Africa Tech Updates Wokpa

Google is granting equity-free funds to startups in Europe and Africa through its Black Founders Fund.
This year’s cohort showcases remarkable diversity, with 25 out of 40 startups originating from Africa, and an impressive 72% of them being led or co-founded by women.
Google’s BFF grants 25 African startups $4 million in funding and support. Each startup will receive up to $150,000 cash, $200,000 Google Cloud credits, mentorship, and valuable connections.
Nigeria leads with 10 grantees, Kenya with five and South Africa with three. Ghana, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, and Senegal each have one grant recipient, completing the list.

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DataPortal’s Digital 2023 South Africa report shows that more than a quarter of the country’s population still does not have access to the internet.
South Africa had 43.48 million internet users, an internet penetration rate of 72%. Social media users stood at 25.80 million people, roughly 42.9% of the total population which stood at 60 million.
The number of internet users in the country increased by 357,000 compared to the same period in 2022.

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Google announced that 60 African startups have been selected for the second cohort of its Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
Each of the selected startups will receive support in the form of a 6-month training programme that includes tailored workshops, community-building sessions and access to a network of mentors to assist in tackling challenges that are unique to them.
The 60 startups will also get equity-free funding between $50,000 and $100,000, and up to $200,000 in Google Cloud credit.
The Google for Startups programme has created over 4,600 jobs through the startups it invested in, with the startups going on to raise more than $290 million in funding.

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Nigeria-based agritech AFEX has secured $26.5 million in funding.
The British International Investment signed a new partnership with the agritech that will see the investor commit $26.5 million to the company’s activities.
AFEX has BII’s investment for the development of 20 modern warehouses strategically located in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda. The new warehouses are expected to offer an additional storage capacity of 230,000 metric tons for AFEX. This expanded storage infrastructure will make it possible for approximately 200,000 more farmers to access cost-effective storage solutions and optimise their crop sales.
The potential impact with the possibility of boosting farmer incomes by over 200%.

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AWS announced its AWS Digital Sovereignty Pledge as nations across the globe introduce legislation that governs how and where businesses can keep data on their local users, the large clouds either have to offer attractive solutions or run the risk of having their customers move to local clouds.
Matt Garman, AWS’s senior vice president of Sales, Marketing and Global Services, notes that giving customers control over their data has always been a priority for AWS, but with constantly shifting and evolving legal requirements, managing all of this has become increasingly complex.

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The payment app, Abeg, has rebranded and will now be called PocketApp, a move that underlines its transition from a payment app to a social commerce app.
Abeg, a subsidiary of Piggytech Global Limited, secured approval-in-principle for a mobile money operator license application from the Central Bank of Nigeria to expand the scope of its social commerce operations across the country.
Piggytech Global co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Joshua Chibueze says that PocketApp is trying to create a brand or an app that everyone can use.
PocketApp will support seamless payments and online commerce throughout the country by adding new functionalities for users to buy and sell items via virtual Pocket shops.

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