Tech

[BREAKING] pawaPay Closes on Seed Funding of $9M

Published

3 years ago

August 26, 2021

African payments company pawaPay, has secured a $9m Seed raise. The round was co-led by MSA and UK-based investment fund 88mph, with participation from Vunani Capital, Kepple Ventures and Zagadat Capital. The capital will be deployed to scale pawaPay’s operational presence, find more talent to join the team, and expand into new markets on the continent.

Founded in 2020, pawaPay is focused on the mobile money infrastructure provided by telecommunications companies (telco) in Africa. Each telco in each country provides its own unique mobile money product, which makes the mobile money infrastructure as a whole – across borders and telcos – highly fragmented and opaque. For merchants, this fragmentation means that it is unnecessarily expensive to use and frustratingly unstable. Through pawaPay’s simple API, merchants can access more than 300 million customers in more than ten markets and enjoy seamless, transparent and highly reliable payments.

pawaPay’s customers are large Pan-Africa/global merchants and companies needing to make payments to African consumers’ accounts. Payments in Africa have long been made difficult by large unbanked populations, declined credit card transactions, charge-backs, fraud, dropped and lost payments, and slow cross-border settlements. The alternative financial infrastructure created by the telco-led mobile money wallets now has more than half a billion registered accounts in Africa, making it both one of the largest financial infrastructures in the world and one of the most under-developed. pawaPay has positioned itself as an industry leader in high volume mobile money payments and focuses on delivering reliability and transparency for merchants wishing to connect to the customers on the continent. With a single API, pawaPay’s customers can access all telco mobile money systems and thus receive and send payments to hundreds of millions of people. pawaPay handles local operations, compliance, regulatory cover and bank accounts, making it as simple as clicking a button to start receiving payments in a new market. pawaPay is already successfully handling millions of transactions on its rails per week and has operations in 10 countries.

Commenting on the company’s raise and growth prospects, Nikolai Barnwell, CEO of pawaPay said, “Africa’s alternative financial infrastructure is in an exciting phase with double digits CAGR everywhere. And mobile money has come out as the de facto money infrastructure for hundreds of millions of people on the continent. A quarter of the adult population is an active mobile money user. A third of all wallet holders have their salaries paid into them. We’re making a bet that this infrastructure will continue to grow and offer a superior experience than traditional financial infrastructures such as card and banking. With more than 500 million registered users on the continent – 200 million of which are active frequent users, this isn’t a fringe fad or a stepping stone to cards and swift payments. This is an example for the rest of the world of how payments could – and should look. Most of our competitors are largely focused on bank and card payments; but over the past many years we have been laser focused on addressing the unique set of challenges that accompanies specializing in mobile money. I think this gives us a good position to explore the opportunities that are coming up as this alternative financial infrastructure continues to grow.

“We are excited to have world-class investors supporting our vision to connect every mobile money wallet in Africa to each other, and the rest of the world, as we continue to make it simpler to do payments”.

Kresten Buch, Founder of 88mph, added “When we first invested in Africa in 2010, one of the key drivers was that mobile money was a superior payment method to credit and debit cards when used for online payment. So, we are excited to be an investor in pawaPay’s journey and continue to witness the development of digital infrastructure in Africa”.

Mr. Eazi, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and Founder of Zagadat Capital, added “Being investors hugely focused on Africa and very familiar with the landscape, we believe that mobile money focused fintech is not just one of the most exciting places to invest but also one of the most important bridges to ensuring financial inclusion of the billions of people across the continent, the kicker for us was that we believe in the clear mission, vision and strategy & we are confident that the pawaPay team is the best team to achieve it”.

Tech

Samsung Unveils Galaxy A06 – Galaxy Wey Sabi

By Sandra Ani

Published

1 month ago

October 12, 2024

grassroots

From left to right: Stephen Okwara, product manager, Mobile Experience West Africa; Oge Maduagu, head of Marketing West Africa; Joy Tim-Ayoola, group head, Mobile experience West Africa, and Nathan Lee, business manager, Mobile experience, all of Samsung West Africa, during the unveiling of Galaxy A06 at Ikeja City Mall, Lagos

Samsung Electronics has officially unveiled the latest addition to the popular Galaxy A series smartphones – the Samsung Galaxy A06.

