Jumia Partners UPS To Expand Delivery Network Across Africa
This Week In Tech by Nosa Alekhuogie
Tech Top 5 News
Pan-African e-commerce platform, Jumia Technology has partnered United Parcel Service (UPS) to expand its delivery services for businesses and consumers across the continent.
The deal will enable UPS to leverage Jumia’s infrastructure to offer its customers an extended range of delivery solutions, including door to door package delivery and collection, with various payment options.
The collaboration will initially cover Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco, with plans for expansion to Ghana and Ivory Coast, and thereafter to the remaining African countries where Jumia operates.
According to the head of strategy for the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa, UPS, Renzo Bravo, the partnership will enable Atlanta-based UPS to build a greater presence in several African markets and tap into an anticipated boom in online retail.
“We believe that Africa has the potential to reach around $180 billion in online trade by 2025 that will enable growth and commerce, not only across Africa but also from the continent to the world and from the world to Africa,” he said.
On his part, Co-CEO Jumia, Sacha Poignonnec said, “We have this vast, untapped market opportunity both on the e-commerce and payment fronts, and in this context, we really want to establish Jumia as the go-to destination for consumers, and we want to develop JumiaPay into a payment and fintech champion on the continent over the next few quarters.”
Following this announcement, Jumia stock rose 7.8 per cent.
Jumia has also expanded the range of digital and financial services available to consumers. In Nigeria, customers can now book bus tickets via the JumiaPay app.
Google Launches New Smart Lens Feature
Google has launched a new Lens-powered multi-search feature on mobile devices.
The search giant announced that it had rolled out an experience with a new way to search for things on mobile devices.
The new multi-search function in Lens allows you to do a quick search for objects using a combination of text and images at the same time.
Google Lens is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered technology that uses your smartphone camera and deep machine learning to detect an object in front of the camera lens, understand it and offer actions such as scanning, translation, shopping, and more.
Google Lens will also recognise restaurants, clubs, cafes, and bars, presenting you with a pop-up window showing reviews, address details, and opening times. It will recognise a hand and suggest the thumbs up emoji, point it at a drink, and it will try and figure out what it is.
“All this is made possible by our latest advancements in AI, which is making it easier to understand the world around you in more natural and intuitive ways. We’re also exploring ways in which this feature might be enhanced by MUM– our latest AI model in Search– to improve results for all the questions you could imagine asking,” Google said in a blog post.
It is available on Android and iPhone devices.
ImaliPay Gets $3m In Funding to Enhance Financial Services
ImaliPay, a fintech start-up known for empowering African freelancers through its one-stop-shop financial services platform, has closed a $3 million seed funding round in debt and equity.
The company said it would leverage the capital to expand its fast-growing team, strengthen its technology and explore new markets, including Ghana and Egypt.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), ImaliPay, Tatenda Furusa, in a statment said, “Our drive to start and keep ImaliPay soaring is firmly rooted in the impact we would like to make in fostering financial security in the gig economy, serving the underbanked and walking them through a tailored journey of financial inclusion. Having strong partners and investors around the table is a show of good faith that we are building key services for the future of work.”
ImaliPay offers financial services via a single channel such as Application Programming Interface (API) and APP for gig economy workers and gig economy platforms to power their gigs and create a safety net around their work.
The funding round saw participation from Venture Capitalists such as Ten 13, Uncovered Fund, MyAsia VC, Jedar Capital, Logos Ventures, Plug N Play Ventures, Untapped Global, Latam Ventures, Cliff Angels, Chandaria Capital and Changecom, as well as Angel investors like Keisuke Honda of KSK Angels and others from Serbia, Kenya, and Norway.
With ImaliPay, clients can create accounts in less than five minutes. Its Buy-Now-Pay-Later option also allows users to get tools they require for their businesses, and those that pay back on time earn points, rewards, and discounts for purchased items.
It is currently available in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
Union Bank Launches Co-Creation Hub, SpaceNXT
Union Bank has launched a technological and innovation hub called SpaceNXT.
The latest hub was built to promote innovation and encourage collaboration within the tech ecosystem in Nigeria.
SpaceNXT is a future-forward purpose-designed co-working hub for innovators, creators, techpreneurs and is located within the Union Bank Head Office in Lagos, Nigeria.
According to the company, the hub was set up to provide an enabling environment where tech enthusiasts, visionaries and creators can converge to propagate new ideas.
It is a launching pad for innovators to collaborate, develop and improve on ideas around digital systems and technology.
The Executive Director and Head, Retail Banking and Digital, Union Bank, Lola Cardoso spoke on the benefits of SpaceNXT to the tech ecosystem.
She said, “Globally, technology and innovation are key drivers of growth, and here in Nigeria, the tech community is at the forefront of our ongoing digital revolution.
To unlock the massive potential of the sector, we must create an enabling environment that promotes collaboration and fosters strong partnerships within the ecosystem, therefore we launched SpaceNXT, to serve and enable the growth of the tech community.”
SpaceNXT was conceived as part of the Bank’s mission to enable success for the technology community in Nigeria by providing a space that would foster collaboration within the ecosystem.
Besides being a hub for sharing and generating innovative ideas, SpaceNXT will also serve as a venue for tech and innovation events, hackathons, trainings, and meetings.
Mobility Startup Secures Seed Extension from V8 Partners
Nigerian Mobility start up, ShapShap has secured a seed extension investment from V8 Capital Partners as it bids to expand its capabilities and move into more African markets.
It is an on-demand motorbike delivery service that utilises data and mobile technology to formalise the fragmented and highly inefficient same-day delivery service.
The company has said it will use the new funding to expand its capabilities in last mile delivery for businesses and individuals in Nigeria as it is also looking at expanding to other African countries soon.
Founded by Khalil Halilu in 2019, ShapShap also leverages B2B and B2C channels to enable seamless delivery options between merchants and customers. These customers can find a range of services as well as products, and delivery personnel can easily earn money servicing multiple vendors.
“Technology is aiding the ability for businesses globally to reach their consumers faster, and Africa is no different. We are building IP that makes last-mile logistics more effective. We have noticed a significant spike in the distribution of goods and services through online channels and are committed to helping our clients succeed,” said Halilu.
Tech Personality of The Week
Edmund Olotu
This week’s tech personality is the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Bloc, Edmund Olotu.
He is a technology development expert and seed-stage entrepreneur focused on developing technologies and funding innovative concepts that aids social development.
Bloc is a Nigerian payment application development company that provides platforms to enable transaction processing and payment collection, aggregation, and reconciliation.
It builds and provides financial technology (fintech) that enables founders, thinkers, startups, and organisations to create the future.
Olotu is also the founder of Generate4schools/Causemetrix LLC. Generate4schools/Causemetrix provides a platform that enables the use of commissions from recurring transaction revenues to fund social programs. It is the first programme for underfunded schools in the United States of America using merchant account premiums from local businesses in partnership with FirstData.
The London Stock Exchange Group nominated Bloc as one of 100 companies to inspire Africa in 2019.
In the same year, Saudi Arabia’s Lamar Holdings invested $1 million in Bloc which was known as TechAdvance at the time.
