In a move poised to revolutionize Liberia’s technological landscape, the government of Liberia is considering the introduction of Starlink satellite Internet service, developed by SpaceX.
This follows a recent virtual discussion between President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr. and Elon Musk, the visionary CEO of SpaceX.
During their conversation, both leaders underscored the transformative potential of advanced technology, particularly in enhancing access to critical sectors such as education, healthcare, and economic development in rural areas of Liberia.
Recognizing the potential impact, President Boakai extended an invitation for Musk and his team to visit Liberia, signifying a commitment to ongoing dialogue and potential collaboration.
Concurrently, Liberia is undergoing significant reforms in its telecommunications sector.
“New regulations are being introduced to support fintech companies, aiming to foster innovation and competition in a market historically dominated by a few major players. These reforms are designed to level the playing field, enabling smaller startups to enter and thrive in the mobile and Internet services arena,” reports indicates.
The regulatory shift is expected to empower Liberian entrepreneurs, particularly those developing mobile financial solutions, by providing fair access to essential telecom resources. This marks a pivotal moment in Liberia’s tech evolution, coinciding with Musk’s interest in expanding Starlink across Africa.
Together, these developments promise a dynamic transformation in Liberia’s tech and telecom landscape, paving the way for broader connectivity and innovative services. The potential introduction of Starlink, alongside progressive regulatory changes, heralds a new era of technological advancement and economic opportunity for Liberia.
As of mid-2024, Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, has actively been expanding its presence across Africa. The service is already live in several African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Benin, and Eswatini. Starlink aims to further extend its reach to additional countries by the end of 2024. Upcoming launches are planned for Gambia, Lesotho, Senegal, Tanzania, Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe, among others.
This expansion aligns with Starlink’s goal to provide high-speed, low-latency internet access to underserved regions, particularly in rural areas where traditional broadband services are lacking.
The culture of an organization, the way that things are done, will develop whether there’s intention or not. By defining what it should be, you can influence the behavior. If you don’t define it, it’ll develop organically and you might not like the results.
Josh Sephton, Via LinkedIn.
Culture is “the way we do things around here.” When you join a new team, you will quickly be humbled. Everybody knows everybody, everyone has a circle – or not. They know the bosses’ good and bad times -read, when to ask for favors and when not to. There’s clearly a formula on how business runs, and everybody knows it, except you. The newbie. Always saying hi to those that prefer quiet mornings, inviting to lunch the project manager that eats sandwiches at his desk, or running every step of your project by your supervisor who really prefers to just oversee and give feedback. Or, the opposite- when you meet the micromanager. Most times, teams have held on to their beliefs, rituals and behaviors for far too long, and will immediately sideline anyone who dares question “the way of doing things.”
All these things, added together, really define how teams work. And, ultimately, decide whether a team will build something great, or will jeopardize the productivity of an organization. In this article, we’ll explore the profound impact of startup culture on team dynamics and why getting it right can be the difference between success and failure.
So what then, is Culture, and Why is it so Important?
Culture isn’t just about Ping-Pong tables, free snacks and beer Fridays; it’s the underlying DNA that shapes how a team works together, innovates, and ultimately thrives. A strong culture provides a shared sense of purpose and identity, aligns team members around common goals, and fosters trust, collaboration, and resilience.
With the right culture within an organization, team members feel aligned, valued and empowered to put their best foot forward. This ultimately manifests into productivity, as there is a common and shared sense of purpose. No one is sidelined, there is no deadweight on the team, or walking on eggshells when it’s time to put a point across. And, it’s not just about productivity.
When you think of startups, the thought of challenges and tough days surely must cross your mind. The beauty of a strong and positive culture is that it carries a startup –and really any organization, through the dark days. When the product launch is a flop, or the expected funding didn’t pan out. Delayed salaries and the dreaded PR disasters that are a daily dose for most startups. A trusting, aligned, resilient and optimistic team- all *aspects* cultivated by a positive organizational culture will more often than not be willing and able to endure the tough times without backing out, cutting corners or sabotaging the organization.
Conversely, a toxic or dysfunctional culture can erode morale, hinder productivity, and drive talented team members away, ultimately spelling doom for the startup.
Cultivating a Positive Startup Culture:
Building a positive startup culture requires intentional effort and a commitment from leadership to prioritize values, behaviors, and norms that support the company’s mission and vision. Elements that define a positive culture are many. Today we discuss 3 key elements of a positive startup culture, and how Core values are the foundation on which a culture is built.
1. Aligning with the core values of your organization.
Core values are the foundation on which a culture is built. By definition, core values are “ideals you believe that determine your behavior and decisions.” They do not change with every turn or dynamics of the economy, society or organizational disruption. The point of values and mission in an organization is to define a pathway and create a guide for the team to follow in the process of executing the set goals.
When hiring, it is important to look out for people who align with your core values. If, for instance, your core value as a startup is boldness, it is crucial to be on the lookout for hires that share this core value. This means people who are not afraid of leaping on new ideas, even without full knowledge. People who don’t wait for conditions to align to act. People that are ready to try, fail and then try again.
When your core value is perseverance, team members that don’t back out when the going gets tough, that stay objective as opposed to emotional or panicked in less than favorable circumstances, are your best bet. As a startup, it is crucial to realize that a hire can have the right skills and be the best on the job, but when their core values are misaligned with yours, any attempt to “be on the same page” or “share a culture” will be futile.
Every organization explicitly outlines their mission, vision and values on their websites and walls, but it is just that- words. They do not integrate their values into their daily operations- hiring, crisis management, milestone conversations.
Deciding what values will help you achieve your goals, then integrating them in your day to day running will set a good foundation for a positive culture, even for people that join in later on, or through the dynamics that are bound to happen.
2. Empowerment and Ownership.
An empowered team isn’t just an asset; they’re the heart and soul of a productive workforce. When individuals feel empowered to take ownership of their work, supported to innovate, and encouraged to voice their ideas, they not only thrive personally, they also become catalysts for positive change and contribute to a vibrant and collaborative environment where creativity, productivity and success becomes a collective journey. And that is exactly what the goal of a positive culture should be – To be on a collective journey.
Autonomy is one of the guaranteed ways to empower a team. The degree to which a team or individual has freedom to make their own decisions and take actions independently, without excessive external control or micromanagement is consistent with the level of responsibility and ownership they have towards their work. Autonomy can manifest in various forms, such as setting their own schedules, choosing how to approach tasks, making decisions about resource allocation, and having input into strategic planning and goal-setting –as long as the goal is met. When individuals have a sense of control over their work and are trusted to make decisions, they tend to feel more invested in their jobs and more motivated to perform at their best.
Empowering employees, however, goes beyond simply granting them autonomy; it is about unleashing their full potential to drive innovation, creativity, and productivity.
Implementing your team’s good ideas and giving them credit for it, ensuring employee satisfaction and engagement in brainstorming sessions, promoting and supporting their personal growth and development can create a culture where individuals thrive and contribute to the collective success of the company.
3. Diversity and Inclusion.
If you are a startup founder, I hate to break it to you, diversity and inclusion are not just buzzwords that corporates use to sound fancy. They are fundamental principles that drive innovation, creativity, and ultimately, the success of the company. When you talk of a positive organizational culture, diversity and inclusion must be among your to-do.
Diversity by definition is “the presence of a variety of different demographic and cultural characteristics within a group.” Most startup founders will be tempted to include their sister, a cousin, someone that looks like them, or with similar characters in the team. When it’s one or two, that might be okay. But at the very beginning stages of a startup, pulling all or most of your team members from your closest circle is as close to sabotage as you can get. Not only are boundaries shaky and blurred, but whenever a new team member from outside your circle or different from the team joins, they immediately are the outsider.
Diversity includes both visible differences, such as physical appearance, as well as invisible differences, such as cognitive styles, personality traits, and life experiences.
Embracing diversity means recognizing and valuing the unique perspectives, experiences, and contributions that individuals from diverse backgrounds bring to the table. It involves creating an environment where people feel respected, included, and empowered to be their authentic selves, regardless of their differences.
Inclusion on the other hand, means appreciating and empowering all team members to achieve the set goals, regardless of their differences in identity and background. This means actively having inclusive practices like training and education, implementation of ideas from different team members and equity in terms of pay.
Basically, diversity and inclusion are about creating environments where individuals from all backgrounds feel welcomed, respected, and valued, and where their unique perspectives and contributions are recognized and celebrated.
In the pulsating heart of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where innovation meets opportunity, Africa stands at the forefront of technological advancement. And in the midst of all the exciting changes happening, although not talked about as much, women have fast risen to the call of technology and become bold trailblazers who have broken through barriers, challenged norms, and transformed the tech scene in Africa.
From coding geniuses to visionary entrepreneurs, these pioneers have not only harnessed the power of technology to change lives but have also become beacons of inspiration and hope for generations of women and young girls to come.
In this article, we honor the stories of 5 remarkable African women whose indomitable spirit, ingenuity, and vision have not only transformed the tech industry but have also left an indelible mark on the very essence of African innovation.
Naadiya Moosajee
Founder of Women in Engineering (WomEng), an organization dedicated to nurturing the talents of girls and women in engineering and technology, Moosajee is best known for her commitment to gender parity, spearheading a transformative movement to bridge the gender gap.
In 2014, Forbes recognized her as one of Africa’s Top 20 Young Power Women in Africa, while the Government of China honored her at the BRICS Summit for her outstanding contributions to STEM education for African girls. Passionate about fostering STEM education and gender equality, Moosajee is committed to shaping prosperous and equitable societies in emerging economies.
Alongside Hema Vallabh, she co-founded WomHub, further expanding their impact on the industry.
According to Moosajee, “Engineers design our world and our society, and if we don’t have women at the design table, we exclude 50% of the population.”
Betelhem Dessie
“As a young woman, coding made me feel independent and free, and that’s something I want to give other people.”
At the age of 7, Dessie fell in love with computers. And by the tender age of 20, this visionary Ethiopian technologist had six software programs patented in her name, and was involved in the development of the world-famous Sophia the robot. Dessie founded iCog-Anyone Can Code at the age of 24, an Ethiopian-based social enterprise that offers kids and youth an opportunity at a future through coding.
Through iCog, the futures of over 30,000 youths have been positively impacted, making them more employable and skilled for entrepreneurship.
Maya Horgan Famodu
Maya believes that if you want to support women, you put them in positions to do it themselves. And she lives by her words, having founded Ingressive capital and Ingressive for Good, one a venture capital thatsupports early-stage African tech startups, and the other a nonprofit providing micro-scholarships, technical skills training and talent placement to African tech talents in need, respectively.
Being the youngest Black woman to launch a tech fund, Maya Horgan has been honored by Forbes before in their “Under 30 Technology” list, in 2018.
Mary Mwangi
Mary Mwangi knows too well that being a pioneer, and especially in the tech space, is no bed of roses.
Founder and CEO of Data Integrated, this Kenyan powerhouse is a pioneer in the fintech logistics space in Africa, with her company leveraging on tech to offer financial solutions to African SMEs, with a greater focus on Kenya’s public transport system.
Being a pioneer, the challenges are there, she admits, but insists that “You can do it. You have to get up.”
Charity Wanjiku
Charity Wanjiku describes herself as a shining star and a work-in-progress all at the same time. And a shining star she is indeed, having made patented solar panels and powered the most rural parts of Kenya before solar tiles were a thing. Recognized by both Forbes and the World Economic Forum as a top woman in tech globally, Charity is the founder Strauss Energy Ltd, an off-grid solar energy startup based in Nairobi, Kenya. She lights up the lives of Kenyans in rural areas – Literally.
The uniqueness of Strauss’ solar systems lies in their special meters that can feed unused electricity back to the national grid, generating income for households.
She is passionate about breaking STEM barriers for women and girls, as in her words, “It’s important that girls are at the forefront of this digital age, because nobody will hire you if you do not have tech skills.”
African startup funding has seen a significant fall from the highs of 2021 and 2022, with investments in the startup scene in Africa dropping by around 27% in 2023
Would you start a startup if there was no funding for it? African startup funding has seen a significant fall from the highs of 2021 and 2022, with investments in the startup scene in Africa in terms of funding dropping by around 27% in 2023, according to Disrupt Africa’s African Tech Startups Funding Report. The number of investors during this time, according to the same report fell by half.
Does this inform the direction that startups might take in the future, or is it an indicator that starting a startup might not be a worthy cause in 2024? In the recent live podcast hosted by Founders Factory Africa on the good and bad of funding, experts in the startup ecosystem in Nairobi came together to discuss the importance of choosing the right capital in 2024, and how to navigate the tight belt fastened by investors.
In the panel for the live podcast episode were Rology CFO Jason Musyoka; Bruce Nsereko-Lule, co-founder and general partner at Seedstars; and June Odongo, founder and CEO of Senga Technologies.
