Partech, the global VC firm with several funds that focuses on early- and growth-stage startups, has reached first close of Partech Africa II at €245 million (~$263 million), making it the largest Africa-focused fund yet. The African fund will now seek to reach a final close of not more than €280 million (~$300 million).
Seven years after creating Mexican Zenfi, a financial health platform, the company has more than 3 million users, many who use the platform to consolidate and pay off their debt. Having reached profitability Zenfi recently took a new round of funding, this time $8.5 million. Zenfi intends to deploy the new funds into debit and credit products. He is also eyeing three countries in Latin America.
The Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, NDPB, says it will be training 250,000 data protection officers on enhanced management of data across organisations. The move is prompted by the need for data protection officers operating in the public sector to better understand the difference between data security and data privacy as they carry out their duties.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.