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Afriex Raises $1.2m to Expand Payments, Remittances Across Africa

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Afriex

By Adedapo Adesanya

The equity funding virus spreading across Africa has infected a fintech startup, Afriex, as it has raised a seed funding round worth $1.2 million in its bid to scale its payments and remittances platform across the continent.

The startup, which is backed by Y Combinator, provides instant, zero-fee transfers to Africans at home and in the diaspora. The platform allows users to deposit cash on the app, send money to a bank account or another user and withdraw money to a connected bank or debit card.

The round, which includes Y Combinator, was led by Launch Africa and also includes the SoftBank Opportunity Fund, as well as Future Africa, Brightstone VC, Russell Smith, Mandela Dixon, Processus Capital, Uncommon Ventures, A$AP Capital, Furquan Rydhan, Precursor Ventures, Ivernet Holdings and Andrea Vaccari.

Afriex Operations

Sending money overseas is still slow and expensive. Afriex fixes this by buying cryptocurrency in one country and selling it in another to offer better exchange rates and faster transfers than banks or other transfer services.

Based in the United States and Nigeria, the platform is already processing millions of dollars in payments each month for thousands of Africans in the diaspora and on the continent, growing 20x in 2020.

It is now set for even quicker growth after securing its $1.2 million seed funding round as a result of its participation in Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 Cohort.

Initially active only in the United States and Nigeria, Afriex has now started operations in three new countries; Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.

The firm expects to use the investment to grow its team and expand into further new markets, speeding its vision to be the fastest, cheapest way to send money to anyone in the world.

While the likes of Western Union and Transferwise (now Wise) built their businesses on top of the traditional banking system, Afriex uses stablecoins, a cryptocurrency backed by the US Dollar. This means it can charge lower fees and transfer funds faster, in minutes as opposed to days.

CEO comments

Commenting, its founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Mr Temitope Alabi, said it had always been his dream as an immigrant child growing up in the US to be able to make an impact at scale.

“We would go back home every two years and even then I would always take note of what was missing and what could be improved,” he said.

Back in the US, Mr Alabi went on to study engineering at the University of North Texas, before working for companies such as Wix, IDEO and Consensys as a software engineer.

At the latter, the largest blockchain development firm in the world that was founded by one of the co-founders of Ethereum, he would often have to travel to other countries to give talks on the blockchain.

“I would find myself having to pay for foreign expenses with money that was sitting in a US bank account. Traditional remittance companies were so slow and expensive that I knew I could do it better with crypto.

“Remittance is the best and most important use case for crypto. Our goal is to build the world’s largest remittance company starting with emerging markets.

“We don’t have to hold inflationary currencies – we can just hold USD and crypto allows us to source better exchange rates,” Mr Alabi noted.

About Afriex

Afriex makes it easy for immigrants to send money home. It uses stablecoins (a cryptocurrency backed by the US dollar) to offer the fastest and cheapest remittance service to five countries around the world. Find out more at afriexapp.com.

Recent fundraisings

In recent time, Nigerian startups have received funds from different investors and a few of them include Flutterwave, Kuda Microfinance Bank, amongst others.

Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.

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Facebook Offers New Tools to Report Impersonation, Removes 20 million Accounts

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Facebook Original content creators

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

As part of its commitment to celebrating and rewarding creativity, Facebook has updated its guidance, with clear definitions of what counts as original and unoriginal content.

In a message on Monday, the social media platform said it was offering content creators new tools to report impersonation.

Launched last year, the content protection tool is expanding beyond detecting reel matches across Meta platforms to now also flag potential impersonation.

Creators can take action on content theft and easily submit impersonation reports all in one place.

Facebook, in the statement received by Business Post, said creators can check for access to content protection in their professional dashboard or apply for access here.

The platform also disclosed that in 2025, it removed over 20 million accounts impersonating large content creators, and impersonation reports related to large content creators dropped by 33 per cent.

Further, Facebook is deprioritising unoriginal content by making sure they do not perform well on its platform.

It noted that content that is duplicated from other sources or makes low-value changes to someone else’s content may see significantly reduced reach, and accounts that primarily post unoriginal content may lose eligibility for recommendations and monetisation.

It was emphasised that “these changes provide creators who post original content with greater reach and monetisation opportunities, provide stronger protections for their work, and reduce the reach of unoriginal content.”

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Genetec Sets New Standard for Enterprise Physical Security with Cloudlink 2210

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Genetec Cloudlink 2210

By Dipo Olowookere

A new high-density appliance that enables enterprises to scale cloud-managed physical security without forcing cloud-only storage or infrastructure replacement has been launched by a global leader in enterprise physical security software, Genetec.