One thing from the conversation was clear; in the fight for a win, and with the current lack of sufficient funding, startup founders might feel the need to scramble for every funding opportunity that presents itself, in the process hurting their business and perhaps themselves. Therefore despite these funding challenges, the panelists unanimously agreed that it’s still critical for startups to be reasonable and careful in choosing the investors they approach for funding.
So, what are these critical play points to be addressed in the race for funding, and how to understand good and bad funding?
Shifting investor expectations
In the best way to approach investors in these tight times, the panelists highlighted that times have changed in the ecosystem, and investors are now prioritizing fundamentals and sustainability over pure potential, advising that founders should be aware of investors’ shifting priorities and adapt their fundraising strategies accordingly. This requires founders to have a clear roadmap with achievable milestones (pilot, funding rounds) and contingency plans.
“As investors, we’re looking for a plan but you also need to model in variation,” says Nsero- Luke. “Aim to go with the plan but let’s model it if we need to spend a little bit more, for example.”
Additionally, investors are emphasizing due diligence and seeking ventures with strong fundamentals and realistic growth plans, moving away from solely chasing high-growth potential. That makes it important that they do everything they can to impress in the due diligence process.
“From an investor perspective, it’s important that you do your due diligence very well whilst you’re investing in a company so that, when you’re putting in the money, you don’t get unexpected surprises,” he adds.
Choosing the right investor
Even within this shifting environment, the panelists agree that it’s still important for startup founders to be discerning in the investors they approach for funding. More particularly, they say, founders must consider whether choosing local investors makes more sense than international ones. While international investors might have deeper pockets, local investors often have a greater contextual understanding of local environments and may therefore be better positioned to guide founders to success.
“The beauty about local investors is that we understand context,” says Musyoka. “And not just context but we also have networks. There are doors that the senior-level executives and CEOs that they introduce you to can open for you or businesses that they can enable for you that they can enable for that you wouldn’t be able to open for yourself.”
Another strategic considerations when choosing which investors to approach is your business goals. Founders should define their business goals (lifestyle vs. scaling) and align their investment strategy accordingly, potentially utilizing local angel investors and then seeking international capital for further growth.
Even with these considerations in mind, it’s still important that founders pay attention to the investment offers in front of them. “If you’ve got two competing term sheets in front of you, always go for the one that offers the least dilution,” says Musyoka, who has a unique perspective as an investor turned operator. “It gives you flexibility and allows you to operate in your known business framework.” That may mean accepting a smaller investment but, Musyoka believes that this isn’t always a bad thing.
“A small amount is not necessarily bad for you,” he says. “You just have to recalibrate and work with what you have.”
According to Odongo, getting to the right investor also means knowing when to pause, when to move and when to stop, as Senga has had to do a couple of times over the past few years.
“At one point, we were going to raise money when we had validated our idea and it was growing well. Then we got a lot of competition that was emulating some of what we were doing and they were raising tones of money, so I decided not to raise because it was clear to me that things were not going to turn out well. So we retreated and pivoted to a new niche.”
Planning for an exit (or not)
In the long run, more and more startups taking this approach may also change how we think about exits on the continent.
“Exit opportunities exist in Africa,” says Nsereko-Lule. “We have local exchanges, we have big corporations, etc. The effective exit opportunities exist here, but the types of companies that local players want to buy are very different to the ones internationals want to buy.”
“As we contextualize venture capital to the local market, it will help,” he adds. “Then we can build businesses where founders have the necessary skill sets and build businesses capable of achieving exits on the continent.”
In conclusion, depending on how a founder goes about it, funding can be one of two; a blessing or a bad thing for a startup. Even with the funding drought that the African startup system is facing, it is important for a startup to be wisely selective with choosing the right investor, lest they risk losing their soul and business in the fight.
Swvl Holdings Corp. has agreed to raise $13 million from investors led by Coefficient LP, a U.S. investment firm backed by Egypt’s Sawiris family, as the mobility technology company expands into the U.S. market.
Coefficient will invest $10 million in the private placement, while an existing Swvl shareholder will contribute another $3 million. The transaction is expected to close on Aug. 27, subject to customary closing conditions, according to a company statement on Tuesday.
Swvl will issue 8,990,317 Class A shares at $1.446 each. Following the investment, Coefficient is expected to become Swvl’s largest institutional shareholder.
Abdalla Ali, Coefficient’s founder and managing partner, will join Swvl’s board as part of the transaction.
The financing comes as Swvl seeks to expand beyond its core markets in the Middle East and Africa and build its business in the United States. The company said it has recently started U.S. operations and plans to use part of the proceeds to accelerate that expansion.
Swvl also plans to use the funds to launch a lending product for transportation operators and partners in its network and strengthen its balance sheet as it pursues multi-year contracts with enterprises and governments.
The Cairo-founded company reported revenue of $8.2 million in the first quarter of 2026, up 68% from a year earlier. Revenue from the Gulf Cooperation Council rose 111%, while recurring revenue accounted for 88% of total revenue.
Swvl reported net dollar retention of 114% during the quarter, while revenue pegged to the U.S. dollar increased to 44% of total revenue. Operating expenses fell to 23% of revenue, according to the company.
Swvl said the results put it closer to operating breakeven as it shifts its focus toward enterprise and government customers.
“We believe that our results demonstrate that Swvl’s enterprise-first model can scale profitably,” Chief Executive Officer Mostafa Kandil said in the statement.
The latest financing gives Swvl additional capital as it enters the U.S. market, one of the company’s most significant expansion efforts since its public listing.
Swvl, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker SWVL, provides technology for managing transportation networks for companies, governments, schools and healthcare providers. Its operations span Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Coefficient is based in Houston and invests in founder-led companies, with a focus that includes decarbonization and the energy transition. The firm is backed by the Sawiris family, one of Egypt’s most prominent business families.
The shares are being sold through a private placement under exemptions from registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act. Swvl has agreed to file a resale registration statement covering the securities issued to Coefficient. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions.
Nigerian agritech company ThriveAgric has raised 5.3 billion naira ($3.93 million) through its first commercial paper issuance, the company said on Tuesday.
The Series 1 issuance was oversubscribed after investors placed orders above ThriveAgric’s initial target of 5 billion Naira and is the first issuance under ThriveAgric’s 50 billion-naira commercial paper program approved by Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company plans to use the proceeds to finance the purchase of agricultural produce from smallholder farmers and supply it to established buyers, Chief Executive Officer Uka Eje said at a signing ceremony and media briefing in Lagos.
“The initial problem we’ve always faced has been accessing the right capital,” Eje said.
ThriveAgric finances farmers, purchases their produce after harvest and sells the commodities to processors and fast-moving consumer goods companies. Eje said the commercial paper would primarily finance the commodity-trading part of the business.
“This is why it’s not equity; it is debt to expand our business in Nigeria,” he said.
ThriveAgric expects to make additional commercial paper issuances over the next 12 months under the 50 billion-naira program.
The company previously raised $56.4 million in debt financing in 2022 from local commercial banks and institutional investors. The financing was intended to support its farmer network and expansion into markets including Ghana, Zambia and Kenya.
ThriveAgric currently operates in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, with Nigeria accounting for about 90% of its business, Eje said.
The latest funding will be focused on its Nigerian operations, including the purchase and aggregation of agricultural commodities.
Founded in 2017 by Eje and Ayodeji Arikawe, ThriveAgric provides financing and market access to smallholder farmers.
The company said it currently serves more than 1.3 million smallholder farmers across 26 Nigerian states and works with about 5,000 field agents.
ThriveAgric’s Agricultural Operating System, known as AOS, is used to collect and manage information on farmers and their agricultural activities, including onboarding, farm data collection, distribution of inputs, field monitoring and inventory management.
The company has also said it plans to use agricultural and transaction data to help farmers gain access to financial services.
ThriveAgric’s agricultural production activities can require nine to 12 months, while the purchase and sale of harvested commodities takes place over a shorter period, Eje said. The commercial paper will therefore be used primarily for the company’s shorter-term trading activities.
Anchoria Advisory Services acted as the lead issuing house for the transaction. BAS Capital, Mulberry, FCMB Capital Markets and FCSL were also involved in the issuance.
The 5.3 billion-naira transaction is the first issuance under the company’s 50 billion-naira program, leaving ThriveAgric with capacity to raise additional funds through the program. The company did not disclose the individual investors participating in the issuance.
Moniepoint Inc. is reportedly shutting down MonieWorld, its UK remittance business, less than 18 months after launching the service, as the Nigerian fintech redirects resources toward its operations in Africa.
The company said the decision followed a review of its businesses and long-term priorities. Moniepoint will redeploy technology and staff from MonieWorld to other parts of the group.
MonieWorld launched in April 2025, allowing Nigerians in the UK to send money to Nigerian bank accounts using the service, UK bank cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. It was Moniepoint’s first major push into a consumer financial-services market outside Africa.
The service recorded some early growth. Monthly transaction volumes among UK customers rose 70%, Moniepoint said. The company didn’t disclose the value of transactions processed, revenue from the business or the number of customers it acquired.
The decision brings a relatively short-lived UK expansion to an end and comes after Moniepoint invested in building the infrastructure needed to operate in the country’s regulated financial-services market.
UK Expansion
Moniepoint GB was incorporated in February 2024, ahead of the launch of MonieWorld.
The company spent about £1.2 million on administrative expenses, technology infrastructure and compliance staffing for its UK operations, according to figures disclosed by Moniepoint.
It also committed a $2.5 million equity deposit toward the acquisition of Bancom Europe Ltd., an electronic-money institution authorized by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
The acquisition was intended to give Moniepoint additional regulatory infrastructure for its UK operations and potentially support expansion into other European markets.
Moniepoint didn’t disclose its total investment in MonieWorld or say whether the business had reached profitability.
The company said the UK operation nevertheless helped it develop and test infrastructure for cross-border payments. That technology and experience will now be used in its African businesses.
“Having validated its cross-border infrastructure and delivered value to thousands of diaspora users,” Moniepoint said it would redirect its technical, capital and operational resources toward its primary African markets.
Focus on Nigeria and Kenya
Moniepoint has continued to expand in Africa while building out its UK operation.
Nigeria remains its biggest market, where the company provides banking and payments services to businesses and merchants. Its Moniepoint Microfinance Bank serves businesses through its payments and banking products, while Monnify provides payment infrastructure for businesses and online merchants.
The company has also expanded beyond payments. It acquired restaurant technology company Orda as it builds services around the day-to-day operations of small and medium-sized businesses.
Kenya has become another important market.
Moniepoint acquired a 78% stake in Sumac Microfinance Bank, giving it a regulated financial-services platform in the country. It later appointed Rose Muturi as chief executive of its Kenyan operations.
The acquisition gives Moniepoint a base from which to expand its banking and payments products in a market where small and medium-sized businesses are already significant users of digital financial services.
The UK decision allows the company to put more resources behind those markets rather than continue spending on a relatively new operation in a competitive remittance market.
Customers and Staff
Moniepoint said MonieWorld customers will receive information about the shutdown, including details on outstanding transactions, access to funds and the timetable for the closure.
The company hasn’t announced a final date for the shutdown.
Most employees on the MonieWorld team will be moved into other roles within Moniepoint, the company said. Some positions will change as the UK operation is closed.
For Moniepoint, the move leaves Africa as the main focus of its expansion plans. Nigeria provides the company with an established customer base and operating infrastructure, while its investment in Kenya gives it a foothold in another large African financial market.
The UK exit also shows the limits of a strategy that requires fintech companies to build new regulatory and operational infrastructure before they can scale in foreign markets. Moniepoint is now choosing to put more of that investment behind businesses where it already has customers and a regulatory presence.
Apple unveiled a new Mac mini powered by its M6 chip, positioning the compact desktop as a machine for running artificial-intelligence workloads locally as the company pushes more computing away from the cloud and onto consumer devices.
The new Mac mini delivers up to four times faster AI performance than the previous M4 model, along with twice the graphics and storage performance and a 40% increase in CPU performance, Apple said Tuesday. A higher-end M5 Pro version is aimed at developers, creative professionals and other users running demanding AI and graphics workloads.
The launch reflects a broader shift in personal computing as generative AI and software agents demand more processing power. Apple is betting that its own silicon can handle increasingly sophisticated workloads directly on the device, reducing reliance on cloud infrastructure and allowing more AI processing to happen locally.
The M6 Mac mini has a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, with Neural Accelerators in every GPU core and a dual 16-core Neural Engine. It starts with 16GB of unified memory and can be configured with up to 32GB, while memory bandwidth reaches 170GB per second.
