- Nigeria, despite a -29% decline YoY, remained the largest market by far in Africa terms of funding, with over 286 $100k+ deals (+14% YoY ) during 2022 and an estimated $1.2 billion in funding, outperforming other countries in the region.The West African country recorded two $100m+ ‘mega
- The global smartphone market faced another difficult year with an 11% drop in shipments in 2022, according to new data from Canalys.This was the lowest number seen in nearly a decade, with the last time figures were this low being in 2013. The market faced challenges from the pandemic,
- Ransomware revenue fell in 2022, another impactful year in the fight against ransomware. Ransomware attackers extorted at least $456.8 million from victims in 2022, down from $765.6 million the year before, according to a report by Chainalysis.According to Wikipedia, Ransomware is a type of malware…
- Indian food delivery giant, Swiggy, announced that it will lay off 380 jobs and shut down its meat marketplace as the company navigates the market downturn.In an email to employees, Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety stated that the company had advanced its plans for profitability and needs to make…
- In the African funding landscape, startups raised a record $4.8 billion in 2022, after a pretty solid first half of the year, however, funding slowed down in the second half of the year.The Western African region remained firmly in the lead, despite experiencing a small decrease. Startups in
- Following a record year in 2021, private investment in the space sector declined by 58% to $20.1 billion in 2022, the lowest annual total since 2015, according to a new Space Investment Quarterly report from the firm Space Capital.The report cited several factors for the pullback, including an
- With an ever-increasing global demand for technological expertise as the world makes a shift towards technological transformation, software skills are becoming an ever-needed skill set for aspiring developers or software technology experts.The global software industry continues to grow, it becomes…
- Indian social media startup ShareChat, which is backed by investors such as Twitter, Google, Tiger Global, and Temasek, has laid off 20% of its workforce, or over 400 employees.The decision comes just a month after the company eliminated over 100 roles, and follows a 5% layoff in December as
- European startups saw a decline in funding in 2022, with venture and growth investors investing $90 billion, a 25% decrease from the previous year's peak of $119 billion.
- The United States Treasury Department has designated Bitzlato, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, as a primary money-laundering concern and charged its founder for allegedly facilitating money laundering for criminals, according to a report from WSJ.According to the U.S. Justice Department…
- According to a report by IT consulting and research firm, Gartner, global IT spending contracted by 0.2% in 2022, reaching a total of $4.38 trillion. This marked a rare instance of corporations spending less on digital business tools than in the previous year.The firm had initially estimated
- Global cybersecurity spending (including enterprise products and services) will increase by 13.2% in 2023 and remain a key growth sector for channel partners, according to Canalys’ latest cybersecurity forecasts.The IT market intelligence group forecasts total spending in 2023 to hit $223.8 billion…
- Flow, a South African proptech startup, has raised $4.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round to support its mission to revolutionize the real estate industry's approach to digital marketing.The platform utilizes APIs to connect property portals and CRM platforms to social media channels,…
- Digital payments app, PhonePe, owned by Walmart, has raised $350 million at a valuation of $12 billion in a funding round led by private equity firm, General Atlantic. PhonePe, which was acquired by Walmart in 2018, plans to use the new funds to "make significant investments in infrastructure,…
- Chinese fast fashion retailer, Shein is in talks to raise up to $3 billion, at a reduced valuation of $64 billion, down from the $100 billion the company was reportedly valued at in a funding round last year, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.The company is reportedly seeking to
- Short-form video app TikTok has become the 2nd non-gaming app to reach an all-time high in in-app consumer spending, reaching over $6 billion in consumer spending as of the end of Q4 2022, according to Data.ai, an AI market intelligence group.The report highlighted that despite the social platform
- Amplifica Capital, a venture capital firm based in Mexico, has recently closed its first fund after raising $11 million, exceeding its initial goal of $10 million.This marks a significant achievement for the firm, which focuses on investing in startups led by women or focused on female products.…
- Coinbase has in a press release on Wednesday confirmed it is halting operations in Japan, citing 'market conditions' as the reason for the move.The company had earlier hinted of plans to exit certain markets following the announcement of a 20% cut (about 950 people) to its workforce
- GoMechanic, an India-based auto-service startup backed by Sequoia India, has laid off 70% of its workforce as the company faces a funding crunch.The company, which offers services such as car repair and car washing, has been struggling to raise funds for over a year despite reaching advanced stages…
- PeopleFund, a South Korean P2P lending platform, has recently added $20 million to its $63.4 million Series C from existing backer Bain Capital who led the extension.The additional funding brings PeopleFund’s total raised including the $63.4 million Series C it raised in 2021 also led
- American electric car maker Tesla, Chinese automaker BYD and South Korea’s Hyundai Motor are finalizing a deal to invest in Indonesia’s electric-vehicle industry, according to a report by Bloomberg.This was confirmed by Luhut Panjaitan, coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment, in…
- South Africa-based mobile game publisher Carry1st has announced a $27 million pre-series B funding round, led by Bitkraft Ventures.Carry1st, which is focused on Africa, has raised a total of $53 million since its launch in 2018, with previous investors including Google's Africa Investment Fund and…
- China led the global mobile app spending as global consumer mobile spending make a downtick in 2022, amid the current economic downturn, according to a report by Data.ai.According to the State of Mobile 2023 report, although global consumer spending trended downward in 2022 by -2% YoY, only a
- The global smartphone CMOS image sensor (CIS) market had a disappointing 2022 as the annual smartphone shipments dropped nearly 11% amid the unfavourable macro environment, according to Counterpoint.The market contraction was driven by the deceleration of the multi-camera trend with less adoption…
- US software giant, Microsoft is reportedly making plans to cut thousands of jobs in the latest move by the company to reduce its workforce in the face of a deteriorating global economic climate, according to an unconfirmed report by Sky News.The software company is said to be contemplating cutting
