South African startup Maholla, a viral consumer rewards app, has concluded a US$1.5 million seed funding round to help it continue to scale. Maholla is a viral consumer app that rewards users for scanning any receipt from any store, allowing users to earn rewards irrespective of where they shop. Rewards come in the form of instant airtime, vouchers, in-app games and more.
Nigerian startup Peppa is making it safer to shop online in Africa, with a focus on social buying and selling, via a payment protection scheme that means buyers are protected from fraud and sellers are protected from losses that come from cancelled orders. Founded in September 2021, though conceived of much earlier, Peppa allows users to safely and seamlessly make payments for purchases on social commerce platforms.
Adobe announced the opening of a state-of-the-art office tower in Bengaluru. The all-new facility will host over 2,000 employees and is next to Adobe’s existing Prestige Platina Tech Park campus in Bengaluru. With over 7,800 employees spread across five campuses in the country, India is Adobe’s largest employee base outside the United States, and a major hub for software innovation, and business development.
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.