Apple says the M6 model can deliver up to four times faster AI performance and twice the graphics performance of the M4 Mac mini. Storage performance is also up to twice as fast, giving the machine gains across both traditional computing and AI workloads.
The M5 Pro version raises the performance ceiling, with configurations reaching 18 CPU cores, 20 GPU cores and 64GB of unified memory. Its memory bandwidth reaches 307GB per second, making it better suited to larger AI models, professional video production, 3D rendering and other computationally intensive workloads.
Apple says the M5 Pro can process large-language-model prompts up to 8.5 times faster than a Mac mini with M2 Pro. It also delivers substantial gains in ray-tracing performance, while its Thunderbolt 5 connectivity allows multiple Mac mini systems to be connected for larger on-device AI workloads.
Mac mini M6 vs. M5 Pro
Specification
Mac mini with M6
Mac mini with M5 Pro
Starting price (US)
$899
$1,699
CPU
12-core
Up to 18-core
GPU
12-core
Up to 20-core
Neural processing
Dual 16-core Neural Engine + Neural Accelerators
Neural Accelerators in every GPU core
Unified memory
16GB, configurable to 32GB
Up to 64GB
Memory bandwidth
Up to 170GB/s
307GB/s
AI performance
Up to 4x faster than M4
Up to 8.5x faster LLM prompt processing than M2 Pro
Graphics
Up to 2x faster than M4
Up to 4.5x faster ray-tracing rendering than M2 Pro
Ethernet
2.5Gb, 10Gb option
2.5Gb, 10Gb option
Wireless
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6
Thunderbolt
3 × Thunderbolt 4
3 × Thunderbolt 5
Availability
Sept. 22, 2026
Sept. 22, 2026
Connectivity has also been upgraded. Both models support Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and 2.5-gigabit Ethernet, with 10-gigabit Ethernet available as an option. The M6 version has three Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the M5 Pro moves to Thunderbolt 5.
Apple is also linking the hardware to its broader AI software strategy. The new Macs are designed to support macOS 27 and the next generation of Apple Intelligence, including new Siri AI capabilities and workflows that can operate across applications.
That combination of silicon and software is central to Apple’s strategy. Rather than treating AI as a feature that users access primarily through the cloud, the company is building machines capable of running models and AI-powered workflows directly on the computer.
The approach could become increasingly important as AI agents move beyond answering questions toward performing tasks on behalf of users. Local processing can reduce latency and, in some cases, limit the amount of personal information that needs to leave the device.
Apple has kept the Mac mini’s compact five-by-five-inch footprint while substantially increasing its processing capabilities. The M6 is also Apple’s first 2-nanometer chip, underscoring the company’s effort to improve performance and efficiency without moving to a larger desktop design.
The M6 Mac mini starts at $899 in the US, while the M5 Pro version starts at $1,699. Apple began taking preorders Tuesday, with customer deliveries and retail availability scheduled for Sept. 22.
For Apple, the significance of the launch extends beyond a faster desktop. The Mac mini gives the company a relatively compact and lower-cost platform for its broader push toward on-device AI — where computers increasingly process models locally and act on a user’s behalf rather than simply running conventional applications.
Flowt, a Nairobi-based financial technology startup has raised pre-seed funding to expand access to working capital for Africa’s climate-focused small businesses.
Founded by Elana Laichena, Flowt raised the pre-seed round from Delta40 Fund I, Impacc and Argidius Foundation and has issued its first working capital facility to GreenBay, a Kenyan refurbished and pre-owned appliances and solar home systems firm.
“Funders in Africa have three bad options when they look at a small business. Ask for collateral it does not have. Spend six months on due diligence, which makes a small loan uneconomical. Or assume the worst, price for it, and charge an interest rate the business cannot afford,” Laichena, Flowt’s founder and chief executive, said.
“Flowt lends against verified transaction history, which makes working capital both fast and affordable,” she said.
Flowt uses artificial intelligence to analyze financial information from bank accounts, mobile-money records and accounting systems, allowing lenders to assess businesses using transaction history rather than traditional collateral and plans to use the funding to expand its lending operations in Kenya and develop a financial data assessment platform for lenders and investors.
Flowt is entering a field served by platforms such as Pezesha, Pngme, Numida, Float, TradeDepot, Kuunda, Kwara and 4G Capital among others. These companies operate across financial-data infrastructure, alternative credit scoring, SME lending, embedded finance and working-capital financing.
However, the market is big as many businesses fail to raise capital as they don’t meet criteria needed by microfinance institutions and commercial banks, leaving them dependent on expensive or limited sources of capital.
Flowt therefore argues that a lack of standardized and reliable financial information is one of the main reasons lenders struggle to serve the segment. Flowt provides its financial health assessment through a platform that allows businesses to upload bank and M-Pesa statements or connect accounting platforms including QuickBooks, Zoho and Odoo.
The company provides short-term loans through Choice Bank, a microfinance bank regulated by Kenya’s central bank. Flowt said it aims to reach a loan book of $1 million by the end of 2026 as it extends financing to more climate-smart businesses. The company also plans to generate revenue from software subscriptions for businesses and financial intelligence tools for investors and lenders. It said its longer-term goal is to build a financial data layer covering African climate-focused small and medium-sized businesses.
“A lender that only lends has to raise capital forever in order to grow,” Laichena said. “The data we build to underwrite a loan is worth something to the business that generated it, and worth something again to the investor trying to find that business.”
The funding comes as investment in African climate technology has grown rapidly. Flowt said climate technology attracted more than $1.5 billion in African venture funding in 2025, making it the continent’s largest venture funding category among disclosed investments.
For investors, however, smaller climate businesses can remain difficult to finance because the cost of assessing relatively small transactions can outweigh the potential returns.
Flowt was incubated by Delta40 Venture Studio, where Laichena previously served as managing director for Kenya. She has also worked at Open Capital and previously founded a business that converted sugarcane waste into an alternative fuel product. Delta40 is providing venture-building support, while Impacc and Argidius Foundation support its techmdevelopment and pilot lending.
“Africa’s climate SMEs are generating real revenue, creating jobs, and delivering measurable climate impact. They are not unbankable. They are underdocumented,” said Lyndsay Holley-Handler, founder and managing partner at Delta40.
Flowt said its current fundraising remains open as it prepares to expand its lending portfolio. It’s objective is not to replace commercial banks but to make businesses sufficiently transparent and measurable to eventually access conventional financing. Flowt aims to help firms establish a verified financial record before graduating to larger lenders and banks.
NTT DATA and Palo Alto Networks have formed a multi-year global strategic alliance to help businesses secure the adoption of artificial intelligence, with the companies targeting $1 billion in joint business by the end of 2029.
The agreement combines Palo Alto Networks’ AI-powered cybersecurity platforms and Unit 42 threat intelligence with NTT DATA’s consulting, engineering and managed services, the companies said on Tuesday.
The partnership is Palo Alto Networks’ first strategic alliance of this kind with a global systems integrator, according to the companies, as businesses increasingly deploy AI systems while facing new cybersecurity, governance and compliance risks.
The companies will work together on cybersecurity strategy, implementation and managed services, supported by joint engineering, co-innovation and coordinated global delivery.
“AI is reshaping both business and cybersecurity, making deep ecosystem collaboration more important than ever,” Palo Alto Networks Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora said.
The alliance will initially focus on six areas: autonomous security operations centers, AI governance, identity security, Zero Trust and secure access service edge, resilient cloud environments and firewall modernization.
The companies said the solutions will initially target highly regulated and critical industries, including financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and the public sector.
Focus on AI security
The partnership comes as companies move from experimenting with generative AI toward deploying more autonomous systems and AI agents across business operations.
Those systems can introduce new security challenges by gaining access to corporate applications, data and infrastructure. Managing the identities and permissions of AI agents, while ensuring their actions can be monitored and governed, is becoming an emerging concern for enterprise security teams.
NTT DATA and Palo Alto Networks said their AI governance offering will help organizations manage security and risk throughout the AI lifecycle.
The companies will also work on identity security covering employees, machines, workloads, devices and AI agents.
Their autonomous security operations offering will use agentic AI and managed services to help organizations detect, investigate and respond to cyber threats more quickly.
The alliance also includes Zero Trust and SASE architectures designed to protect users, applications and data, as well as cloud security capabilities aimed at improving visibility, compliance and risk management across multi-cloud environments.
Firewall modernization will be another area of focus as enterprises seek to reduce the complexity of legacy security infrastructure.
Thousands of certified professionals
NTT DATA will support the alliance with more than 2,000 Palo Alto Networks-certified professionals, as well as dedicated Forward Deployed Engineers and joint engineering teams.
The Japanese technology services company said it has more than 7,500 cybersecurity professionals, more than 70 delivery centers and more than 20 Cyber Defense Centers globally.
Palo Alto Networks will contribute its cybersecurity platforms and Unit 42 threat intelligence capabilities.
The companies said NTT DATA will receive early access to new platform features through direct engineering collaboration, allowing it to develop and deliver security services around new capabilities more quickly.
“AI is redefining every aspect of the enterprise, but it is also transforming the threat landscape at unprecedented speed,” NTT DATA CEO and Chief AI Officer Abhijit Dubey said.
The alliance is intended to give enterprises a single approach covering cybersecurity consulting, technology deployment and ongoing managed services, the companies said.
For Palo Alto Networks, the agreement expands its reach through a global technology services provider with expertise across enterprise infrastructure and industry-specific systems.
For NTT DATA, it strengthens its cybersecurity and AI services offering as businesses seek to deploy AI while managing the associated security risks. The companies aim to generate $1 billion in joint business from the alliance by the end of 2029.
If you examine digital businesses, you’ll find that many of these aren’t built entirely from scratch. A fintech startup can connect to an existing payment network, an e-commerce company can tap into an external logistics service, and a gaming platform is able to integrate products created by numerous developers.
Application programming interfaces, better known as APIs, are what make many of these connections possible. They allow separate software systems to exchange information, helping companies add services without developing every component internally. For African startups operating with limited resources, this can make launching and expanding a product much easier.
APIs Help Startups Build Faster
More goes into developing a digital platform than many realise. They need payment processing, identity verification, communication, and a host of other functions. Developing every system internally would need a considerable input of time and money.
APIs are there to provide an alternative. A company is given the freedom to integrate specialist services from external providers while being able to concentrate its resources on its main product.
Payments provide a good example. Rather than creating a financial network, an e-commerce business can connect with existing payment providers. Information passes between the company’s platform and the financial service whenever customers make transactions.
Kenya Shows The Potential
Kenya provides a strong example of API-based financial infrastructure. Safaricom’s Daraja platform gives developers access to M-PESA APIs, allowing businesses to integrate mobile payments into websites and applications.
In April 2026, Daraja supported more than 66,000 integrations. This goes to show how a single established financial service can become the infrastructure used by thousands of other digital products.
Similar models are able to support companies expanding across Africa. Instead of asking customers to adopt unfamiliar payment methods, businesses can connect with services already widely used within individual markets.
Gaming Uses The Same Model
Another example of API-driven development can be seen when looking at online gaming. A platform can offer games that come from hundreds of studios while offering payment methods and other tech that come from separate companies.
An operator offering crash games online, for example, doesn’t necessarily develop those games itself. A specialist studio can provide the software, while an integration makes the product accessible through the operator’s existing platform and customer accounts.
This allows gaming companies to expand their products without becoming software studios themselves. The principle is similar to an online retailer integrating an established payment provider instead of developing its own banking infrastructure.
This means that gaming companies can expand their products at speed without the need to become software studios in their own right. This is similar to how an online retailer uses established payment providers rather than developing a standalone banking infrastructure.
APIs Can Make Expansion Easier
When technology companies enter another country, there tends to be a whole host of new challenges. The likes of currencies, ID requirements, and customer preferences can all be different as a border is crossed.
A modular platform can make adaptation easier. Instead of rebuilding the entire service, developers may be able to add or replace individual integrations according to the requirements of a particular market.
Payment infrastructure is especially important. A financial service widely used in Kenya won’t have the same position in Nigeria, Ghana or South Africa. Connecting with established local providers can consequently be important for companies pursuing regional expansion.
Familiar Products Have Changed Too
Developments linked to API aren’t just about new tech products. It has also had an impact on how established forms of digital entertainment are distributed.
Someone choosing to play slots online can potentially access titles from numerous independent studios through one gaming platform. The operator doesn’t have to develop every title because external providers can connect their games to the wider service.
Similar models exist throughout technology. Streaming platforms distribute content from different studios, marketplaces connect thousands of independent sellers with customers, and app stores provide access to software created by outside developers.
External Services Create New Risks
Businesses need to think about what happens if a supplier goes ahead and changes its prices, tech requirements, or availability. A service that helps a startup to get up and running quickly can soon become a dependency as the company grows.
