’s next-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) communications system, will be located at the Sonatel teleport in the Senegalese territory of Gandoul among other local satellites antennas This very first O3b…

Jambo, a Congo-based startup building Africa’s web3 user acquisition portal through “learn, play, earn” and democratizing access to crypto-based income-generation opportunities, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Experts say Africa is poised to be disrupted by web3 in a similar fashion that has seen Southeast Asia become one of the best markets for web3. The latter is home to startups like Axie Infinity and Yield Guild Games, which have raised millions of dollars in venture capital owing to the adoption of crypto and play-to-earn models. The mix of positives such as a fast-growing population–the youngest globally–, solid smartphone penetration,…

The US government is investigating reports of Tesla cars braking unexpectedly on motorways. The so-called “phantom braking” problem is being looked at by US regulator the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It received 354 complaints in the past nine months and its investigation will cover approximately 416,000 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from 2021-22. Drivers say the issue occurs using the Autopilot driver assistance system. The feature gives the vehicle control over some elements of braking and steering when driving, although it is not a substitute for a human driver. Despite the name, Tesla recommends drivers remain…

Snapchat on Friday announced a buddy system-like feature that allows its users to share their real-time location with friends for a period of time. The safety feature is being rolled out as more people are returning to school campuses, traveling, going out on dates and otherwise resuming what they did before the pandemic, the company said. The feature, which is similar to Apple (AAPL)’s Find My app, allows users to share their real-time locations with a friend for 15 minutes, one hour or up to eight hours. Snapchat partnered with It’s On Us, a non-profit founded in 2014 to combat sexual assault on campuses,…

Google’s plan to limit data tracking on its Chrome browser has been extended to cover apps on its Android-based smartphones. Its Privacy Sandbox project aims to curb the amount of user data that advertisers can gather. The news will be a blow to firms like Meta, which rely on putting their code on apps to track consumer behaviour. Meta said this month that Apple’s changes would cost it $10bn (£7.3bn) this year. Google’s Android operating system is used by about 85% of smartphone owners worldwide. No detail Third-party cookies, which use people’s browsing history to target adverts, will be phased…

Powered by 25,000 motorcycle taxis at the start of 2020, SafeBoda was at its peak, ferrying thousands of pillion passengers in cities across Uganda and Nigeria. And then the COVID pandemic hit, throwing everything into a spin. Containment measures like work from home directives meant a slump in business, which was worsened by the lockdowns, curfews and bans on public transport, bringing the motorcycle taxi business to an unprecedented lull. While this pause badly affected SafeBoda, it fueled the startup’s change of strategy from a single service provider to an integrated multi-service and digital payment technology platform. The startup, which was co-founded…

Facebook is the subject of two new Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaints filed by Whistle-blower Aid, the non-profit that represents Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen. The complaints accuse Facebook, now Meta, of misleading investors about its efforts to tackle misinformation about climate change and COVID-19. The first complaint, obtained alleges the presence of readily available climate change misinformation on Facebook, making Facebook’s claims that it’s fighting climate denial fall flat. It also contains internal documents detailing employees’ own experiences with climate-related falsehoods on the platform. As noted one employee reports searching for “climate change” in the Watch tab and then…