CDP Institute

Malaysian artificial intelligence (AI) startup, VOX, had bagged a US$250,000 investment in pre-seed funding from Silicon Valley. VOX is described as a “conversational AI company whose focus is to solve issues related to human-to-machine interactions (HMI)”. It does this through a linguist approach, enabling computers to communicate with users and vice versa.

Klar has raised USD $257M in funding, including from Prosus Ventures, FJ Labs, General Atlantic, and Quona Capital, to help Mexico’s unbanked population. With around 36% of adults lacking access to basic financial services, Klar sees a lot of opportunities for growth in Mexico’s fintech market, which is still relatively untapped.

Z1, a digital banking app for teenagers and young adults, has raised US $10.8 million. By using the Z1 app and a prepaid card linked to their account, users can begin their road to financial independence by learning to manage and spend their money, as well as having a place to receive money they earn through jobs and small businesses.

Nigerian payment service provider Nomba has raised $30 million in a pre-Series B investment to support the delivery of bespoke payment solutions for African businesses. The round, which values the company at $150 million+ according to YCombinator data on its most valuable companies, was led by San Francisco-based Base 10 Partners.

Kenyan women-only taxi service An Nisa is planning expansion to Saudi Arabia after clocking up 10,000 users in its home market. Founded by Mehnaz Sarwar in 2018, An Nisa Taxi went app-based last year, and has more than 10,000 users.

Smile Identity, a KYC compliance and ID verification partner for many African fintechs and businesses, has acquired Inclusive Innovations, the parent company of Appruve, a Ghanaian developer of identity verification software. This strategic acquisition will expand Smile Identity’s footprint across Africa and solidify its position as the continent’s leading identity verification and digital KYC provider.

The foundation stone for the proposed Adani Data Centre in Visakhapatnam has been laid, and the Indian conglomerate will invest about 14,000 crore (US$ 170 million) on this 130-acre facility to establish a data centre park, integrated IT and business park, recreation centre and skill development university.

CleverTap, a retention cloud, announced the integration of OpenAI with the CleverTap platform and launched its AI-generated content creator Scribe. The AI content feature can generate campaign creatives, analyze emotions, and rewrite them keeping in mind a specific emotion that resonates with the brands’ users.