Another Monday from Naija's tech scene
Another Monday, another chance to stay ahead of the game with the hottest tech happenings in Naija, delivered straight to your inbox.
Let’s start with i-Fitness saga
1.. While everyone else is ringing in the new year, Teejay from i-Fitness is busy sneaking in a little 'happy new year' message of their own... AKA your annual dues invoice, with no explanation. Trust Naija now, everyone took it upon themselves to voice their opinion.
They said ehn shebi you have money.
More reaction on i-Finess annual due
Then this is the comment that got people talking
What did we carry what did we throw?
Then one Tweep user was like “📌”
We are still on i-Fitness saga when Kassie told us about their area gym cost, maybe nah Ikoyi but even though.
Boya it covers surgery and HMO
2.. We were on our own o when human right activist, an acclaimed teacher and Honorable decided to take it to twitter and advice all universities and learning institution to prohibit certain appearances as per it is not acceptable in the society.
The question that caused the rogbodiyan, Uncle said “just imagine and his imagination was bought into reality.
They said see a Doctor with Locs
Another imagination into reality with dreadlocks + some sprinkle of insults
A Dreadlocked Lawyer
Well, a software engineer with dreadlocks too, but none of them got a response from our honorable
3.. Dare made a post about how you can’t outwork your way to promotion if your manager is not willing to negotiate that you deserve it and a tweep quoted it with “My manager, see this IJN”
Well, his manager responded
4.. This one run JP Morgan street, Hushpuppi no do pass this one
Brooo, Aunty was even one of Forbes' 30 under 30, Who would have thought swindling people could be so impressive?
Another Angle
From Forbes to prison kinda
5.. God Abeg
6.. I would have said A, but what is life without crises?
7.. “VCs decide who gets funded and it’s people who look like them”
8.. Wow
Auzubillahi o
9.. Shayooo
10.. Which kind imagination be this?
Official News
BioNTech, the German biotech giant that made waves in 2020 with their highly effective COVID-19 vaccine, is shelling out £582 million ($682 million) to acquire all of InstaDeep, a Tunisian-London based AI startup. This deal includes an initial payment of cash and BioNTech shares worth £362 million and an additional £200 million that will be paid out based on InstaDeep's future success.
TeamApt, a Nigerian fintech firm, has decided to rebrand and will now be known as Moniepoint, which is the name of their flagship product. The company stated that the change was due to the success of Moniepoint and a desire to connect more closely with their customers. Moniepoint will also be relocating its headquarters to London, with the goal of becoming "an employer of choice, not just in Africa, but globally". However, they have no plans to offer services in the UK market.
Sama, the main subcontractor for Meta in Africa for content moderation, announced the closure of its content moderation division in Kenya on Tuesday. The decision was made to streamline operations. This news comes after Sama and Meta were previously sued for union busting and exploitation in Kenya, and shortly after another lawsuit was filed calling for Meta to increase its content moderation efforts in the country. As a result of this decision, 200 employees, or 3% of the team, will be laid off as Sama exits content review services and focuses on computer vision data annotation.
Jetstream Africa, Ghanaian e-logistics startup has secured $13 million in equity and debt pre-Series A financing, led by fintech lender Cauris and French development institution Proparco. The funding will be used to expand into new countries and develop technology platform to vertically aggregate logistics and financing vendors in African trade. The round is coming 18 months after the Tema-based cross-border logistics platform announced a $3 million seed round.
Releaf, Nigerian agritech startup, which supplies ingredients to consumer goods manufacturers and food factories, has raised $3.3 million in an oversubscribed pre-Series A round. The funding will be used to launch two new technologies: Kraken II and SITE. The Jack Ma Foundation-backed startup, which raised $4.2 million in September 2021, focuses on value chains where small factories are set up near smallholder farmers to improve processing yields and lower logistics costs.
Releaf's main focus is oil palm, a $3 billion market made up of over 4 million smallholder farmers, many of whom currently use outdated methods to produce low-quality vegetable oil. Releaf's first technology, Kraken, is a static palm nut de-sheller machine that aims to efficiently extract high-quality vegetable oil for farmers.
Well done HackSultan! Love your newsletter ❤️. But please include opportunities and giveaways in them.
Also please help me out with a RT!
https://twitter.com/abubakar_xyz/status/1610361682601316357?t=hcfpYW5wWhBtHVz0WASq4A&s=19
Awesome stuff as always.