Using APIs doesn’t remove the need for strong technical management. Monitoring services and planning for failures become increasingly important as platforms add more external connections.
Platforms Are Becoming Collections Of Services
APIs have changed what companies need to build themselves. A startup can combine payments, communications, identity tools and specialist content from different providers while presenting everything through a single product.
This can reduce development time and give smaller companies access to infrastructure that would be expensive to create independently. Africa’s fintech industry provides a particularly clear example, with mobile money systems creating foundations on which other digital businesses can build.
While technology has brought many celebrated breakthroughs in general healthcare, it’s important not to ignore the negative impacts it has introduced, especially in cancer care. Patients have suffered significant health challenges caused by medical technological failures, leading to a deteriorated quality of life and costly treatments.
Some of these medical failures qualify for legal compensation with the help of reputable personal injury attorneys. Below, we’ll look at how modern medical technologies can negatively impact cancer care and how you can maintain a safer approach or even compensation if you fall victim.
Risk of Over-Reliance on Technology
When medical practitioners over-rely on technology for even basic functions, the risk of detachment from important patient interactions increases. While data and test results are important for a successful diagnosis, physicians should not ignore basic diagnostic techniques, such as physical examinations and thorough patient histories. Over-reliance on technology makes doctors forget the simplest diagnostic approaches that would give them more accurate and reliable answers.
Overreliance on diagnostic tests can lead to unnecessary stress for patients, higher healthcare costs, and even misdiagnoses when results are misinterpreted. These mistakes can cost patients time and money treating the wrong diseases, which expose them to far worse risks, especially in the case of cancer. If this happens, you can seek compensation for a misdiagnosis with the help of relevant firms, such as a lung cancer law firm, depending on the type of misdiagnosis.
Data Privacy and Security Risks
With the rising use of technology, more patient and medical institutions’ data is gathered and stored on the internet. These electronic health records and other digital technologies only expose users to the prying eyes of cybercriminals and scammers. Patients are often the hardest hit when a breach occurs, as their sensitive medical information is exposed to malicious actors or third parties.
If not recovered in time, the information in the wrong hands can be used to commit crimes or engage in other fraudulent activities. This can expose the victims to identity theft and other security risks.
Disconnected Human Interactions
One of the key ingredients for successful treatment of chronic illnesses like cancer is the instillation of hope in patients. Face-to-face communication between physicians and patients helps convey this hope and build stronger connections for effective recovery.
However, when this communication pattern is replaced with the latest communication technologies, patients miss out on one of the most important aspects of effective recovery. When patients feel less cared for, even with the right medical attention, they may not recover fully or fast enough.
High Overall Costs
The adoption of technology in cancer care might have streamlined cancer treatment, but this efficiency comes at a cost that’s too high for many patients to bear. Patients in low-income areas may miss out entirely on their only line of hope if technologies remain expensive and accessible only to the few wealthy individuals. Healthcare facilities may also need to invest substantial resources to implement and maintain these technology systems.
While technology is a necessary part of modern healthcare, overreliance on it can lead to various costly challenges for both healthcare facilities and their patients. Understanding these challenges and mitigating them early can help secure safer, more affordable cancer care for more patients worldwide.
South African AI infrastructure startup Verascient has raised $1.2 million in an oversubscribed seed round as it builds technology designed to help businesses move from experimenting with artificial intelligence to deploying AI agents across everyday operations.
The round was led by Founder Collective, an early investor in companies including Uber, Airtable and Whoop. Andrena Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise and Summit Ventures also participated, alongside angel investors Alan Knott-Craig and Shayne Mann.
Verascient plans to use the capital to expand its engineering team, deepen its technology and support more enterprise deployments.
Founded by Keagan Stokoe and Emile Dos Santos Ferreira, the Cape Town-based startup is targeting financial services, insurance and logistics, industries where critical institutional knowledge is often scattered across emails, documents, meetings, spreadsheets and internal systems.
Building the infrastructure underneath enterprise AI
Verascient is positioning itself differently from the growing number of startups building AI assistants and applications. Its core technology is a temporal knowledge graph that maps an organization’s knowledge, workflows and history, allowing AI agents to operate with a deeper understanding of the business.
“At the centre of Verascient’s technology is a temporal knowledge graph designed to build and maintain a comprehensive understanding of an organisation,” said Ferreira, Verascient’s co-founder and CTO. The system is designed to preserve the history, permissions and provenance associated with information while making that knowledge available to AI agents.
The problem Verascient is targeting is increasingly important as businesses adopt AI.
Giving employees access to an AI model does not necessarily give that model an understanding of how a particular company works. Information may exist across dozens of systems, while key decisions and institutional knowledge can remain locked inside individual employees.
Ferreira argues that this creates a distinction between simply giving workers AI tools and building an organization capable of operating around AI.
“There is a significant difference between giving employees access to an AI tool and building a company that can operate intelligently with AI,” Ferreira said.
Verascient’s platform includes an agent-to-agent messaging protocol, background agents that can operate without continuous prompting, role-based access controls and more than 1,000 integrations with existing business systems. The company is also taking a hands-on approach to implementation.
Rather than leaving customers to determine how AI should fit into their operations, Verascient deploys AI engineers who work alongside company teams to identify inefficiencies and build workflows around specific business problems.
From hallucination detection to an AI operating system
Verascient initially developed technology for detecting hallucinations in AI models but it failed as large language models became more capable and fixed hallucination forcing the founders to push aside the standalone hallucination detector was becoming smaller. The company pivoted toward the infrastructure needed to make AI useful inside businesses. That shift has placed Verascient in a part of the AI market focused less on the model itself and more on the systems surrounding it. Stokoe said the opportunity is to rethink how businesses perform important functions rather than simply automate isolated tasks.
“AI is far more capable than most businesses yet realise,” Stokoe said. “The opportunity is to improve existing processes and, in many cases, rethink how the company works altogether.”
He said Verascient starts with areas including revenue, operations, customer experience, decision-making and delivery, then builds the systems and agents needed around those functions.
The objective, he said, is to create businesses that become progressively faster and more capable as they adopt more AI-enabled workflows.
South Africa becomes the talent bet
The funding round is also significant because Verascient intends to build its engineering organization in South Africa. The company is recruiting engineers and AI builders with the ambition of attracting the country’s highest-level technical talent.
Stokoe described the target as the “top 1%” of AI talent in South Africa, with an emphasis on people capable of taking ownership of difficult technical and commercial problems. That strategy comes at a time when African technology companies continue to compete with global technology firms for scarce engineering talent. For Verascient, however, South Africa is not simply a lower-cost engineering base. The founders are positioning the country as a source of technical talent capable of building products for international markets.
“We are looking for high-agency people with the curiosity, technical depth and ambition to build something meaningful to solve real-world problems,” Stokoe said.
He also sees AI as creating opportunities for South African engineers rather than simply eliminating jobs.
“AI will change the shape of many jobs,” Stokoe said. “It also creates a real opportunity for South Africa to develop more people who can build and deploy these systems in the real world.”
Founders bring deep AI and technology experience
Ferreira began programming at the age of 12 and later became an early developer at Replit. While still in high school, he built an on-device AI assistant that attracted more than 200,000 users and won Most Innovative Solution at the App of the Year Awards. He later completed an MPhil in Advanced Computer Science at the University of Cambridge and has worked on research involving enterprise AI costs and AI energy efficiency.
Stokoe was previously part of the founding team at Fibertime, a South African pay-as-you-go fiber provider that has grown to more than 1.5 million users per month. He also founded Purple Dorm, an AI consultancy that worked with organizations in South Africa and the UK. The founders are now attempting to turn that experience into a global enterprise AI company built from South Africa.
Why investors are backing the company
Founder Collective’s participation gives Verascient a notable early-stage technology investor, while Cambridge Enterprise adds a connection to the university ecosystem where Ferreira developed his technical background. The company is betting that as businesses deploy multiple AI agents, they will need a common layer capable of giving those agents access to reliable organizational knowledge and the ability to operate within established permissions and workflows.
That is the thinking behind Verascient’s “operating system” analogy. The temporal knowledge graph acts as the underlying information layer, while agent-to-agent communication allows different AI processes to work together. Background agents can perform tasks without being continuously prompted, while access controls determine what those agents are allowed to see and do.
“When running on our system, an agent doesn’t start from a prompt, it starts with the collective knowledge and established workflows of the company,” Ferreira said.
That distinction could become increasingly important as enterprise AI moves beyond individual productivity tools toward systems capable of carrying out multi-step business processes.
For now, Verascient is using its new $1.2 million to build the team and infrastructure required for that transition. Its larger ambition is to make South Africa a base for a company competing in one of the fastest-growing segments of the global technology industry: the infrastructure that allows businesses to operate with AI at their core.
ASUS Republic of Gamers is stepping up its focus on Kenya’s gaming and digital-creation market, using Nairobi’s Otamatsuri 2026 to put high-performance hardware in front of a growing community of gamers, artists, animators and developers.
The ASUS ROG brand was the official technology partner for the second edition of Otamatsuri, an anime and manga convention held Saturday at the Carnivore Grounds in Nairobi. The event brought together communities around Japanese and Korean pop culture, including gaming, cosplay and music.
ASUS said more than 4,000 people attended the event, giving the company an opportunity to position its gaming hardware beyond traditional PC gaming and toward a broader creative economy.
At its experiential booth, attendees tested gaming laptops, handheld devices and other hardware designed for demanding workloads. The company targeted users whose computing needs increasingly overlap across gaming, video production, animation, graphic design and software development.
The push comes as AI is becoming another consideration in the purchase of premium computers. ASUS showcased Copilot+ PCs equipped with dedicated Neural Processing Units, or NPUs, which are designed to handle certain AI workloads locally rather than relying entirely on cloud computing.
For Kenyan creators, that could translate into faster AI-assisted workflows in supported applications, while reducing the need to send every task to remote servers. For ASUS, the broader opportunity is to sell high-performance machines as productivity and creative tools rather than products aimed only at gamers.
The company also demonstrated its latest ROG hardware, including the ROG Strix SCAR 18 G835, ROG Ally, ASUS TUF Gaming A15 and TUF Gaming F16.
The G835 designation refers to the 2026 ROG Strix SCAR 18, ASUS’s flagship 18-inch gaming laptop. The machine is positioned for demanding gaming as well as workloads such as content creation, multimedia editing, game development and AI applications.
The event also highlighted the challenge facing premium hardware brands in markets such as Kenya: convincing consumers that expensive devices offer value beyond specifications.
ASUS used the event to engage consumers around technical support, durability and product longevity, including its Perfect Warranty service, which provides localized protection against certain accidental damage.
That after-sales proposition could become increasingly important as more Kenyan consumers and businesses invest in higher-priced laptops for professional creative work. Hardware failures can represent more than a repair bill for freelancers and creators whose income depends on having a functioning workstation.
The company’s local distribution strategy is also becoming more important as the gaming and creator markets develop. The ROG and ASUS models showcased at Otamatsuri are available in Kenya through authorized retail partners Elevetus Technologies and Anisuma.
Otamatsuri itself illustrates the size of the audience technology companies are beginning to pursue. The 2026 convention was a full-day event at the Carnivore Grounds featuring anime, manga, cosplay, gaming and other elements of Japanese and Korean pop culture.
For ASUS, the opportunity extends beyond selling gaming machines. Kenya’s emerging creator economy needs computers capable of handling increasingly sophisticated workloads, while gamers represent a highly engaged technology audience that is often among the first to adopt higher-performance hardware.
By putting its products directly in front of those communities, ASUS is betting that the next generation of Kenyan PC buyers will see gaming hardware not simply as entertainment equipment, but as a platform for creating, developing and earning online.
Kenya is moving to operationalize its new National Cybersecurity Agency, appointing cybersecurity expert Dr. Martin Koyabe as chairman of the board as the government steps up efforts to protect critical digital infrastructure and the country’s expanding online economy.
Koyabe’s three-year term as Non-Executive Chairperson began Aug. 21, according to Gazette Notice No. 13506. His appointment is a key step in establishing the agency’s leadership structure.
The National Cybersecurity Agency was legally established on May 15 under Legal Notice No. 89, meaning the latest move is not the creation of the agency but the transition toward making it operational.
The agency is mandated to coordinate national cybersecurity, protect critical information infrastructure and strengthen Kenya’s ability to prevent and respond to cyber threats.
That responsibility is becoming more urgent as Kenya expands digital payments, mobile services, cloud computing, e-government and other online infrastructure. The Communications Authority detected 3.4 billion cyber threat events in the three months through March, underscoring the scale of the challenge.
Koyabe brings more than three decades of experience across ICT, telecommunications, cybersecurity, digital policy and emerging technologies. He has worked on cybersecurity capacity-building initiatives across Africa and served as a Senior Advisor for Africa at the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise.
