CDP Institute

Riogrande focuses on brands like home, kitchen and beauty, and after going through Y Combinator, has already taken several brands in the home space from zero to $1 million in revenue in a span of two months. To help the company scale its plan, it took in $12 million in seeding funding in a round led by Y Combinator and Wollef, with participation from individual investors including Arielle Zuckerberg and Justin Mateen.

Leasy, a startup that offers automobile financing to ride-hailing drivers in Latin America via a subscription model, has secured $2 million in equity and $15 million in debt. They founded Leasy in 2018 with the mission to help people who would like to earn incomes as ride-hailing drivers be able to afford cars, thus earning a steady income. Traditional financial institutions charge outrageous interest rates and require hefty down payments, making it nearly impossible for members of a lower-income population to afford to purchase their own car.

South African cryptocurrency exchange VALR has raised a US$50 million Series B funding round that values the company at US$240 million and will use the proceeds to expand across the continent. Launched in 2019, VALR is a digital asset platform that allows customers to buy, sell, store and transfer Bitcoin and 60 other cryptocurrencies – the widest selection of any platform in Africa – seamlessly and securely. It has so far processed over US$7.5 billion in trading volume and serves over 250,000 retail customers and 500 institutional clients from across... Read More >

As more Africans now suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, the need for more access to quality healthcare due to the ill-equipped nature of hospitals and lack of insurance, is critical, now more than ever. Healthtech startups across Africa, such as Ivory Coast- and French-based Susu are stepping up to fill this need. And in a bid to continue providing affordable and accessible healthcare for its customers in Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon, the Ivorian startup is being backed with $1 million in pre-seed funding.

Launched as Kazi in 2017, when the market was quite young, Kenyan startup Ziada returned after hiatus in 2021, and swiftly saw swift uptake of its platform, which helps informal sector service providers access more work opportunities.

Geopolitical risks emanating from the Russia-Ukraine conflict is expected to push India’s import bill higher. Consequently, the trend will widen the country’s Current Account Deficit. The crisis is expected to increase prices of mineral fuels and oils, gems and jewellery, edible oils and fertilisers. At present, India has a significant import dependence for these items.

A new Digital Rupee is proposed to be introduced by the Reserve Bank of India using blockchain technology starting from 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. In her Union Budget 2022-23 speech, she also said Rs 1 lakh crore financial assistance to states will be provided in 2022-23 to catalyse investments.

Digital transformation is redefining business operations across the economic landscape. The appetite for adopting a well-integrated and digital-first strategy is definitely on the rise. Cloud has become a critical element of enterprises’ digital strategy, with cloud migration a priority for CIOs. As a result, ICT spending is expected to reach $111 billion by 2024, as per IDC.

Zonos, a company that provides cross-border commerce solutions, has opened its first international office in Australia’s Gold Coast. With Asia-Pacific expected to continue to lead global ecommerce sales, the need for accurate cross-border duty and tax calculations, VAT compliance and HS code classification will continue to grow, the company said.

The Australian government fell outside the top industry sectors for data breaches in the second half of 2021, despite agencies logging 28 notifications during the six-month period. The latest notifiable data breaches report, released on Tuesday, shows there were 464 notifications in total received by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) between July and December 2021, up from 446 in the first half of the year.