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MYAVANA is bringing its hair care technology to Africa. Candace Victoria Mitchell is the mastermind behind the company, which launched with a $1,000 investment and a vision to ensure improved hair health for Black women, as AFROTECH™ previously told you. “Originally, my ‘why’ was really to provide a more personalized approach for people to really be seen and heard in the beauty industry,” Mitchell said in an interview with AFROTECH™. “Because, at the time, there were not many products catered to women of color or textured hair. And it just felt like it was just a huge oversight, and we were just kinda out there figuring it out on YouTube. I feel that hair is deeply connected to our purpose and identity, especially in Black culture. So my ‘why’ was just deeply rooted in people understanding who they are and also having the technology that could cater to our personalized journeys.” Technologies released include MYAVANA HairAI, which provides a detailed hair analysis followed by...
Akon is steadily building up his African crypto-city empire, and now he’s got his sights set on another city outside of Senegal. According to reports from the Ugandan government, they share that they’ve allocated one square mile of land to the rapper and business mogul to allow construction to begin on his cryptocurrency-based city, REVOLT reports. Following the announcement of his plans to transform Senegal into a futuristic city, Akon is now preparing to build his second AKoin-operated city in Uganda which is set to be completed by the year 2036. Though he has not yet released details on how much the new construction project will cost, we know that its sister city was a $6 billion costly operation. Additionally, amenities have not been announced either but Complex predicts that it will likely follow the same model as Senegal’s blueprint — which includes a Hamptons Hospital campus, Hamptons Mall, a school, police department, and waste management service as well as parks, stadiums,...
Award-winning Senegalese-American recording artist and entrepreneur Akon has been known to dabble in Africa’s business dealings for years, and now his wife is gearing up to do the same. Rozina Negusei — President and CEO of Zanar Entertainment, Entreeg Records, and Entreeg Entertainment Group — recently announced that she plans to invest a total of $12 million in the Ugandan entertainment industry to explore a plethora of available business opportunities worth backing, according to local outlet Sqoop. “We are here to explore new opportunities in Uganda, we are focused on investing in Agriculture, solar, and real estate,” she said. “Our main focus is to see how we can bridge the gap between East Africa and West Africa in terms of business and trade.” Negusei was reportedly invited to Uganda by East African Partners (EAP) managing director, Isaac Kigozi. Along with her came a group of Turkish investors, who are set to visit a few government departments, agencies, and private sector...
Thanks to a team of software engineers at Apple led by Dr. Jeofrey Kibuule — Software Engineer, Health at Apple — the company has a new life-saving feature, reports Face2Face Africa. Apple’s newly-released Apple Watch Series 6 comes with a special feature — a blood oxygen saturation monitor. The new blood oxygen app allows users to measure the oxygen level of their blood-on-demand directly from their wrist, ultimately providing them with insights into their overall wellness, per Apple. For users, the new feature comes right on time with many COVID-19 patients having had low blood oxygen levels. “During a blood oxygen measurement, the back crystal [under the wrist watch] shines red and green LEDs and infrared light onto your wrist,” said Apple in a statement on their website.”Photodiodes then measure the amount of light reflected back. Advanced algorithms use this data to calculate the colour of your blood. The colour determines your blood oxygen level — bright red blood has more...
Millions of Ugandans have stopped using the internet after the country’s government imposed a social media tax intended to curb online gossip, according to the Guardian. Nearly 2.5 million citizens have stopped using the internet following the tax, which charges 200 Ugandan shillings a day. The tax has caused concerns over free speech and access to financial services via mobile banking. “Social media has become the major source of news and political information,” Irene Ikomu, a Ugandan lawyer, told the Guardian. “Heightened exposure to information via the internet has led to Ugandan citizens being more critical about political conditions in the country.” In America, similar issues have risen with the dismantling regulations of net neutrality–equal access to the internet. In 2017, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to end some regulations, allowing for internet providers to charge more for certain content. Uganda Communications Commission officials expect the drop in...
Former Yale University students are making it easier to spot counterfeit drugs. Per TechCrunch, Adebayo Alonge, Amy Kao and Wei Lui launched healthcare startup RxAll in 2016. The inception of the company was in response to their own experience with counterfeit drugs. For Alonge, it was nearly fatal after he took a medicine that contained a dangerous amount of diazepam, while Kao’s experience left her hospitalized. “I survived a 21-day coma in Nigeria 15 years ago. My co-founder, Amy, was hospitalized in Thailand after taking counterfeit medicine. And Wei lost a family member due to contaminated drugs,” Alonge told TechCrunch. While students they were able to pick each other’s brains during a research and development project and found further information to validate their concerns. “100,000 Africans die from this problem every year. One million people die across the world from this problem,” Alonge mentioned . This led to RxAll’s inaugural product RxScanner, a device powered by...
Myavana Founder Candace Mitchell once struggled to raise funding, but staying the course has led her to close a multi-million-dollar round. Mitchell, who attended Georgia Institute of Technology and obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer science, launched Myavana with a $1,000 investment from her checking account and had a mission to improve hair care for Black women, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. “Originally, my ‘why’ was really to provide a more personalized approach for people to really be seen and heard in the beauty industry,” Mitchell said in an interview with AFROTECH™. “Because, at the time, there were not many products catered to women of color or textured hair. And it just felt like it was just a huge oversight, and we were just kinda out there figuring it out on YouTube. I feel that hair is deeply connected to our purpose and identity, especially in Black culture. So my ‘why’ was just really deeply rooted in people understanding who they are and also having the...