He has also been involved in the African Union-GFCE cyber-capacity-building initiative, which supports efforts to strengthen cyber resilience across the continent’s 55 countries.
Koyabe is a founding partner and technical director at Africa Cyber Expertise, where his work has included national cybersecurity assessments, strategy development, regulatory advisory and cyber-capacity-building programs.
His academic background includes a PhD in Communication Engineering from the University of Aberdeen, according to his professional profile. He has also undertaken executive and professional studies at institutions including the University of Cambridge and Harvard Kennedy School.
The combination of technical and policy experience is significant for NCSA, whose mandate extends beyond responding to individual attacks. The agency is expected to coordinate cybersecurity across government and the private sector, assess the resilience of critical infrastructure, support incident response and help develop local cybersecurity capabilities.
Its responsibilities include operating the National Cybersecurity Operations Center, supporting sector-specific cyber operations centers, conducting vulnerability assessments and developing technical capabilities for cyber defense.
The agency is also expected to establish a Cybersecurity Center of Excellence focused on research, innovation and locally developed cybersecurity technologies.
For Kenya’s businesses, the agency’s emergence could push cybersecurity further into boardrooms. Banks, telecom operators, payment companies and other critical digital-service providers face growing pressure to manage cyber risk as an operational and financial threat rather than solely an IT issue.
The appointment comes as Kenya seeks to expand its digital economy and attract investment into technology and digital services. Protecting that infrastructure is increasingly tied to the country’s ability to sustain growth. Koyabe’s challenge will be turning a legally established institution into an effective national cybersecurity coordinator.
Sabvest Capital is investing about $47 million in South African telecommunications companies Frogfoot and Vox, betting that faster fiber expansion into lower-income communities can unlock growth in a market where millions of households remain without high-speed internet.
The investment holding company will subscribe for new shares in Frogfoot and Vox for $47 million, giving it an interest of at least 8.97% in the businesses. The transaction values the combined operations at about $900 million on an enterprise-value basis and about $525 million after debt. The figures are converted from South African rand at roughly 16 rand to the dollar on Aug. 24, 2026.
The deal gives Sabvest exposure to one of South Africa’s most important broadband infrastructure plays at a time when fiber operators are shifting their attention from affluent suburbs and business districts to townships and lower-income communities.
Frogfoot is South Africa’s fourth-largest fiber network operator and provides open-access fiber infrastructure for homes, businesses and other customers. Vox operates as a national internet service provider serving households, businesses and public-sector customers, with services spanning connectivity, voice, cloud, collaboration and cybersecurity.
The transaction also includes Hypa, Vox’s prepaid broadband business, which is targeting lower-income households through networks including Frogfoot Rise, Vuma Reach and Openserve.
Betting on the next wave of broadband growth
The investment comes despite the companies’ recent financial challenges.
Frogfoot and Vox reported a combined net loss after tax of about $16 million for the year ended Aug. 31, 2025, while their combined net asset value was negative by roughly $42 million.
Sabvest is therefore not making a conventional investment in profitable telecom operations. Instead, it is backing the value of the underlying fiber infrastructure and the potential for higher network utilization as the companies expand into markets that have historically been poorly served by fixed broadband.
That opportunity is substantial.
The companies are targeting as many as 15 million homes that could potentially be connected to high-speed internet, compared with about 4.5 million homes currently connected, according to Frogfoot Chief Executive Officer Abraham van der Merwe. The group plans to increase annual fiber deployment fourfold to about 360,000 homes a year, with much of the expansion focused on townships.
That makes the investment as much about market expansion as infrastructure ownership.
South Africa has one of the continent’s most developed telecommunications markets, but broadband access remains uneven. Fiber operators have traditionally concentrated on areas where household incomes and customer density can support the economics of network construction. The next stage of growth is likely to depend on whether operators can make fiber commercially viable in lower-income areas.
Capital to accelerate rollout
Sabvest’s investment forms part of a broader financing and shareholder restructuring involving several investors.
The largest shareholder grouping will be a consortium led by DNI 4PL Contracts and including Sabvest, Masimong Group and Draper Gain International. The consortium will hold about 34.8% of the companies, with DNI itself holding 18.13%. Sabvest currently owns about 19.4% of DNI directly and indirectly.
The wider transaction values the companies at about $900 million, comprising roughly $525 million of after-debt equity value and about $375 million of debt.
For Sabvest, the investment will be funded through new term bank debt rather than existing cash resources.
That financing structure highlights the investment thesis: Sabvest is committing capital to an infrastructure-heavy business where the payoff depends on scaling the network and increasing the number of paying customers connected to it.
Townships become the next fiber battleground
The shift toward townships reflects a broader change in South Africa’s broadband market.
For years, fiber companies focused on affluent residential neighborhoods and commercial centers, where customers were more likely to afford relatively expensive fixed broadband packages. The market is now moving toward prepaid and lower-cost offerings designed for customers with less predictable incomes.
Vox’s Hypa business is part of that strategy, while Frogfoot recently introduced Frogfoot Leap, a prepaid fiber service designed to provide uncapped broadband without long-term contracts.
The economics could become increasingly attractive if operators can reduce the cost of deploying networks while building sufficient customer density.
Van der Merwe has described the new capital as a way to significantly increase rollout velocity, particularly in townships and lower-income communities. The companies estimate that their addressable market could reach millions of additional households.
For consumers, the expansion could mean greater access to high-speed internet for education, digital financial services, remote work and small businesses. For investors, the opportunity is to turn previously underserved communities into a large new broadband customer base.
Sabvest takes an infrastructure bet
Sabvest, which has a market value of about $344 million, is making the investment through its wholly owned subsidiary Sabvest Finance and Guarantee Corporation.
The size of the investment is significant relative to Sabvest’s own market value, underscoring the importance of the transaction to its portfolio.
The investment also brings Sabvest closer to the operational growth strategy of Frogfoot and Vox, while the broader transaction brings together financial investors and an experienced management team.
Frogfoot has operated for more than 25 years and has built a substantial open-access fiber network across South Africa. Vox provides the customer-facing layer, giving the combined group exposure to both infrastructure and retail broadband economics. (Business Day)
That combination could become increasingly valuable as fiber penetration grows and operators compete for customers beyond the traditional middle- and upper-income market.
Transaction set for October
The boards of Frogfoot and Vox have approved the transaction, with the relevant agreements already executed. The investment is scheduled to become effective on Oct. 1, 2026, subject to the outstanding conditions being fulfilled by Sept. 24.
The deal leaves Sabvest with a minority position, but gives the investment group exposure to a broadband market that is entering a new phase of expansion.
The bigger bet is whether South Africa’s fiber industry can make the economics of connecting lower-income communities work at scale.
With a potential market of millions of unconnected homes and a target of 360,000 new homes passed or connected each year, Frogfoot and Vox are positioning fiber as less of a suburban premium service and more of a mass-market infrastructure business.
For Sabvest, the $47 million investment is a wager that the next significant growth opportunity in South African broadband will come not from connecting the richest neighborhoods, but from bringing high-speed internet to the communities that have been left behind.
SBM Bank Kenya has opened its 34th branch in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, expanding its physical footprint into the Mt. Kenya region as the lender targets the area’s growing agriculture, tourism, conservancy, real estate and SME economy.
The branch, located at Peak Place Building in Nanyuki Town, gives SBM a presence in a market anchored by major conservancies including Ol Pejeta, Lewa, Borana and Loisaba, as well as high-end tourism lodges, horticulture exporters, agribusinesses, real estate developers and SMEs operating across Nanyuki and Timau.
The lender is also positioning the branch to serve businesses and institutions connected to the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK), alongside farmers, flower and horticulture exporters and other institutional customers in the region.
The expansion comes as SBM Bank moves to convert a sharp improvement in financial performance into balance-sheet growth and deeper customer acquisition outside Kenya’s largest urban centers.
For the six months ended June 30, 2026, SBM Bank Kenya reported a 171.3% increase in profit before tax to KSh548 million, from KSh202 million a year earlier. Net profit rose 88.2% to KSh380.2 million, while operating profit increased 279% to KSh852 million.
Customer deposits increased 24% to KSh94 billion, while net loans and advances grew 18% to KSh54.1 billion. Total assets stood at KSh109.9 billion at the end of June, compared with KSh105.7 billion in December 2025.
The bank also reported an improvement in asset quality, with its gross non-performing loan ratio falling to 17.3% from 32.4% a year earlier. Shareholders’ equity increased to KSh11.1 billion.
The Nanyuki expansion therefore comes at a point when SBM is showing greater capacity to lend and take on new customers, particularly in markets where businesses require relationship-based banking alongside digital services.
“Nanyuki is exactly the kind of market our strategy is built for. The region is a high-growth economy where relationship banking and digital convenience should work together,” said SBM Bank Kenya CEO Bhartesh Shah.
“We are determined to bring banking closer to our customers at a time when our own numbers show the model is working. This branch is not a one-off activity, it is proof that we can back our growth ambitions with a strong balance sheet,” Shah said.
Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu said the region’s mix of agribusiness, tourism, real estate and manufacturing presents significant opportunities for private-sector investment.
“From agribusiness and tourism to real estate and manufacturing, the potential here is enormous, and we are ready to work with partners who share our ambition for this region,” Irungu said.
For SBM, the move also reflects a broader shift in Kenya’s banking industry, where lenders are continuing to add physical branches even as mobile and internet banking become more dominant. Physical branches are increasingly being used for relationship management, business acquisition and complex financial services rather than simply cash transactions.
The Nanyuki branch is SBM Bank Kenya’s first new outlet since it opened its Kilifi branch in July 2025, bringing the lender’s national branch network to 34. The expansion is aimed at improving access to banking services in emerging commercial centers while allowing the bank to build deeper relationships with businesses and institutions outside Nairobi and other major cities.
The strategy is also consistent with SBM’s focus on business development at branch level. The bank’s recruitment for the Nanyuki branch has emphasized business acquisition, customer growth, profitability and alignment with the lender’s wider strategy.
With deposits approaching KSh100 billion and its loan book expanding, SBM is entering the next phase of its Kenyan growth story with a stronger financial base. Nanyuki gives the lender access to a regional economy where tourism, conservation, horticulture, agriculture and property development generate demand for both conventional banking and more specialized corporate and SME financing.
The challenge will be turning that economic activity into profitable loans and deposits while maintaining the asset-quality improvements that have helped drive the bank’s 2026 earnings recovery.
As a woman, you may have noticed that the obstacles in your career do not always appear discriminatory on their own. They tend to look like a manager who stands too close, a salary you can’t compare to anyone else’s, or a project quietly reassigned after you shared some news. Each of these examples has a legal shape underneath it, but you can’t use what you can’t name. Here’s more about three common problems women in business face and how they should react.
Report Sexual Harassment Instead of Absorbing IT
If a colleague or a manager has made you uncomfortable at work, you may have spent longer questioning your own reaction than questioning his behavior. A man who behaves this way usually controls something you need, like a promotion, a shift, a client account, or a visa sponsorship, which is why sexual abuse or harassment shows up more often in workplaces with few women in senior roles.
You must understand that your employer cannot punish you for raising a complaint, which is the whole point of the protections available to you. However, only a lawyer can tell you what your evidence shows before you decide anything. These experts will make you understand that you have a second claim if an employer demotes you after a complaint, as retaliation is illegal on its own terms.
The deadlines for filing are shorter than most people expect, so the sooner you ask, the more options stay open to you. Fortunately, most employment lawyers take these cases on contingency, and the outcomes range from a negotiated exit with compensation to a policy change that protects the woman hired after you.
Do Not Accept Lower Salaries
If you suspect you’re paid less than a male colleague doing the same job, you’re unlikely to confirm it by asking your employer. Companies keep pay private for a reason; after all, a gap no one can see is a gap no one has to explain.
Your options depend partly on where you work, as a growing number of states now require employers to post salary ranges in job ads or provide them upon request. Federal law goes much further back, and the Equal Pay Act has required equal pay for substantially equal work since 1963, with job content determining what counts as equal. However, if you want to take action, you should first contact a lawyer. They can compare what you actually do against what your colleague does and tell you whether the pay gap is legal.
Push Back When Motherhood Changes How You’re Treated
If your responsibilities shrank after you announced a pregnancy, or after your caring duties became visible at work, you’ve reached the point where many women’s careers stall. Researchers who study hiring decisions have found that mothers are judged as less committed than women without children with identical resumes.
However, employers who act on this belief that a mother is less committed now stand on weaker legal ground than they used to. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires your employer to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and recovery, and a refusal is actionable by itself.
