Kenyan startup, Phindor has launched a next generation shop assistant system that employs artificial intelligence (AI) to help local businesses digitize record management, data collection and storage.
The company’s goal is to connect the world’s balances through the web using shared, connected ledgers. The project in Colombia has proven this is possible and has become one of the fastest-growing real-time payments networks in the region, enabling previously slow money to move instantly and with minimal cost. The Bogotá-based company announced the closing of a Series A for US$24 million.
Cape Town-based ed-tech startup Mindjoy aims to make coding skills accessible for kids – and grownups – on any internet-enabled device. Making use of Replit, a browser-based development environment that doesn’t require specific hardware or software, Mindjoy provides live, small-group, virtual coding classes to kids aged eight or above.
Salesforce is buying Airkit.ai, which builds low-code, AI-powered e-commerce customer service agents. You might have thought Salesforce could already do that, but presumably Airkit does it better. It doesn’t hurt that the company founders sold a previous business to Salesforce, the company was partly funded by Salesforce Ventures, and the product is already listed on AppExchange. Price was not announced.