A skincare company geared towards empowering those with melanated skin has raised new funding. Established in 2021, co-founders Sneha Mehta and Jade Oyateru launched Uncover in Kenya. The company offers resources that include quizzes and interactive features to tailor a skincare routine to the user, its website mentions. So far, Uncover has a digital audience of more than 200,000 women across Kenya, Nigeria, and the diaspora, Shoppe Black reports. It has also just expanded to Ghana and Uganda. Products are sold on its e-commerce platform and are also available in major retail stores in Kenya and Nigeria. “Our shelves are filled with international products that are simply a geographical expansion strategy, with little thought on tailoring products to women in Africa. We are on a mission to change that, to make Africa a priority and not an afterthought. We hear you, we see you and we value you and we are specifically making skincare with U in mind,” a statement from the company...
Mr Eazi is taking greater control in the gaming sector. Music In Africa reports the Nigerian musician, born Oluwatosin Ajibade, has launched Choplife.ci, a venture that will offer casino games as well as cater to the sports betting industry. Responsible gaming practices and reinvestment in African creativity and sports development are also benchmarks for the company, the outlet notes. The launch of Choplife.ci will piggy-back off the strength of Mr Eazi’s knowledge since he first supported betting company betPawa as a brand ambassador in 2017. The company has involvement in countries such as Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, per Graphic Online. Mr Eazi’s role with the company eventually scaled to ownership through its parent company, with roles such as investor, shareholder, and licensed operating partner. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Choplife Côte d’Ivoire (@choplife.ci) Now, Mr Eazi is set to further...
Talk about a way to watch the plot thicken in a business relationship gone awry. As previously reported by AfroTech, the ex-business partner of Akon claims that the singer still owes him four million dollars. In a new allegation, he now says that the Senegal native’s plans to build his own city could be a Ponzi scheme. AfroTech also shared the news of Akon’s plans to begin building a futuristic city in Africa. Per reports from Complex, Devyne Stephens has now asked a judge to freeze Akon’s New York assets in an effort to get his money more quickly. Those reports also reveal that the court documents say Akon is “flagrantly breaching two separate contractual promises.”
Nigerian fintech startup Bfree is starting the year by celebrating a $1.7 million pre-Series A funding round, according to TechCrunch. Participating investors include 4Di Capital, Octerra Capital, VestedWorld, Voltron Capital, Logos Ventures, and angel investors. The outlet also reports that $2.5 million has been raised in total, including $800,000 raised in May 2021. The funds will expand Bfree into additional markets outside its current home in Nigeria and Kenya. The company plans to enter 16 markets in Ghana, India, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Poland, Pakistan, and Indonesia. “We are going into markets with large populations, credit deepening and an underdeveloped regulatory environment, where a behavioral collection approach is likely to work,” Bfree co-founder and CEO Julian Flosbach said, according to TechCrunch.
Kenyan-based startup Wowzi — created to transform social media users into brand influencers — has secured $3.2 million in its latest seed round. TechCrunch reports the round was led by Africa-focused venture capital firm 4DX Ventures. Participating investors were To.org, Golden Palm Investments, LoftyInc Capital, Afropreneur Angels, and Future Africa. Andela co-founder Christina Sass, and former Andela executives Jessica Chervin, Justin Ziegler, as well as Johnny Falla, who is currently the chief development and growth officer at Wowzi, also participated. The new funds will spearhead operations in Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa to fulfill the company’s goal to expand beyond their current scope of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. “We are primarily focused on expanding across Africa in 2022 and in other emerging markets globally,” Wowzi co-founder and CEO Brian Mogeni said, according to TechCrunch. “We are also adding new product capabilities and features, as we continue to develop our...
Nigerian transportation platform Treepz has now acquired Ugabus — a bus transportation service that groups inter-city bus operators in Uganda — due to an acquisition totaling $1.5 million in funding. According to TechCrunch, the funds served as an addition to a previous seed round from August, in which $1.3 million was raised. The contributors to the extension were Japan-based Uncovered Fund, Dubai-based Blanford Capital and Jonomi Capital and Egypt-based Jedar Capital. With recent funding, Ugabus — to be renamed Treepz beginning on Dec. 1 — currently houses 70 percent of the country’s bus operations and over 50,000 customers in Uganda, TechCrunch reports. Now the Nigerian transportation platform is one step closer to fulfilling its plans to expand throughout the continent. “We’ll be able to service most of the major cities in Uganda, but the good thing about East Africa is they have very seamless borders between the countries, so it’s easy to move from Uganda to Rwanda, Uganda to...
Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payments company, has announced its new $2 billion valuation after its recent Series C extension. According to NairaMetrics, this new Series C extension raised an additional $150 million for the company. The funding was led by Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX. SVB Capital, as well as other previous investors such as Deciens Capital, Ribbit Capital, Bezos Expeditions (owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos), One Way Ventures, and Tribe Capital, reinvested in this extension round. Chipper Cash, which was founded in 2018 by Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, is a no-fee peer-to-peer cross-border payment service in Africa. Through their app, users can accept payments in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya — to name but a few places that use the app. In 2021, the company expanded again — this time, into the United Kingdom. By using Chipper Cash, users can send money from the United Kingdom to their...