To take legal action, you need to keep a dated record of what changed and when. Only a lawyer can tell you whether what you’ve written down amounts to a claim. Fortunately, that first conversation usually costs you nothing.
Endnote
It is common for women in business to experience unique problems, but they don’t have to solve them alone. You don’t have to be sure before you raise a question. However, working with a legal expert puts you in a better position to understand what a realistic outcome looks like before you decide whether to act.
When a family receives a diagnosis for a complex medical condition, the first challenge often begins after the medical appointment ends. Caregivers may search online for answers about the condition, available support, and what steps to take next, but finding accurate and easy-to-understand information is not always simple.
Medical resources can be highly technical, spread across multiple platforms, or difficult to connect with a family’s specific situation. This article explores how HealthTech startups are solving these challenges by creating digital platforms that improve access to medical information, simplify patient education, and help families make informed healthcare decisions.
The Information Gap Families Face After a Medical Diagnosis
After receiving a diagnosis, families often need practical information about symptoms, care options, and long-term support. However, many healthcare resources are created with medical professionals as the primary audience, leaving patients and caregivers to interpret complex information on their own. The main challenges include:
Medical terminology that can be difficult for non-specialists to understand.
Information spread across multiple websites and healthcare sources.
Limited guidance for preparing questions before medical appointments.
This information gap can make healthcare decisions stressful, especially for families managing conditions that require ongoing support. HealthTech startups are addressing this challenge by developing platforms that organize medical knowledge into patient-focused formats.
How HealthTech Startups Are Improving Patient Education
HealthTech companies are transforming patient education by using technology to deliver healthcare information in a more accessible way. Instead of requiring users to navigate complex medical documents, modern platforms focus on presenting information through structured guides, digital tools, and user-friendly resources. Many HealthTech solutions now provide:
Condition-specific educational content.
Simplified explanations of medical concepts.
Digital resources for understanding treatment and care pathways.
Tools that help families prepare for discussions with healthcare providers.
For families researching neurological conditions, reliable educational resources can help them understand important details about a diagnosis and available support options. Learning about specific classifications and variations of a condition allows caregivers to communicate effectively with healthcare professionals.
Platforms such as cerebralpalsyguide.com help families explore information about different types of cerebral palsy through organized, condition-focused resources. These digital resources support better conversations between families and medical teams by helping caregivers arrive at appointments with a clearer understanding of their concerns.
Digital Tools Helping Families Make Better Healthcare Decisions
Beyond medical education, HealthTech startups are developing tools that help families manage healthcare information throughout the care journey. These solutions make it easier to organize records, communicate with specialists, and monitor important health details. Examples of digital healthcare tools include:
Telehealth platforms that connect families with healthcare professionals remotely.
Mobile applications for tracking symptoms, appointments, and treatment progress.
Online communities that provide caregiver support and shared experiences.
These technologies help families become more involved in healthcare planning while reducing the challenges of managing information across different providers and services.
What HealthTech Startups Need to Prioritize for Better Patient Support
Building effective healthcare technology requires a strong focus on trust and usability. Families depend on these platforms for important decisions, making accuracy and accessibility essential. HealthTech startups should prioritize:
Medical content reviewed by qualified professionals.
Simple user experiences for people with different levels of technical knowledge.
Accessible design features for diverse users.
Regular updates to reflect current healthcare guidance.
Successful healthcare platforms combine innovation with reliable information, ensuring technology supports rather than complicates the patient experience.
Endnote
HealthTech startups are changing how families find, understand, and use medical information. By creating accessible digital resources and patient-focused tools, these companies are helping people approach healthcare decisions with greater confidence.
The future of digital healthcare will depend on solutions that combine technology, accuracy, and accessibility to ensure reliable medical knowledge is available when families need it most.
Samsung Electronics is taking its connected-home strategy directly to Kenyan consumers, using three Nairobi shopping malls to demonstrate how smartphones, televisions, wearables and AI-enabled appliances can operate as a single technology ecosystem rather than as standalone products.
The Korean electronics giant will launch its Connected Living Experience at The Junction Mall from August 28 to 30, followed by The Galleria Mall from September 4 to 6 and Sarit Mall from October 2 to 4.
The campaign is more than a conventional product showcase. It reflects Samsung’s broader attempt to shift consumers from buying individual devices to participating in an ecosystem built around SmartThings, its Internet of Things platform that connects and manages compatible devices across the home.
That shift has important implications for Samsung’s business in Kenya, where the company is competing not only on hardware but increasingly on software, artificial intelligence, connectivity and the recurring relationship it can build with consumers after a device is purchased.
Samsung says SmartThings had more than 430 million users globally as of December 2025, giving the platform a substantial installed base from which to expand connected-home services.
From gadgets to an ecosystem
For years, consumer electronics companies competed largely on specifications: the number of megapixels in a smartphone camera, the size of a television, refrigerator capacity or washing-machine efficiency.
Samsung is increasingly selling something different.
The proposition is that the Galaxy smartphone can become the control center for a home in which the television, refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioner and other appliances communicate with one another.
Its SmartThings platform allows users to remotely control compatible devices, create automations and monitor energy consumption. Samsung has also expanded the platform with features such as 3D Map View, device diagnostics, energy management and home routines.
The Nairobi activation is designed to make that proposition tangible.
Instead of placing a phone, television or refrigerator on separate display stands, Samsung will recreate living-room, kitchen and laundry environments where consumers can see how the products interact.
That distinction matters because connected-home technology can be difficult to sell when its benefits remain theoretical. A consumer may understand why a new television has a better display, but the economic and practical value of connecting that television to a refrigerator, smartphone or washing machine is less immediately obvious.
Samsung is effectively turning the mall into a live demonstration of its ecosystem strategy.
AI is becoming the connective layer
Artificial intelligence is central to the pitch.
Samsung’s latest connected-home strategy goes beyond allowing consumers to switch appliances on and off remotely. The company is increasingly using AI to interpret usage patterns, automate routines and optimize the operation of connected devices.
SmartThings’ AI Energy Mode, for example, is designed to analyze usage patterns and adjust connected appliances to reduce energy consumption. Samsung’s Africa platform highlights energy management as one of the core use cases for its connected-home ecosystem.
That is particularly relevant in Kenya, where electricity costs and household energy consumption are important considerations for consumers.
Samsung has also been extending AI deeper into individual appliances. Its AI-enabled refrigerators, for example, can use AI Vision to identify food items and support food-management and recipe functions, while connected cooking appliances can receive instructions through the SmartThings ecosystem.
The result is a shift in the definition of an appliance.
A refrigerator is no longer simply a machine that keeps food cold. A television is no longer simply a screen. A washing machine is increasingly positioned as part of an intelligent household system.
Kenya becomes an important test market
Samsung’s decision to take the experience into three major Nairobi malls also highlights the importance of physical consumer engagement in a market where smart-home adoption is still developing.
The company needs consumers to understand the value proposition before asking them to invest in multiple connected devices.
That creates a potentially important commercial cycle.
A consumer may initially purchase a Galaxy smartphone, then add a Samsung television, followed by an appliance. Each additional device increases the usefulness of the ecosystem and creates another opportunity for Samsung to retain the customer within its hardware and software environment.
The strategy is already visible in Samsung’s wider Kenyan business.
The company recently used a Nairobi event to promote SmartThings alongside its Galaxy A Series smartphones, demonstrating appliance and lighting controls as part of a broader push to make the smartphone an entry point into the connected home.
Samsung has also positioned its 2026 television lineup in Kenya around AI and SmartThings, turning the television into a dashboard for connected devices rather than simply an entertainment product.
The bigger opportunity is beyond households
The connected-home strategy could also give Samsung a pathway into Kenya’s commercial property market.
Samsung already markets SmartThings Pro as a business-focused IoT platform for residential developments, hotels, offices and other commercial environments. The platform allows businesses to remotely manage connected equipment, monitor energy consumption and automate building operations.
That creates a much larger addressable market than individual household appliances.
Property developers could use connected technology as an amenity in new apartments. Hotels could offer guests digitally managed rooms. Offices could automate heating, cooling and other building systems.
For Samsung, that means SmartThings can potentially become more than a consumer application. It can become infrastructure sitting behind homes, buildings and commercial spaces.
Retail promotions are part of the strategy
The Nairobi activation also combines technology education with retail incentives.
At The Junction Mall, Samsung says Azone Outlet will offer discounts of up to 60% on selected home appliances, while Carrefour will offer discounts of up to 25%. Quick Plug will offer discounts of up to 10% on selected Samsung mobile devices, alongside bundled accessories on selected products.
The commercial logic is straightforward: demonstrate the ecosystem, then reduce the friction involved in purchasing the hardware required to build it.
This is important because connected-home ecosystems face a classic adoption problem. The technology becomes more valuable as consumers own more compatible devices, but the initial cost of assembling those devices can be significant.
Retail promotions can help Samsung move consumers from curiosity to adoption.
The battle is moving from devices to relationships
Samsung’s Kenyan strategy reflects a broader change in consumer technology.
Hardware remains the foundation of the business, but the competitive advantage increasingly comes from what happens after the sale.
A smartphone that connects seamlessly to a television, refrigerator and washing machine is harder to replace with a competitor’s device if the consumer has already invested in the ecosystem.
That creates a form of customer lock-in driven not necessarily by restrictions, but by convenience.
Samsung is also not building its ecosystem entirely in isolation. SmartThings supports compatible third-party devices and industry standards such as Matter, broadening the potential range of products that can participate in connected-home environments.
The challenge will be converting the concept into meaningful mass-market adoption.
Kenyan consumers are likely to judge connected-home technology less by how futuristic it looks in a shopping mall and more by whether it saves time, reduces electricity consumption, improves convenience and justifies the additional cost.
Samsung’s three-city activation will give the company an opportunity to make that case directly.
For Samsung, however, the stakes are larger than a series of mall demonstrations. The company is betting that the next phase of consumer electronics in Kenya will not be defined by which device has the best specifications, but by which technology company can make all the devices in a consumer’s life work better together. And Samsung wants SmartThings to be at the center of that relationship.
Uber Technologies Inc. has been hit with an €825 million ($966 million) fine by the Dutch data protection regulator over the use of automated systems to suspend and deactivate drivers, putting the growing use of algorithms to manage gig workers under renewed regulatory scrutiny.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority, known as the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens or AP, said Uber violated the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation by allowing automated systems to make decisions affecting drivers without adequate human intervention and by failing to properly inform them about the process.
The penalty is the second-largest fine issued under the GDPR, behind the €1.2 billion penalty imposed on Meta Platforms in 2023. The Dutch regulator said the violations occurred between 2018 and 2022.
The case goes beyond Uber. It puts a spotlight on a fundamental question facing technology companies as artificial intelligence and automated decision-making become embedded in digital businesses: How much power should companies give software to determine whether a person can earn a living?
When an Algorithm Becomes a Gatekeeper
Uber’s business depends heavily on software. Algorithms match passengers with drivers, calculate fares, detect suspected fraud and monitor activity across the platform.
That automation allows Uber to operate at enormous scale. But the Dutch regulator found that some of the company’s automated systems went further, making decisions that could directly affect drivers’ ability to work.
The investigation followed complaints from 171 drivers represented by the French human-rights organization Ligue des droits de l’Homme. Because Uber’s European headquarters are in Amsterdam, the Dutch authority handled the case under the EU’s regulatory framework for cross-border data protection enforcement.
According to the regulator, Uber’s systems were used to suspend drivers suspected of fraudulent behavior, including alleged unnecessary detours designed to increase fares or accepting rides without completing them. Drivers could also be permanently removed from the platform based on low customer ratings.
The AP said the problem was not simply that Uber used algorithms. It was that the company allowed automated processing to produce significant consequences without adequate human oversight and did not properly inform drivers about the automated decision-making involved.
That distinction is increasingly important as companies automate decisions that once required a manager, investigator or customer-service representative.
GDPR Puts Limits on Automated Decisions
The legal foundation for the case is Article 22 of the GDPR, which gives individuals protections against decisions based solely on automated processing when those decisions have legal or similarly significant effects.
For a ride-hailing driver, losing access to a platform can have an immediate economic impact. A driver who depends on Uber for income can go from receiving trips to receiving none, potentially without warning.
The Dutch regulator said Uber’s practices breached drivers’ rights because the automated decisions could have significant consequences and because drivers were not adequately informed about the process.
The case illustrates why algorithmic management is becoming a major regulatory issue.
A recommendation algorithm deciding which video a user sees is one thing. An algorithm deciding whether a worker can continue earning money is another.
Uber Disputes the Findings
Uber said it strongly disagrees with the decision and considers the fine disproportionate. The company plans to appeal.
The company argues that the Dutch regulator examined historical policies that were discontinued years ago and said its current systems include human reviews, safeguards and mechanisms through which drivers can challenge suspensions.
