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A woman-owned trading finance platform is now positioned to scale its footprint in Africa. Liquify Established in 2023 by Nadya Yaremenko and Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, the Ghanaian company is the “f irst fully digital trade finance platform on the continent,” its website mentions. It exists to connect small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa with capital markets across the globe. The Condia reports that the platform allows exporters to turn unpaid invoices into cash in the same day while investors can tap into a high-yielding asset class with the added perks of short maturities and low market correlation. What’s more, Liquify has integrated AI into its due diligence process to create more competitive rates for exporters selling to investment-grade buyers along with lower operational costs. “We built Liquify to unlock the $120 billion trade-finance gap holding back Africa’s most dynamic SMEs,” Yaremenko (CEO) said, according to The Condia. $1.5M Raise Liquify has already financed $4...
South African brewer Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela wants to see more diversity within the beer industry. Nxusani-Mawela is the founder of Tolokazi Premium Beer & Cider, which offers a variety of beers and ciders that honor the legacy of African female brewers and is inspired by the Tolo Kingdom’s history of brewing, according to information shared on her LinkedIn. She began brewing back in 2007 after obtaining a microbiology degree from the University of Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria, mentions AP News. She also found that she was able to put her science background to good use with brewing. “I sort of fell in love with the combination of the business side with the science, with the craftsmanship and the artistic element of brewing,” she told AP News. This led Nxusani-Mawela to receive further education at the Institute of Brewing and Distilling between 2006 and 2014. By 2019, she positioned herself as a founder within the brewing industry and also owns a brewery that sits in...
This self-taught programmer has secured funding for his newly established startup. According to TechCrunch, Bereket Engida had an idea while living in Ethiopia to create a startup that would resolve issues he experienced around authentication. As a programmer, he created a platform that helped developers observe user behavior on their websites while he was working at remote software jobs. This took him down a new rabbit hole after he noticed frequent issues around authentication. He also did not have great faith in some of the tools that already existed to handle the process, which prompted him to take matters into his own hands. “I remember needing an organization feature. It’s a very common use case for most SaaS applications, but it wasn’t available from these providers,” Engida told TechCrunch. “So I had to build it from scratch. It took me about two weeks, and I remember thinking, ‘This is crazy; there has to be a better way to solve this.’” Better Auth This idea eventually...
Voice assistants and speech recognition tools have struggled for years to understand the way many Black people naturally speak. Commands get misinterpreted. Responses often miss the mark, and as a result, users usually feel unheard unless they change their voices to fit technology that wasn’t built with them in mind. Howard University and Google Research are working to change that. The two institutions have collaborated on Project Elevate Black Voices and have released a first-of-its-kind dataset: over 600 hours of African American English (AAE) collected from communities across 32 states, according to a press release from Howard University, obtained by AFROTECH™. The goal is to help artificial intelligence systems recognize, respect, and respond to the full range of Black speech, not just edited, flattened, or code-switched versions of it. Project Elevate Black Voices is a multi-year research initiative co-designed and led by Black researchers to build high-quality AAE speech data...
Tyra Banks is dedicating her latest business move to her mother. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the supermodel is the proud founder of the ice cream shop Smize & Dream, which had planted its seeds in Dubai and Washington, DC. The venture is very dear to the mother and daughter. Carolyn London, Banks’ mother, sacrificed in her earlier years to provide for both her children after a divorce, Today reports. Grabbing ice cream weekly would be a way to convene and reflect on a more hopeful future. “Years ago, when I was working so hard as a single mom, I worked more than one job,” London said in an Instagram post. “I worked two jobs. I worked three jobs. I did whatever I could. And the way we would celebrate each week that I got through is I would take her for ice cream in Hollywood. We live near Hollywood, and we would go for ice cream, and we would sit in the car and talk about what we wanted out of life, and where we wanted to go and how we wanted to live and her dreams, and try to...
