Technology
XA Network Expands to Africa, Invests in Nigeria’s Crop2Cash, Others
By Dipo Olowookere
The vibrant African startup ecosystem has received a further boost with the foray of an exclusive investment platform, XA Network, into the continent.
XA Network was established by tech alumni in Southeast Asia comprising the former Managing Director of Google Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Nitin Gajria; an architect of the Black Founders Fund at Google, Mr Jason Scott; and the Marketing Director at YouTube, Mr Marek Dawidowicz.
The trio is founding XA Africa to connect exceptional African tech entrepreneurs with seasoned investors and industry experts, primarily from global and regional technology companies, to provide not just capital but also the guidance and support needed to scale their ventures.
Already, the new organisation has invested in four African tech firms. They are Crop2Cash from Nigeria, BuuPass from Kenya, Kaya from South Africa, and Talamus Health from Ghana.
On Thursday, November 7 from 1 to 2 pm, the XA Africa team will host the first public Demo Day webinar where Africa-focused investors can meet and invest in the four founding companies.
“We see an opportunity to build a stronger bridge between ecosystems in Africa and Southeast Asia along the way. In fact, this investment hypothesis has already been proven across some of the African founders we are currently supporting,” Mr Gajria said.
He said further that, “Founders of technology startups in Africa are uniquely placed to solve some of Africa’s most profound challenges and unlock its greatest opportunities.
“We see the foray of XA Network into Africa as a natural progression, allowing us to connect amazing founders to experienced and expert operators from the tech industry.”
The chief executive of Crop2Cash, Mr Michael Ogundare, while speaking on XA Africa’s investment in his firm, described it as “a game-changer for our company.”
He confessed that, “Their strategic guidance and network have opened doors to new opportunities, and we are excited to see the impact of our collaboration continue to unfold. We are grateful for their trust in our vision.”
The founders of BuuPass, Sonia Kabra and Wyclife Omondi, stated that, “We are excited to have XA network on board because of their strong network of experts who are open to listening and helping. They’ve introduced us to advisors from Expedia and truly understand the dynamics of emerging markets, making them a valuable investor.”
Since its inception six years ago, XA Network has established itself as a significant player in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, making nearly 100 investments in the region, and consistently ranked as the number one investment network in the region.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing firm, NVIDIA, has made an undisclosed investment in Cassava Technologies.
NVIDIA joins Cassava’s impressive roster of investors comprising Econet Group, British International Investment, DFC, Finnfund, Fund for Export Development in Africa (Afreximbank/FEDA), Gateway Capital, Google LLC, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Public Investment Corporation and Royal Bafokeng Holdings.
Cassava operates across Africa, the Middle East and Latin America through a strong portfolio of business units comprising Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres, Liquid C2, Cassava.ai, and Sasai Fintech, all of which are leaders in their respective sectors.
The organisation will continue collaborating with its partners and customers on the continent and beyond, establishing it as a leading technology company of African heritage.
“Cassava is Africa’s leading technology company, driving the continent’s digital transformation with digital infrastructure and digital services.
“Securing this investment is an important milestone that we expect to unlock additional value from and catalyze the further expansion of our digital infrastructure and services to bridge the digital divide on the continent,” the chief executive of Cassava, Mr Hardy Pemhiwa, stated.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
To deepen access to smartphones and digital services for underserved communities, Airtel Africa Foundation has joined forces with others to train some persons in Rwanda.
This aligns with Rwanda’s ambition to become a knowledge-based economy and complements national programmes such as Connect Rwanda.
The organisation is collaborating with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) and Cisco on capacity and digital skills development under the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Initiative.
The parties will bridge the digital divide and promote digital inclusion by providing free Internet connectivity and digital skills training to underserved communities in the country, in connection with the advancement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
ITU will provide digital skills training content to the DTCs under the Initiative along with other ITU regional capacity development activities. In addition, ITU will facilitate networking opportunities related to promoting digital literacy and inclusion, which will enable access to expertise and best practices.
It was disclosed that Airtel Africa Foundation, through Airtel Rwanda, would equip DTC locations with routers, Wi-Fi and data packages at no cost, ensuring the effective rollout of training and access to digital educational platforms.
According to the chief executive of Airtel Rwanda, Mr Sujay Chakrabarti, the collaboration marks a significant step forward in bridging the digital divide and empowering Rwandan youth with digital skills.
He described the partnership as “a powerful example of what happens when government, private sector, and international organizations come together to empower communities.”
“This partnership reflects our commitment to supporting national development goals and closing the digital divide through meaningful collaboration,” said the Head of Programs at Airtel Africa Foundation, Ms Esi Asare Prah, said on behalf of the chairman of the foundation, Mr Segun Ogunsaya.
“We are honoured to partner with ITU to bring this vision to life and contribute to Rwanda’s journey toward becoming a digitally empowered society,” he added.
Also, the Regional Director for International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Mr Emmanuel Mannaseh, said, “Our partnership with Airtel Africa Foundation begins in Rwanda, where we are joining forces to strengthen digital skills in underserved communities to advance connectivity. This initiative lays the groundwork for broader regional collaboration, as we aim to expand this work to other Digital Transformation Centres across Africa.”
On his part, the chief executive of Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA), Mr Antoine Sebera, said, “What we are seeing here today is partnership in action. Statistics show that 900 million people in Africa remain unconnected, extra effort needs to be made to make sure that no one is left behind.
“This positions Rwanda a step ahead by being intentional to involve the youth. These centres are going to play a transformative role in educating the youth to leverage AI. Digital Transformation is driving the world and Africa or Rwanda cannot be left behind.”
By Faridat Yusuf
OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, has launched a new web browser called ChatGPT Atlas, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and is said to be a big competition to Google Chrome and other browsers.
The new browser, which was announced on Tuesday, aims to change the way people search and browse online. Instead of typing keywords like on Google, users can just talk to ChatGPT inside the browser, and it will summarise information or even do tasks for them.
According to Reuters, OpenAI already has about 800 million weekly users on ChatGPT, and with Atlas, the company is now trying to bring AI into people’s daily internet use.
Atlas allows users to open a ChatGPT sidebar in any browser window to summarise web pages, compare products or even analyse data from websites.
Business Post gathered that there is also an “agent mode” for people who pay for the premium version of the service. This feature lets ChatGPT perform online tasks, to make “improvements that make it faster and more useful by working with your browsing context.”
During the demo, OpenAI developers showed how ChatGPT used Atlas to go on the Instacart website and add items to the cart all by itself.
For now, the browser is available globally on Apple computers (macOS), but OpenAI says it will soon release versions for Windows, iPhones, and Android phones.
Experts say Atlas could become a serious challenge to Google Chrome, which currently controls about 71.9 per cent of the global browser market. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, saw its shares drop by 1.8 per cent after the announcement.
Google, which has majority of the online search market share, has also been trying to improve its browser using its Gemini AI model, which is now part of Chrome for US users.
Analysts believe OpenAI’s new browser might later start showing ads, which could make it compete directly with Google’s advertising business.
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