Uber has also disputed the regulator’s characterization of its permanent deactivations. The company said only 126 drivers in Europe were permanently deactivated because of customer ratings in 2021 and argued that permanent account closures were not carried out solely by automated systems.
The appeal could therefore become an important test of how European regulators and courts interpret the boundary between automated decision-making and meaningful human oversight.
The issue is not whether Uber can use algorithms. It is whether the company must ensure that a human being has a genuine opportunity to review a consequential decision before it takes effect.
A Bigger Fight Over Algorithmic Management
The Uber case arrives as European regulators are increasing their scrutiny of how technology companies use artificial intelligence, personal data and automated decision-making.
For years, algorithms have quietly become part of the management infrastructure of the gig economy.
Ride-hailing companies use software to determine which drivers receive requests. Delivery platforms monitor completion rates and cancellations. Marketplaces identify suspected fraud. Financial platforms use automated systems to assess customers and transactions.
The efficiency gains are substantial. A platform serving millions of users cannot manually review every transaction.
But automation creates a different problem when an algorithm makes a mistake.
A human manager can hear an explanation, reconsider evidence or recognize that an unusual event does not necessarily indicate fraud. An automated system may simply classify the behavior and trigger a predetermined response.
That is why regulators are increasingly focusing not only on whether algorithms are accurate, but also on whether people affected by those algorithms have transparency, recourse and access to meaningful human intervention.
The Africa Implications
The issue is particularly relevant to Africa, where ride-hailing and other platform businesses have become increasingly important parts of urban economies.
Uber operates across several African markets, while competitors and other digital platforms have built businesses around similar models. In cities such as Nairobi, Lagos, Johannesburg and Accra, drivers and delivery workers increasingly interact with platforms through algorithms that influence their access to customers and income.
The Dutch decision does not automatically impose European GDPR obligations on every African platform. But it provides a warning about the direction of regulation as African governments strengthen data-protection regimes and examine how technology companies use personal information.
For African startups, the lesson is not that algorithms should be avoided.
It is that algorithmic efficiency cannot come at the expense of accountability.
A platform that automatically blocks a driver, freezes an account, rejects a transaction or identifies a user as fraudulent needs to consider what happens when the system is wrong.
That becomes even more important as artificial intelligence makes automated decisions increasingly sophisticated and harder for ordinary users to understand.
The Cost of Getting Automation Wrong
The €825 million penalty is large enough to make algorithmic governance a boardroom issue.
European data-protection rules can impose fines of significant proportions of a company’s global turnover, meaning failures involving personal data and automated decision-making can become material financial risks rather than simply compliance issues.
The Dutch regulator’s action also marks the fourth significant penalty it has imposed on Uber. Its previous major enforcement action against the company included a €290 million fine in 2024 over the transfer of European drivers’ personal data to the United States without adequate protection.
Uber’s appeal means the final legal outcome could take time. But the regulatory message is already clear.
Companies can automate the management of millions of interactions, but they cannot necessarily automate responsibility.
As artificial intelligence moves deeper into hiring, lending, insurance, customer service, fraud detection and platform work, the question of who gets to challenge an algorithm’s decision will become increasingly important.
For Uber, that debate has produced a $966 million price tag.
For the broader technology industry, it could be the beginning of a much larger reckoning over who is accountable when software decides who gets to work.
Kenya’s technology story is often told through the founders who built companies, the investors who financed them and the executives who took African businesses into new markets. Less visible are the lawyers, policy specialists and governance professionals who helped create the rules under which that digital economy could grow.
Rosemary Koech-Kimwatu was one of them. For nearly two decades, Koech-Kimwatu worked across law, fintech, telecommunications, public policy and data protection, building a career around an increasingly important question for Africa’s digital economy: how can technology scale while protecting the people and institutions that depend on it?
Her answer evolved with the technology itself.
She moved from traditional legal and regulatory work into fintech, then public policy in telecommunications, and ultimately into senior data-protection leadership at KCB Bank Group. Along the way, she became an active participant in Kenya’s internet-governance and technology-policy community, helping bring legal thinking into conversations that increasingly involved digital rights, innovation, privacy and regulation.
Koech-Kimwatu died on August 21, 2026, at her home in Ngong. She was 40. Her family has not publicly disclosed the cause of her death. Her death has prompted tributes across Kenya’s technology, legal, fintech and data-protection communities, where she was remembered not simply for the positions she held but for the bridges she built between industries.
Education That Went Beyond The Law
Koech-Kimwatu’s professional story began with law, but her education was broader than the traditional path into legal practice.
She earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi, giving her the legal foundation that would later become central to her work in technology regulation and public policy. She subsequently obtained an Advanced Diploma in Public Relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, an unusual but revealing combination for someone who would eventually spend much of her career operating between business, government, technology and the public.
Her academic choices would prove valuable as technology companies increasingly found themselves operating in environments where legal compliance alone was not enough.
Technology businesses needed to understand regulators. Regulators needed to understand innovation. Companies needed to communicate complex policy questions to customers, governments and other stakeholders. And lawyers increasingly needed to understand technologies that did not exist when many of the country’s traditional legal frameworks were written.
Koech-Kimwatu built her career around that intersection. She became an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, while developing expertise in technology law, public policy, fintech regulation and data protection. The result was a professional profile that could move comfortably between legal analysis and the commercial realities of fast-changing technology businesses. That combination became one of her defining advantages.
From Legal Practice To Fintech
Before she became widely known for data protection, Koech-Kimwatu had already spent years working in Kenya’s emerging fintech industry.
She began her professional career at Caritas Nairobi, where she served as a Legal and Administrative Officer and contributed to the establishment of Caritas Microfinance Bank. She subsequently moved into technology and fintech, serving as Senior Associate for Legal and Regulatory Affairs at Mobile Decisioning Holding Ltd. (MODE) before becoming Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at fintech company WayaWaya.
Those roles placed her inside an industry undergoing a profound transformation. Kenya’s financial system was increasingly moving away from the traditional model of banking through physical branches and toward mobile money, digital payments, automated decision-making and technology-enabled financial services. For lawyers working in the sector, that meant the job was changing too.
It was no longer enough to interpret established financial regulations. Technology companies were creating new products, new customer relationships and new ways of moving money, forcing regulators and businesses to constantly negotiate questions around licensing, consumer protection, data and financial inclusion.
Koech-Kimwatu became part of that emerging legal and regulatory infrastructure. Her colleagues at Oxygène Marketing Communications later described her as someone whose ability to identify the links between law and innovation strengthened the company’s public-policy work.
The Move Into Public Policy
Koech-Kimwatu later joined Oxygène Marketing Communications, where she served as a Legal and Regulatory Specialist before becoming Head of Public Policy. The move was significant because it took her work beyond advising individual companies and into the wider policy environment shaping technology markets.
Public policy sits at a difficult intersection.
Businesses want predictable rules that allow them to innovate. Governments want regulation that protects citizens and advances national interests. Consumers want convenience without surrendering their rights. Technology companies want to scale across borders even though regulations remain largely national.
Koech-Kimwatu’s career increasingly placed her in the middle of those competing interests.
Her expertise became particularly relevant as Kenya’s technology economy matured and issues such as mobile communications, fintech, digital identity, cybersecurity, privacy and data governance moved closer to the center of national policy debates.
Safaricom And The Business Of Regulation
In 2020, Koech-Kimwatu joined Safaricom as a Public Policy Manager after her time at Oxygène.
The move brought her into one of the most important technology companies in East Africa and into an industry where policy and commercial strategy are inseparable. Safaricom operates at the heart of Kenya’s digital economy. Its businesses touch telecommunications, mobile money, payments, financial services and digital platforms, meaning regulatory decisions can have consequences far beyond the company itself.
For Koech-Kimwatu, the role provided another opportunity to apply her legal background to technology policy at scale. It also placed her closer to the questions that would eventually define the final stage of her career: how businesses should collect, process, use and protect information in an increasingly digital economy.
KCB And The Rise Of Data Protection
In June 2022, Koech-Kimwatu left Safaricom for KCB Bank Group, joining the lender as Group Data Protection Officer. She was promoted to Head of Data Protection in June 2023, taking responsibility for data-protection compliance across the banking group. The timing mattered.
Kenya’s Data Protection Act, 2019 had fundamentally changed the country’s approach to personal information, establishing obligations for organisations that collect and process personal data. For banks, the implications were particularly significant. A financial institution can hold some of the most sensitive information about an individual: identification details, account information, transaction histories, income patterns, credit information and records of financial behavior.
As banking becomes increasingly digital, the amount of data generated by those relationships continues to grow. Koech-Kimwatu’s role at KCB therefore went far beyond a conventional compliance function. It placed her at the intersection of technology, banking, privacy, regulation and customer trust.
Her professional journey had effectively come full circle. The lawyer who began working on legal and administrative issues had become a senior executive responsible for helping one of East Africa’s largest financial groups navigate the increasingly complex world of personal data.
Building The Institutions Around Kenya’s Digital Economy
Her influence was not confined to corporate Kenya.
Koech-Kimwatu was deeply involved in the country’s wider technology-policy ecosystem. She served as a trustee of KICTANet, participated in Kenya’s internet-governance community and was involved with the Kenya School of Internet Governance. She also chaired multistakeholder advisory groups associated with the Kenya and East Africa Internet Governance Forums.
These platforms may not command the visibility of venture-capital announcements or technology product launches, but they play an important role in determining how Africa’s digital economy develops. Internet governance brings together governments, businesses, civil society, academics, technologists and legal professionals around questions that increasingly affect everyday life.
Who controls data? How should platforms be regulated? How should digital rights be protected? What responsibilities should technology companies have? How should governments respond to emerging technologies? And how can African countries participate meaningfully in global technology-policy discussions rather than simply importing rules developed elsewhere? Koech-Kimwatu contributed to those conversations from the perspective of someone who understood both the law and the commercial technology environment.
A Lawyer Who Became A Technology Professional
Perhaps the most interesting part of Koech-Kimwatu’s career is that she did not abandon her legal training when she entered technology.
She expanded what that training could mean. Her career illustrates how the role of a lawyer has changed as technology has become embedded in almost every major sector of the economy. The courtroom was only one possible destination. Legal expertise could be applied to fintech product development, telecommunications policy, data governance, digital rights, corporate compliance and technology regulation.
Koech-Kimwatu became part of a generation of African professionals proving exactly that. Her recognition reflected this evolution. In 2020, she was named to CIO Africa’s inaugural Most Influential Women in Digital Transformation list. She was also recognized by the International Legal Technology Association among its influential women in legal technology, while Africa’s legal-innovation community recognized her contribution to the field.
These were not simply awards for a legal career. They reflected the emergence of a new category of professional in Africa: the technology lawyer who understands that regulation itself is becoming part of the innovation ecosystem.
Her Legacy Is Bigger Than Data Protection
It would be easy to remember Koech-Kimwatu simply as KCB’s Head of Data Protection. That would undersell her career. Her more important contribution was helping Kenya navigate the difficult transition from an economy where technology was an emerging sector to one where technology has become infrastructure.
When money moves through mobile phones, when banks make decisions using algorithms, when businesses collect information from millions of customers and when governments increasingly deliver services digitally, law and technology can no longer operate as separate disciplines.
They have to work together. Koech-Kimwatu understood that early. She spent her career moving between the worlds that needed to understand one another: lawyers and technologists, companies and regulators, innovators and policymakers. That work rarely generates the headlines associated with a major funding round or a new technology product. Yet without it, digital economies cannot mature sustainably.
The Questions She Leaves Behind
Kenya’s technology sector is entering another major transition.
Artificial intelligence is changing how companies make decisions. Financial institutions are processing increasingly sophisticated datasets. Digital identity is becoming more important to commerce and public services. Cybersecurity threats are expanding. Regulators are trying to keep pace with technologies that evolve faster than legislation.
The questions Koech-Kimwatu spent her career addressing will therefore become more important in the years ahead.
How much data should companies collect? How should that information be used? What rights should consumers have? How can businesses innovate without weakening privacy? And who should be accountable when technology causes harm?
These are no longer theoretical questions for Kenya. They are business questions, policy questions and questions of public trust. Koech-Kimwatu spent much of her professional life preparing institutions to confront them. Her legacy is therefore not only the policies she helped develop or the organisations she served. It is also the professionals she influenced, the conversations she helped shape and the idea that Africa’s technology future must be built with both innovation and accountability.
For a country that has become one of the world’s most closely watched digital markets, that is a significant contribution. Rosemary Koech-Kimwatu’s career showed that sometimes the people who help shape a technology revolution are not the ones building the next app. They are the ones helping society decide what the app should be allowed to do.