These founders are leaning into AI to help patients combat their medical bills. Avelis Health Founded in February 2025 by Angel Onuoha (CEO) and Ahmad Shehu (chief technology officer), Avelis Health employs AI agents to find errors, audit, and negotiate medical bills, which can help lead to direct savings as well as prevent rising premiums and less favorable coverage. Onuoha shares that its inception derived from an injury that left him with piling medical debt. “I’ve dealt with a chronic knee injury for the past decade and had multiple surgeries on my right knee. What inspired me to start Avelis was having to fight down over $250K of inflated hospital bills as a result of these procedures,” he mentioned in an email to AFROTECH™. “If I was struggling with this system, I knew millions of other Americans were facing the same problem without the resources to fight back. The medical billing system is broken, 100 million Americans have medical debt, and 50-80% of bills have errors in...
A new round of funding has been raised to invest in the health of African businesses. PaidHR In 2020, CEO Seye Bandele and Chief Technology Officer Lekan Omotosho co-founded an HR management platform designed to support African businesses and their workers. According to a news release, the platform, named PaidHR, automates local and cross-border payroll in 49 currencies and has tools such as Earned Wage Access, which allows employees to receive a portion of their payment before payday. PaidHR can calculate taxes and pensions as well as file with the appropriate government agency. Additionally, it can set up benefits for medical insurance, pensions, housing, and more, its website states. “We’ve always been driven by a simple yet powerful idea: that managing your team and payroll shouldn’t be a source of stress, but a catalyst for growth and well-being,” the company stated in the news release. $1.8M Raise Led By Accion Venture Lab PaidHr, which launched in Nigeria, has expanded its...
Model and influencer Wisdom Kaye understands the power of using social media as a creative outlet. That realization led Forbes to name him one of its 2025 Top Creators, ranking him at No. 48 with reported earnings of $5 million. Kaye, a former electrical engineer, sometimes skipped classes to create content that allowed him to experiment with different ideas and styles in fashion. That experimentation has blossomed into a successful career as a content creator, earning the 24-year-old 13.7 million followers on his primary TikTok account alone (as of the time of this writing). In an interview with Forbes, he shared that his passion for making content dates back to childhood. “I started doing this essentially when I was a child,” Kaye told Forbes. “I mean, my earliest memory of making content — It was not really content, was for myself — but I had a Nintendo, and I would just make videos on my Nintendo…I was a kid just creating and trying to express myself artistically.” He also added...
As some corporations move to align with President Donald Trump ‘s agenda, manufacturing giant Caterpillar Inc. stands firm on its diversity, equity, and inclusion ( DEI ) commitments. According to Manufacturing Digital, at the company’s recent shareholder meeting, investors rejected a proposal aimed at dismantling Caterpillar’s DEI programs . The motion — Proposal 6 — received 3% of shareholder support, with 97% voting against it. The proposal was introduced by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) through its Free Enterprise Project (FEP). It called on Caterpillar to abolish its DEI department, policies, and related goals. FEP Associate Bennett Nuss presented the motion and referenced what he described as the company’s prior “significant revisions” to its corporate sustainability programs in September 2024 — noting his approval of actions it appeared to take in reducing its diversity efforts. “I’d like to thank the Board for this, as it shows that they are...
American Express (Amex) is planning a major refresh of its flagship Platinum card. In a news release, the company described it as the “largest investment ever” in the Platinum product line, with changes coming to both personal and business versions later this year. “We’re going to take these cards to a new level,” said Howard Grosfield, president of U.S. consumer services at American Express. “Not only in what they offer in travel, dining, and lifestyle benefits, but also in how they look and feel.” Big Moves For Business Builders And Jet-Setters The refresh comes as competition among premium credit cards continues to grow. With options like Chase’s Sapphire Reserve and Capital One’s Venture X gaining popularity, American Express appears to be stepping up to stay ahead. For cardholders who use the Platinum card to manage a busy travel schedule or handle business expenses, the new perks may make it even more worthwhile. Here’s what the company has confirmed so far: New Lounge Access:...
