Mech-Mind begins operations in Xiong’an New Area
Specialist in AI robotics moves to China´s Hebei province.
Neil
Can Asia save the London Stock Exchange’s IPO blushes
Is the London Stock Exchange the adult in the corner of the room? Time will tell, but one thing for sure, it´s not a given.
First halal investment app launches in Australia
The app, developed by Hejaz, aims to provide Australia’s growing Muslim community with convenient and simple access to a broad range of Shariah-compliant financial products and services.
ORA Tech raises US$1.5m
ORA Technologies has bagged seed-funding worth US$1.5m. Money from for the Moroccan-based super-app came from locally-based entrepreneurs. It will use the money to expand. ORA’s mobile app offers P2P transactions, e-commerce, on-demand services, chat functionality, social networking and a future digital wallet. It was founded last year by CEO Omar Alami. Last November ORA raised … Read more
Start-Up Nation Central hosts UM6P
Start-Up Nation Central and Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) have got together to promote greater partnership between the innovation ecosystems in both countries. A delegation from UM6P has just visited Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit that promotes the Israeli innovation ecosystem around the world. The delegation’s visit follows the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the … Read more
Paysend helps Northern Central America unbanked
UK-based fintech Paysend is about to launch a new payment service. It enables unbanked users in Northern Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) to receive instant remittances from the US to a Paysend virtual Mastercard digital card. Called Paysend Libre, the virtual card is ready to use in minutes for cash withdrawals and online purchases. It allows the millions … Read more
Thursday November 3rd – the day when scale-ups fell back to earth
Thursday 3rd November is going to be remembered as one of the darkest days this year for scale-ups. On that one day alone, three high profile scale-ups announced major job losses. Uber competitor Lyft said it will lay off 13% of its staff, or nearly 700 employees. Ubiquitous payments company Stripe chopped 14%, some 1,100 … Read more
Record number of US households banked
A record 96% of US households were banked in 2021. So says the latest national survey just released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Why it matters? The percentage of those unbanked in a country reflects on that nation’s willingness to provide its peoples with levels of financial inclusivity that is key to increased … Read more
French speaking startups get head-start
The French government is backing early-stage African startups who speak the same language. Via the Digital Africa initiative, Francophone African companies can get up to 50,000 euros in equity funding. The money is made up of 20,000 euros in funding followed by a 30,000 euros SAFE investment. Important why? Seed financing is the crucial first step … Read more
MaxAB raises $40m
The food and grocery B2B e-commerce and distribution platform MaxAB has raised $40m in a pre-series B equity round. MaxAB serves a network of traditional retailers across Egypt and Morocco. Why it matters: MaxAB is trying to transform the food and grocery supply chain by re-engineering it. The company connects suppliers with underserved traditional retailers … Read more
Prepaid cards market almost to double
The prepaid cards market, widely used in the underbanked space, will be worth US$4233.4 billion by 2028, up from US$2474.77 billion this year, almost double. So what? Prepaid cards are useful for many financial product consumers, and as the report said: “…growth in unbanked and underbanked population and emergence of new applications are expected to … Read more
Have fintechs made life too complicated?
A financial services industry luminary writing in the venerable Financial Times has just declared that fintechs make people’s lives too complicated. And that a “proliferation of products” creates confusion, not clarity. Banks and fintechs stand accused of creating a “…bewildering array of financial products.” With all due respect, what rubbish! I can see his point, … Read more
Buy a bit of an A380?
Neil Martin wonders if you’d like a bit of an A380 – the super ‘jumbo’ of Toulouse. This week you have the chance to buy a bit of an Airbus A380, the famous and mostly French-built leviathan which was designed to take on the famous Boeing 747. The wide-body, two deck A380 was conceived in … Read more
New fund targets Moroccan startups
BMCA Capital Investment has launched a new venture capital fund to help Moroccan startups. The Moroccan based fund is raising money from local and overseas investors, hoping to hit MAD 50m ($4.5m). 👉Why it matters: Morocco is a hot spot for startups, many in the fintech and agritech spaces. Local and international investors are seeing … Read more
The Open Finance Association kicks-off
The Open Finance Association (OFA) has been launched with 13 fintechs as members. Why: To further open up financial data and payments for consumers and businesses through API (application programming interfaces) technology. What does it aim to do? enable consumers and businesses to access their data across all their financial accounts, and make use of … Read more