TECH ROUNDUP! FairMoney acquires PayForce, Y-Combinator sacks nearly 20% of employees

• FairMoney has acquired PayForce, a subsidiary of CrowdForce

• Failed cashless transactions shrunk e-payment in Nigeria by 4.8%

• E-hailing drivers strike over rising harassment by passengers in Ghana

FairMoney has acquired PayForce, a subsidiary of CrowdForce that offers merchant payment services to small businesses. As part of the deal, CrowdForce CEO Oluwatomi Ayorinde will join FairMoney. “We’ve thought about the merchant space more and more, and we see a lot of potential synergies between what PayForce and we have built independently. We know that if we combine both businesses, their merchants will enjoy what our retail customers already enjoy,” Laurin Hainy, Fairmoney’s CEO said.

Drivers of e-hailing companies in Ghana are on strike, protesting a rising spate of insecurity and violence on them by their passengers. Drivers say that they have endured harassment by the passengers that they carry. In one case, drivers alleged that one of them was killed.

Also Read: How OPAY take advantage of Naira crunch to facilitate e-trade

Flat6Labs has launched a new $95 million Seed Fund for the African tech startup ecosystem called the African Seed Fund, Technext reports. The VC said the fund will help nurture the growth and development of early-stage tech startups in Africa. “We will leverage our experience and knowledge to guide the startup founders to create truly scalable, investment-ready, Africa-based companies,” General Partners, Ramez El-Serafy said.

Failed cashless transactions shrunk e-payment in Nigeria by 4.8% in February, bringing. the value to N37.67 trillion from N39.58 trillion in January, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System. Unprecedented high demands from Nigerians who turned to mobile banking in droves due to CBN’s failed cashless policy was chiefly responsible for the decline.

POLITICS

The National Identity Management Commission said Nigerians applying for international passports would be charged N1000 for verifying their National Identification Number. “NIMC and NIS have agreed on a revised applicant journey that will significantly improve the speed of passport issuance/re-issuance and reduce the traffic visiting the NIS office(s),” NIMC said in a statement.

ATMs across the country haven’t started dispensing cash, even after CBN said that they should respect the Supreme Court ruling that old notes will be legal tender till December.

NCC said mobile network operators to start implementing authorized harmonised shortcodes for the usage of specific services to telecom users in Nigeria by Friday.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Meta Platform Inc. has discontinued NFTs (including selling and minting them) on Instagram and Facebook less than a year after introducing them on those platforms. “We are winding down digital collectables (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” tweeted Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s fintech head.

Google has introduced features that will let users create text in Gmail and Docs using its AI technology, accessible to only a limited number of limited number Workspace users. “Simply type a topic you’d like to write about, and a draft will instantly be generated for you,” Johanna Voolich Wright, vice president of product for Google Workspace, wrote in a blog post.

A malicious ChatGPT-branded extension for Google Chrome can strip Facebook account details and create rogue admin accounts to distribute malware, according to Guardio Labs researcher Nati Tal. Google has now removed the extension “Quick access to ChatGPT,” from its Chrome Web Store.

Youtube TV says it’s launching early access to “multiview,” an option that allows viewers to watch up to four different preselected streams at the same time.

 

 

ENIGERIA NEWSPAPER