Goodr will be bringing its free grocery store to the windy city. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Goodr — the brainchild of Jasmine Crowe-Houston — is a sustainable food waste management company based in Atlanta, GA. Since its inception in 2017, the company has launched various initiatives, including a free grocery and clothing store at Atlanta’s McNair Middle School in partnership with rapper Gunna (2021). More recently, it introduced the Goodr Community Market at iVillage @ MLK (2024), which features a free grocery store and health clinic, with a goal of serving 600 families by 2026. “I have a lot of crazy good ideas to help people and I am so blessed when partners and my team join me to bring them to life,” Crowe-Houston said at the time. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jasmine Crowe Houston (@jasminecrowe) First P ermanent Location In Chicago Now, Goodr is scaling its mission to the south side of Chicago, IL, opening its grocery store model in a hospital. This will...
Meharry Medical College will be broadening its reach to Memphis, TN. The Historically Black College and University (HBCU), based in Nashville, TN, has long-term plans to expand to Memphis, TN, as CEO and President James Hildreth told Commercial Appeal. Already, the school held a grand opening for a new medical training facility that will be located at the 23-acre mixed-use campus of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, launching its Office of Memphis Programs. “I see this as a wonderful opportunity to turn the tide on and bring about better health care outcomes in the city of Memphis,” said Rev. Jason Turner of Mississippi Boulevard Church, according to the outlet. The training facility will be timely as Meharry Medical College has often sent its students to hospitals in other states due to outstanding commitments local major hospitals already had to train students from other schools. “One of the things that the branch campus in Memphis will do for us is to allow us to have two...
Nigerian clean energy startup Salpha Energy has secured $1.3 million in funding from All On, an impact investment firm supported by Shell, People of Color in Tech (POCIT) reports. The funding will help Salpha Energy advance its mission of delivering dependable and affordable solar power to underserved communities across Africa. Notably, Salpha Energy is the only female-founded company in sub-Saharan Africa operating a solar home system assembly facility. Investment To Fuel Solar Growth And Innovation The $1.3 million investment will scale Salpha Energy’s operations, expand its product offerings, and strengthen its local assembly infrastructure. The company’s solar power solutions in Africa, ranging from 150Wp to 100kWp systems with battery storage and smart inverters, have already reached more than 2 million people, helping to make clean energy more accessible and affordable, according to POCIT. “This capital raise is a huge step forward in our vision to power homes and businesses...
Jamaica’s largest fast-food chain, Juici Patties, is planning a U.S. expansion, with 57 franchise agreements signed and locations set to open by 2027, Black Enterprise reports. Founded in 1980 by Jukie Chin in May Pen, Clarendon, Jamaica, according to its website, Juici Patties began with one standout product: the Jamaican beef patty, a flaky pastry filled with spiced beef. What started as a teenage side hustle in his mother’s kitchen has become a household name with more than 60 locations across the island today and exports throughout the Caribbean. The chain had already begun branching out into the U.S. market, launching locations in South Florida in 2024 and more recently in Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to Eater. The strong response to these locations shows that the appeal of Jamaican cuisine reaches far beyond diaspora communities. “This is more than just a business. This is an opportunity for a Jamaican company and brand to expand on the global stage and show the world...
Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. In recent years, cryptocurrency has been viewed as a risky investment, hyped up by the mega-rich and stealthy hackers. Now, thanks to President Donald Trump, America is fully embracing cryptocurrency as a legitimate form of currency. Without any guardrails or protections, the U.S. could see itself heading towards another financial crisis. Cryptocurrency was anonymously created in 2008 but didn’t gain mainstream appeal until around 2020. The government, or any banking authority, doesn’t have oversight over the digital currency , making it highly volatile. While the Biden administration pursued cryptocurrency fraudsters, the Trump administration had a different approach, embracing the industry. President Trump signed an executive order in the first week of his second term supporting cryptocurrency and even released his own meme coin. There are rarely any regulations on crypto, and from the policies...