CDP Institute

Kenyan social commerce startup Tushop, which enables communities in Nairobi to buy groceries more cheaply with free delivery, has secured US$3 million in pre-seed funding to expand its team and platform, and roll out across Kenya.

South Africa’s SmartWage, an HR and communications technology startup, has raised US$2 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round to support its vision of transforming Africa’s workforce through digital inclusion, particularly for frontline employees.

NYSE-listed software company ServiceNow on Thursday launched two local data centre facilities in Mumbai and Bengaluru to help Indian customers embrace innovative digital solutions and meet local data residency preferences.

With the rapid acceleration in digital adoption across industries on account of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of technology and innovation in ensuring a more connected world, leaders of global tech giants like Microsoft, Kyndryl and Adobe, among others, gave an overview of the investments and partnerships needed in tech innovations to stay relevant and ahead in the future.

Adobe’s recent 2022 Digital Trends Report across Asia-Pacific paints a clear picture of digital’s significance today and into the future on CX, it tells us about digital and data maturity and how organisations continue to keep up with with customer experience expectations. A/NZ businesses in particular are set to outstrip other global regions in customer experience investment in 2022.

Consumers and citizens are demanding ever more tailored communication experiences from the brands and organisations they’re engaging. Soprano said it’s looking to leverage ubisend’s AI-powered communication technology to launch, manage and monitor conversational solutions and scale AI communications and automation across an organisation.

Indonesia’s largest tech firm GoTo Group said it will raise $1.1 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), which would make this the third largest IPO in Asia and fifth largest in the world this year. The public offering period will be held from April 1, 2022 to April 7, 2022 and the listing of the shares on the main board of the IDX is scheduled for April 11, 2022, with the stock code GOTO.

Touch ‘n Go (TNG) Group, a Malaysia-based payment firm that is backed by Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co, announced the launch of GOpinjam, an inclusive digital personal loan proposition available through TNG eWallet. This marks TNG eWallet’s first digital lending solutions offering, having previously already launched financial services propositions in investments and insurance.

Dapio, the U.K.-based cashless payment solutions provider for businesses, today announced that it has raised $3.4 million to fuel the launch of its “Tap to Pay” solution for Android users in the U.K. and Europe. African payments giant Flutterwave co-led the growth round with Techstars.

Kenyan startup Apollo Agriculture, a commercial farming platform that helps small-scale farmers maximise their profits, has raised a US$40 million Series B funding round to help it expand internationally and enhance its product.

Morocco’s Al Mada Holding Group has launched a US$110 million pan-African venture capital fund to invest in fast-growing startups across the continent. Al Mada, an investment holding company controlled by the Moroccan royal family, is one of the largest private investment funds in Africa, and its new fund aims to attract innovative investors and take part in the exponentially growing African startup landscape.

The expansion of the Indian data centre industry will be supported by the accelerated adoption of digital infrastructure led by the pandemic, rising digital usage, cloud consumption and the national 5G rollout.