TechCabal Daily – Snapt shuts down

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by Lindsey Francy Oct 17, 2022 News
TechCabal Daily – Snapt shuts down
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Happy day.

Would you take a pay cut to move to another country?

It wasn't a small pay cut for the subject of last week's Digital Nomads.

When he left his job as a software engineer in Nigeria to work in Germany, he took a big pay cut.

But he isn't going to give up. A new job will bring him 84,000 dollars a year. His story is about Digital Nomads.

The name was changed to avoid being followed on the professional networking site.

The NALA team

Less than a week after launching a feature that allows the payment of bills with M-PESA, NALA is making another splash.

Apple Pay can be used to make payments from the US to Africa.

Customers on the app will be able to send money to Africa from anywhere in the UK and the US. Over 300 banks and 20 mobile money players are involved in the project.

The CEO said that Apple Pay is a step towards connecting more global payment options with Africa. Stronger financial infrastructure for Africans worldwide can be built with this reach.

This integration with Apple Pay is a new one. The company has had it in the works for a while.

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Image source: Snapt via LinkedIn

The shutdown season may be upon the African tech community.

The South African tech company snapped its doors shut.

The snapshot is a short one.

Load balancing, acceleration, security and caching for websites, applications and services are provided by Snapt. It helps make websites and apps quicker and more responsive.

In 2015, it was reported that 85% of its clients were in the US. The company's goal was to achieve a 1000% annual growth rate, according to the CEO.

The company achieved year-on-year growth of 400% in both of the previous years.

More recently, in May 2022, Snapt launched an artificial intelligence-powered security package that was set to help over 3.8 million users.

What is going on?

It was out of money.

In the last two years, the startup has raised over $4 million in funding, including a $1 million seed round in 2016 and a $3 million Series A round in 2018).

The Series A raise is the last public one. TechCabal can't confirm the $3.4 million raised by the startup at the moment.

With recent unforeseen events outside of our control, we have no choice but to cease operations immediately, as we believe this is in the best interest of our staff and clients. The company is very sad and grateful for all the amazing interactions they have had with their clients over the years.

The third known startup to lock down its doors is Snapt. Sky.Garden, a B2C marketplace in Africa, may be closing down in October after the company's CEO told employees that the company was almost out of money.

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Image source: MacRumours

Apple might be trying to save money by changing its accessories, but a few countries are trying to make sure it pays back the money it has been sued for.

Brazil imposed a $100 million fine on Apple for not including a charging port in their phones.

What's going on?

Apple has been thinking outside the box since 2020

It's an official reason? It would like to be carbon neutral by the year 2030. The company has saved $6.5 billion by removing accessories, and this is making up for the billions it is spending on 5G accessories for newer iPhones.

Users across the globe are skeptical of the accessory removal. In France, the tech giant was forced to include earphones with iPhones in compliance with French laws that try to prevent RF radiation from direct contact from the phone. The law was repealed in 2022.

The European Parliament recently approved a new law that requires all devices sold within the European Union to have ausb-c charging port.

The Brazilian government fined Apple $2.3 million for not including basic accessories, and suspended the sale of the phones. Apple was fined $19 million by a So Paolo court after they ruled against it again.

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Image source: MacRumours

The recent formal proposal to the board of Telkom may be causing a storm because of the turbulent time in its rush to merge.

Last week, it was announced that Rain's merger offer to Telkom has caused another proponent, MTN, to withdraw its own offer. Negotiations on price have been put on hold.

Since August, Telkom has been in acquisition talks with a number of companies. South Africa's Trp stopped Rain's initial proposal in August because it didn't have the necessary approval. Rain submitted a new proposal to the board.

So now?

The perks of each of its competitors are being considered by the board of Telekom.

The most attractive suitor is the telecommunications company, MTN. Vodacom has control of the South Africa's telecom market.

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Africa's buy-now-pay-later sector is growing with an estimated $7.1 billion market size. Credit financing used to be difficult for private individuals. Commercial banks' high interest rates made it hard for many people to get credit. Africans prefer not to take loans for things they don't need.

South Africa has one of the most advanced credit systems in the world, but credit card penetration is low. Before disbursing loans, traditional credit operators focus on knowing their customers. They were able to manage default by using community and Collateral. Credit operators can get access to the best loan recovery system with the help of collaterals.

M-KOPA does not credit assess its customers. They use the internet of things to keep their customers in check and ensure repayment. Credit bureau data from Nigeria is used to run creditworthiness checks for CredPal. CD Care doesn't run credit checks past the initial KYC checks. Customers have to pay 50% of the purchase price in order to own a product.

Credit operators have the ability to manage default risk. It's important for tech startups as it helps them use alternative data points to determine creditworthiness and they aren't legally obligated to report credit history to the credit bureaus.

It's only the beginning of the process of building creditworthiness. Efforts will need to be made from both the space and credit bureaus to get more Africans to use credit facilities.

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The Africa Tech Festival is back in Cape Town.

The topics shaping Africa's present and future will be covered at the five-day event.

It's free to register here.

How knowledgeable are you about your drivers? This is a puzzle to play.

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Nigeria’s oil city, Port Harcourt, wants ride-hailing drivers to pay ₦12,000 ($27) to register their vehicles, and ₦200 ($0.45) per month renewal fees.

Herconomy raised $600,000 in a single day last year. New offerings for African women are what it is becoming this year.

QoreID

The company offers a robust digital identity infrastructure that includes last-mile verifications, consumer insights, fraud prevention engine/ tools, financial data analytics, instant identity verification, and You can learn more at the website.

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  • Big Cabal Media – Community Manager, Zikoko Memes – Lagos, Nigeria (Hybrid)
  • Big Cabal Media – Content Creator, Zikoko Memes – Lagos, Nigeria (Hybrid)
  • TechCabal – News Editor – Africa 

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It was written by Timi and Mobolaji.

Edited by – Kelechi Njoku

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