The product, Cloudlink 2210, was designed for complex, enterprise-scale deployments and supports multiple workloads, including video management, access control, and intrusion detection, in a single appliance. By consolidating these workloads into one appliance, it reduces system sprawl, simplifies management in large-scale environments, and lowers operational overhead.

Unlike solutions that separate workloads across multiple proprietary systems, Genetec Cloudlink 2210 is built on an open architecture that supports a wide range of third-party devices, including cameras, access control systems, and intrusion panels. This enables organisations to modernise at scale within a unified, cloud-managed model designed to preserve architectural flexibility, while securely integrating existing hardware, maintaining business continuity, and reducing migration risks.

The company disclosed that Cloudlink 2210 also supports hundreds of connected devices per appliance and provides up to 240 TB of local storage per unit, making it well-suited for deployments with high device density and long retention policies. The Cloudlink 2210 is ideal for enterprise environments where uptime and local retention requirements are operational priorities because its design minimises dependence on cloud storage, helping organisations control long-term storage costs while maintaining the performance and availability required in enterprise environments.

The new product also incorporates hardware-level resiliency to support strict uptime and retention requirements. RAID-protected storage and redundant system components help ensure data protection and OS availability. Security workloads continue operating locally, independent of cloud connectivity, allowing deployments to maintain continuity even during network disruptions. Dual network interfaces provide redundancy and support network isolation to strengthen cybersecurity.

It scales by adding units as requirements grow, enabling organisations to increase device counts and storage capacity without redesigning their infrastructure. Centralised cloud management maintains visibility and control across deployments.

Genetec Cloudlink 2210 is part of the broader Genetec approach to deployment flexibility.  The cloud-managed appliance portfolio enables organisations to operate on premises, in the cloud, or across hybrid environments based on their operational and regulatory requirements. By combining high-performance local processing and storage with centralised cloud operations and management, Cloudlink 2210 supports scalable, cloud-managed deployments without compromising control or performance.

The Product Director for Unified Solutions at Genetec Incorporated, Mr Christian Chenard Lemire, said, “Enterprises don’t want to choose between innovation and operational certainty.

“With Cloudlink 2210, we’re redefining what cloud-managed physical security looks like at scale by giving organisations the freedom to modernise on their own terms, control long-term costs, and maintain the resiliency and continuity their most critical environments demand.”

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TikTok Invests Fresh $200K in AI Media Literacy in Africa

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TikTok AI Media Literacy Tokunbo Ibrahim

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

An additional $200,000 will be invested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) media literacy initiatives across Sub-Saharan Africa, TikTok announced during its third annual Sub-Saharan Africa Safer Internet Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

The platform hosted government officials, regulators, online safety partners and industry leaders for the event, reinforcing its commitment to collaborative approaches to online safety.

The funds will be provided in ad credits to help support local organisations in the region to expand AI media literacy.

This investment builds on the company’s initial $2 million AI Literacy Fund, launched in November 2025, which awarded 20 global non-profits to create content that boosts public understanding of AI.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, TikTok initially supported three organisations to advance digital literacy and combat misinformation.

“With the rapid advancement of AI, we are committed to educating our community online, so they feel empowered to have responsible experiences with AI, whether that’s as viewers or creators.

“We are partnering with trusted local organisations that communities already know and rely on, because their expertise and deep local connections are essential to making AI literacy programs truly impactful,” the Global Head of Partnerships, Elections and Market Integrity at TikTok, Mr Valiant Richey, stated.

Earlier, the Head of Government Relations and Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa at TikTok, Ms Tokunbo Ibrahim, said, “As we host the 3rd Annual Safer Internet Summit here in Kenya, our mission is clear: to share learnings, insights, tackle common challenges and collaboratively advance actionable solutions that protect citizens online.

“By bringing together a diverse coalition of policymakers, tech innovators, and creators, we are ensuring that the conversations we have at this Summit are all-inclusive and lead to a more resilient digital landscape.”

The summit featured expert panels and discussions on critical topics, including TikTok’s Trust and Safety efforts, protecting young people online, and policy frameworks for responsible AI governance.

A key highlight of the event was showcasing how TikTok uses AI to transform how people share their creativity and discover new passions, while ensuring the community remains safe through transparent and responsible AI practices.

The platform also shared more about how recent advancements in AI are helping the platform moderate content faster and more consistently at scale, by improving automated moderation and empowering human teams with better moderation tools.

With over 100 million pieces of content uploaded daily to TikTok, these advances, which work alongside human moderation teams, are helping get violative content down faster, reducing the likelihood of the community seeing it.

According to the latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Q3 2025, TikTok removed over 14 million videos across Sub-Saharan Africa, with 96.7 per cent detected and removed proactively using automated technology, underscoring TikTok’s commitment to proactive moderation and swift action.

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