Joining a fan favorite series and combining powerful performance with a sleek design, the Galaxy A06 offers customers and loyal A series fans unique features and premium experience at an affordable price.

The stylish Galaxy A06 is set to redefine what users expect from entry-level smartphones, offering cutting-edge technology without compromise.

Aptly, tagged “Galaxy Wey Sabi”, the Galaxy A06 stands out in the competitive category as it aims to resolve the customers’ needs in a smartphone with focus on durability, functionality, security, camera, and entertainment.

Users can enjoy capturing high-resolution photos with the 50MP rear camera, now equipped with Nightography for capturing the essence of every detail especially in low-light conditions. The 8MP front and 2MP (depth) cameras also provide crystal-clear selfies with advanced beautification features.

Spotting a slimmer design and comfortable grip, as well as a side fingerprint scanner, the new Galaxy A06 features a stunning 6.7” HD⁺ display, providing vivid colors and crisp clarity for an immersive viewing experience that delivers seamless visuals on the infinity-U display with enhanced brightness, especially for outdoor visibility.

Galaxy A06 – Galaxy Wey Sabi is truly a device, which understands your needs, equipped with a 5000mAh long-lasting battery, you can enjoy more device usage without worrying about battery life. The 25W Super-Fast Charging feature ensures up to 50% battery charge in just 30mins, meaning you are back in action quickly.

“The Samsung assurance is a promise, a trustworthy reliability in our Knox Security on this device, which protects your personal information by isolating your passwords and other private data within a secure environment,” said Stephen Okwara, Head Product Management, Samsung Electronics West Africa. “What also awesome about this is our promise of continuous OS upgrades and up to 4 years security update on this device. Isn’t that impressive from a brand that understands the needs of its customers?”

Also speaking at the Galaxy A06 launch event in Lagos, Oge Maduagwu, Head of Marketing, Samsung Electronics West Africa said: “We are excited to introduce the Galaxy A06, which brings together powerful performance, an advanced camera, and long-lasting battery life, all in a stylish and affordable package,” She added: “Also customers can enjoy premium support for their device with a screen damage insurance cover of just N9000.

Available in four stunning colors – Black, Blue Green, Lime and Silver – The Samsung Galaxy A06 will be available in Nigeria at all authorized Samsung Stores from 11th October 2024, with pricing starting at N146,000.

Tech

Anambra School Emerges Winner In National Girls In ICT Competition With Groundbreaking VR Technology

Published

7 months ago

April 25, 2024

Alice Ginika Simon

St. John Vianney Science College, Igbariam, used their virtual reality project to conquer the National Girls in ICT Competition 2024, claiming the national championship title yesterday!

The National Girls in ICT Competition, organized by the Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, is a technology innovation competition for all girls in secondary schools across Nigeria.

Their innovative project, M-Tag VR, allows users to explore iconic landmarks like Zuma Rock and learn about fascinating cultural aspects of Nigerian tribes. The girls, Immaculate Ebube Ikegwuonu, Camilla Anyadike, and Nweke-Nonso Oluchi, mentored by their coach, John Onuigbo, triumphed over teams from all 36 states.

The girls’ talent shone brightly throughout the competition. They started at the state level where they aced the Anambra state competition, then proceeded to conquer the Southeastern regional championship, defeating teams from Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, and Enugu, to make it to the national finals.

Rivers and Lagos states secured the second and third-place positions, respectively.

Tech

Google To Delete Billions Of Browser Records To Settle ‘Incognito’ Lawsuit

Published

8 months ago

April 2, 2024

Alice Ginika Simon

CNN reported that Google will delete billions of data records as part of a settlement for a lawsuit that accused the tech giant of improperly tracking the web-browsing habits of users who thought they were browsing the internet privately.

The suit was originally filed in 2020 and accused Google of misrepresenting the kind of data it collects from users who browsed the internet via “Incognito” private browsing mode in Chrome. Google agreed to settle the suit late last year, but the terms of the settlement were first disclosed in a filing on Monday.

As part of the settlement, Google must delete “billions of data records” that reflect the private browsing activities of users in the class action suit, according to court documents filed Monday in San Francisco federal court.

Google will also update its disclosure to inform users about what data it collects each time a user initiates a private browsing session. Google has already started implementing these changes.

For the next five years, Google will also let private browsing users block third-party cookies as part of the settlement. Google also will no longer track people’s choices to browse the internet privately.