- Dubai-based fintech startup Tabby has raised $58 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India and STV. The round, which was a Series B extension, values the company at $660 million.Since its launch in 2019, Tabby has raised over $410 million in equity and debt.The company,
- After several years over year and quarter over quarter, the African Fintech sector continues to represent the majority of funding raised on the continent in 2022. Yet in what happens to be the first time since at least early 2019, it briefly gave up the first place to Logistics &
- The top 4 IT service providers in India have collectively added lower than 2,000 employees within the third quarter of FY23, according to Times of India. The hiring slowdown development started within the second quarter when the 4 firms added 28,836 employees, which was about half of what
- Telecommunications giant Vodafone has announced plans to cut several hundred jobs, primarily located at its London headquarters, as part of its efforts to rein in costs and revive its struggling performance.This marks the company's largest round of job cuts in the past five years. Vodafone…
- Microsoft has said it will add ChatGPT – OpenAI's intelligent chatbot that has generated much discourse over the past few weeks – to its app development suite Azure OpenAI service.The software giant announced the broad availability of its Azure OpenAI service, which has been available to a
- China continues to be the driving engine of the Asian economy amidst venture funding winter in the region per Crunchbase data.Although China copped the most funding volume in the region to remain at the top in the region, the country and India -the region’s two largest countries-
- ONE MOTO Technologies, an electric vehicle (EV) player with a global presence, has secured $150 million in funding to finance vehicles in the UK and drive decarbonization in the country's last-mile, delivery and gig economy industry.The company is offering finance to fleet operators at a cost of
- Kenyan start-up Xetova is using technology to make information on market opportunities available to traders.The company is building a trust network of large, medium and small enterprises that will be able to draw insights and foresights on market opportunities and risks, according to CEO Bramuel…
- Habi, a Bogota-based proptech has bagged a $6.3 million credit facility granted by Bancóldex, a Colombian state-owned bank that promotes business development.This credit line comes less than a year after the startup earned its unicorn status after closing on $200 million in a Series C funding
- Spending on computing and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments, including dedicated and shared IT environments, increased 24.7% year over year in Q3 22 to $23.9 billion.This is according to recent International Data Corporation (IDC) report.According to the report, spending on…
- According to data from Africa: The Big Deal, African startups raised a record $4.8 billion in 2022, despite a slowdown in the second half of the year.This marks an increase from the $4.3 billion raised in 2021 and is expected to exceed $5 billion once all deals
- Startup funding in Asia slows down, amidst a global trend of venture capital pullback which saw startup funding in the region hit its lowest in 5 years since 2017, according to Crunchbase data.Total funding for the year drop 39% compared to the record-setting year of 2021, from $177.2
- Kwara, a Kenyan fintech company that specializes in digitizing credit unions (saccos), has more than doubled its client base in the past year and is aiming for substantial growth in the coming years.The company has announced the raise of a $3 million seed extension round and signed an exclusive
- Thailand’s software market grew 20.1% year-over-year (YoY) in 1H22, accelerating from 14.5% YoY in 2H21, according to recent research numbers from the International Data Corporation (IDC). The software market is divided into 3 main categories, with the highest contribution revenue in 1H22 coming…
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- Nigerian fintech company TeamApt is beginning the year with a brand new identity, as it adopts the name of its flagship product – Moniepoint. The company which launched in 2015, describes itself as an all-in-one digital financial services platform for businesses. Since 2019, Moniepoint’s technology…
- India's flagship payment platform, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), ended the year on a high note with a record 7.82 billion transactions in December, worth a record Rs 12.82 trillion ($174.6 billion).Data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) shows that this is a
- South Korean e-commerce startup Backpackr, which operates a handmade goods marketplace called idus, has raised $16 million in an extension to its Series C funding round, bringing the total raised to $56.8 million since its inception in 2012.The extension, which was led by returning investor Altos…
- Digital payments firm Stripe has cut the internal value of its shares by about 11%, implying a 40% valuation cut to $63 billion in six months, The Information reported on Wednesday.Valued at $95 billion following a $600 million funding round in 2021, this is at least the third time
- World's biggest crypto company Binance is planning to increase its headcount this year by between 15% and 30% amidst a tech industry downturn that has seen rival crypto exchange companies lay off employees, per a report by CNBC. During 2022, Binance increased its headcount from 3,000 to
- According to data from Africa: The Big Deal, startups in Africa have raised more funding in 2022 than in any previous year.Despite this impressive achievement, there is a sense of disappointment as the numbers fell short of initial predictions. At the start of the year, many industry experts…
- The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance is currently facing difficulties in retaining assets. Following the collapse of competitor FTX, many investors have been pulling their crypto out of the exchange in recent weeks.Despite CEO Changpeng Zhao's statement that the situation has…
- Apple says it reached 900 million subscriptions across its services in 2022, according to a company blog post.This includes subscriptions to popular services such as its movie streaming service, Apple TV Plus, and its music streaming service, Apple Music. Contributions from the company's other…
- Crypto exchange Crypto.com announced on Friday that it will be making significant reductions to its global workforce, cutting 20% of its employees. This marks the second major layoff at the Singapore-based company, which made similar cuts in mid-2021. The cause of this round of layoffs is…
- In the wake of a global economic slowdown and a tech industry rout, several tech companies including giants like Meta, Elon Musk-owned Twitter and Amazon have made workforce reductions in the past year, dealing a heavy blow to thousands of tech employees globally.The number of tech layoffs in 2022