TechMoran extends its condolences to her family, friends, colleagues and the wider technology, legal, fintech and digital-policy communities mourning her loss.
India’s SUN Mobility is entering Africa with a proposition that goes beyond putting more electric vehicles on the road, by building an open-architecture battery-swapping ecosystem serving multiple electric vehicle manufacturers and electric vehicle brands.
Sun Mobility’s open-architecture battery-swapping ecosystem, a first in Africa, with Kenya serving as the launch market for a broader continental expansion will operate in partnership with Vivo Energy, and the two have already deployed 35 battery-swapping stations across Nairobi and Mombasa.
The network supports electric motorcycles, scooters, passenger tuk-tuks and cargo three-wheelers, with more than 10 vehicle manufacturers represented at the Kenyan launch. The company says compatible vehicles from those manufacturers are being rolled out across Kenya in the coming weeks.
The strategy puts infrastructure at the centre of SUN Mobility’s African expansion. Rather than requiring each vehicle manufacturer to develop and deploy its own battery-swapping network, the company’s open architecture is designed to allow multiple brands and vehicle categories to operate on a common platform. For manufacturers, that creates a pathway to scale without having to build proprietary swapping infrastructure alongside their vehicles, while riders and fleet operators gain access to a network designed around multiple brands.
The infrastructure play
Ajay Goel, Co-Founder and CEO, International Business at SUN Mobility, said the company’s ambition is to create an infrastructure platform that can serve the broader electric-mobility ecosystem rather than a single manufacturer.
“By building an open architecture battery swapping ecosystem for multiple vehicle manufacturers and vehicle formats, we are giving riders greater choice, fleet operators more flexibility and financiers greater confidence that the vehicles they finance will remain supported by a reliable, independently operated battery-swapping network,” Goel said. “For vehicle manufacturers and ecosystem partners, our platform offers a capital-efficient pathway to scale.”
That capital-efficiency proposition is central to the company’s model. Electric-vehicle manufacturers entering a new market face not only the challenge of developing and selling vehicles but also the infrastructure question of how those vehicles will be powered. SUN Mobility’s approach separates the vehicle from the energy infrastructure, allowing manufacturers to concentrate on their vehicles while using a common battery-swapping network.
The model is designed to give riders greater choice while allowing fleet operators and financiers to participate in an ecosystem that is not dependent on a single vehicle manufacturer. For SUN Mobility, the network itself becomes the core infrastructure asset.
The competitive edge in Kenya
SUN Mobility is entering a Kenyan electric-mobility market that is already attracting companies building businesses around electric motorcycles, battery swapping and charging infrastructure. That makes differentiation important as the market develops and more players compete for riders, fleets, manufacturers and investors.
SUN Mobility’s proposition is differentiated by the architecture of its network. Rather than building an ecosystem around a single vehicle manufacturer, the company is introducing an open-architecture platform designed to support multiple vehicle manufacturers and vehicle formats. At its Kenyan launch, it showcased compatible vehicles from more than 10 manufacturers, including Afrina Neopower, BGauss, Fika Mobility, Motovolt, Odysse, Piaggio, QJ Motor, Sprocomm, VMoto and Wylex.
That gives the company a potentially broader infrastructure proposition. Its focus is not simply on putting electric vehicles on Kenyan roads, but on building the energy network those vehicles can share. For manufacturers, the attraction is the ability to use a common swapping infrastructure rather than having to develop and deploy a proprietary network of their own.
The Vivo Energy partnership adds another layer to the proposition. SUN Mobility is entering Kenya with an expansion model linked to a company that operates more than 4,200 Shell and Engen-branded service stations across 29 African markets. If deployed as planned, that footprint gives SUN Mobility a potential route to scale beyond Kenya while placing its battery-swapping infrastructure in locations that already form part of the continent’s mobility and energy infrastructure.
The company also has an established operating base in India. Through Indofast Energy, its 50:50 joint venture with Indian Oil, SUN Mobility says it operates more than 2,000 battery-swapping stations across 25 cities, powering more than 125,000 electric two- and three-wheelers. Those vehicles have completed more than 70 million swaps and covered more than 2 billion kilometres, according to the company.
That combination of multi-manufacturer compatibility, an established technology platform and access to Vivo Energy’s continental footprint gives SUN Mobility a distinctive proposition as it enters Kenya. It does not, however, guarantee market leadership. The company will still need to demonstrate that its network can scale commercially, that compatible vehicles are deployed quickly enough to generate demand and that its economics are compelling for riders and fleet operators.
SUN Mobility has not disclosed its Kenyan battery-swapping prices, subscription fees or other detailed commercial terms in the launch announcement. Those details will ultimately determine how its proposition compares on cost as competition in Kenya’s electric-mobility market develops.
The economics of going electric
The company is also positioning the model around operating economics. SUN Mobility says its solution can deliver 20% savings compared with petrol vehicles for riders travelling 100 kilometres per day, with savings rising to as much as 35% for riders travelling 150 kilometres a day.
Those figures are central to the company’s commercial proposition because the value of battery swapping is closely linked to how intensively a vehicle is used. SUN Mobility is targeting electric motorcycles, scooters and three-wheelers, including passenger and cargo applications, where the company’s stated savings are intended to demonstrate the potential operating-cost advantage of moving away from petrol.
The company has not disclosed Kenyan battery-swapping prices, subscription fees or other detailed local commercial terms in the launch announcement. That leaves the precise commercial structure still to emerge as the network moves into deployment.
At the Kenya launch, SUN Mobility showcased compatible vehicles from Afrina Neopower, BGauss, Fika Mobility, Motovolt, Odysse, Piaggio, QJ Motor, Sprocomm, VMoto and Wylex. The manufacturers are in the process of rolling out compatible vehicles across Kenya in the coming weeks.
battery
The breadth of manufacturers is significant to the company’s open-architecture proposition because the network is being built to accommodate different vehicle brands and formats rather than being tied to a single product ecosystem. For riders, the proposition is centred on access to energy when it is needed, with battery swapping providing an alternative to waiting for conventional charging.
Vivo Energy’s continental advantage
The partnership with Vivo Energy gives the strategy a potentially significant physical footprint. Vivo Energy operates more than 4,200 Shell and Engen-branded service stations across 29 African markets, and the companies plan to leverage that network as SUN Mobility expands its battery-swapping infrastructure across the continent.
For Vivo Energy, the partnership also represents an evolution of its existing service-station model. Hans Paulsen, EVP East & Southern Africa at Vivo Energy, said SUN Mobility’s open architecture aligns with the way the company’s stations already serve multiple vehicle brands and categories.
“SUN Mobility’s model aligns closely with how our Shell service station network operates today, serving multiple brands and vehicle categories. Just as our stations serve vehicles across different brands and categories through a shared refueling network, SUN Mobility’s open-architecture battery swapping network can support multiple electric vehicle manufacturers and vehicle types through one common network,” Paulsen said.
The companies intend to use the existing service-station footprint to create convenient locations for electric-mobility users while transforming fuel stations into multi-energy hubs. The strategy gives SUN Mobility access to an established network of locations as it seeks to move beyond its initial Kenyan deployment and build a presence across multiple African markets.
For Vivo Energy, the partnership also provides a route into the emerging electric-mobility ecosystem while retaining the relevance of its existing service-station network. For SUN Mobility, the relationship provides an expansion platform that extends beyond the initial 35 stations in Nairobi and Mombasa.
From India to Africa
SUN Mobility is bringing its African expansion to market with an operating platform it says has already been proven at scale in India. Through Indofast Energy, its 50:50 joint venture with Indian Oil, the company operates more than 2,000 battery-swapping stations across 25 cities in India, powering more than 125,000 electric two- and three-wheelers.
According to SUN Mobility, those vehicles have completed more than 70 million battery swaps and covered more than 2 billion kilometres, avoiding more than 98,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. The company presents those figures as evidence of its ability to operate battery swapping at significant scale.
The technology behind the platform has been developed fully in-house over the past nine years, according to the company, and is backed by more than 450 patents, design registrations and trademarks. Its platform combines Smart Batteries, Quick Interchange Stations and a proprietary cloud-based Smart Network designed to manage the assets and customer touchpoints across the ecosystem.
SUN Mobility says its Smart Batteries are built to high safety standards and can be upgraded without requiring changes to vehicles. Its Quick Interchange Stations are designed for high throughput and thermal control to charge batteries before dispensing them, while the Smart Network provides connectivity, tracking and maintenance capabilities across the network.
The India experience is important to the African strategy because SUN Mobility is not starting with an untested concept. The company is bringing a platform that it says already supports more than 125,000 vehicles and has facilitated more than 70 million swaps into a new geographic market.
The five-year African ambition
The company now plans to take that technology and operating model beyond Kenya. Over the next five years, SUN Mobility says it plans to deploy more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations and power more than 160,000 vehicles across Africa, with Vivo Energy’s pan-African retail network providing a foundation for the expansion.
“Kenya is just the beginning of our long-term vision to build Africa’s largest universal battery swapping network for electric mobility,” Goel said.
That ambition places the company’s Kenyan launch within a much larger infrastructure strategy. The objective is not simply to increase the number of electric motorcycles, scooters and three-wheelers on African roads, but to establish a shared energy network capable of supporting those vehicles regardless of the manufacturer that produces them.
If the model scales as planned, SUN Mobility would be positioning its battery-swapping platform as an infrastructure layer connecting vehicle manufacturers, riders, fleet operators, financiers and energy providers. The open architecture is intended to allow that network to grow across brands rather than requiring a separate infrastructure ecosystem for each manufacturer.
For Kenya, the immediate focus will be on expanding the 35 stations already operating in Nairobi and Mombasa, bringing compatible vehicles from the launch partners onto the network and establishing the commercial model for riders and fleet operators. For SUN Mobility and Vivo Energy, however, the longer-term opportunity extends well beyond the Kenyan market.
The five-year target of more than 2,500 stations and 160,000 vehicles represents the scale of the company’s African ambition. Its strategy rests on an open network, multiple vehicle manufacturers, an established service-station footprint and technology already deployed at scale in India.
Kenya is the first market in that expansion, but the stated objective is considerably larger: to build a universal battery-swapping network capable of supporting Africa’s electric-mobility ecosystem across vehicle manufacturers, vehicle formats and markets.
Ticketmaster, which acquired South Africa’s Quicket in July 2024, is entering Kenya, betting on the country’s fast-growing live entertainment industry as global ticketing firms seek a larger share of Africa’s youthful, mobile-first consumer market.
The expansion gives Kenyan event organizers access to Ticketmaster’s global event distribution network while introducing localized payment options, including Safaricom Plc’s M-Pesa and Airtel Money, making digital ticket purchases easier for consumers.
The launch comes as international entertainment companies increasingly target Africa, home to about 1.6 billion people and the world’s youngest population, where rising smartphone adoption and digital payments are reshaping how consumers discover and purchase tickets for concerts, festivals, sporting events and cultural experiences.
Quicket said events hosted on its platform will be discoverable through global digital channels including Spotify, Google, Meta Platforms Inc., Apple Music and Bandsintown, allowing organizers to reach audiences beyond traditional marketing channels.
The company is also developing WhatsApp-based ticketing and artificial intelligence-powered recommendation tools aimed at simplifying event discovery and purchases, reflecting growing demand for conversational commerce across African markets.
Quicket has already signed Kenyan partners including Beneath the Baobabs, one of the country’s best-known music festivals held in Kilifi, and restaurant discovery platform EatOut.
“Kenya has a vibrant and growing live entertainment scene,” John Masembe, Quicket’s Business Operation Director, said in a statement. The company aims to provide the infrastructure that helps organizers, artists and venues grow while improving the fan experience through secure digital ticketing.
Ticketmaster South Africa Managing Director Justin Van Wyk said Kenya’s combination of a young population, widespread mobile payments and an expanding community of event organizers makes it an attractive market for the company.
The launch formalizes Quicket’s presence in East Africa after nearly a decade of operating in the region through local partners. Since 2016, the company has built relationships with event organizers while developing field operations and support services.
The move underscores increasing competition among global technology companies seeking to capitalize on Africa’s expanding digital economy, where mobile payments have lowered barriers to online commerce and fueled demand for digital services. For Ticketmaster, Kenya serves as a strategic gateway into East Africa’s live entertainment market, combining established mobile payment infrastructure with a rapidly growing appetite for live experiences.
TechMoran, Africa’s pioneer startups and technology news media, is launching StartupEast Conference & Awards, a new platform aimed at identifying East Africa’s early-stage startups and connecting them with investors, customers and strategic partners.
The initiative opens with a call for nominations and will culminate in the StartupEast Conference & Awards on 3rd of December 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya. Startups based in or operating in East Africa can participate regardless of the nationality of their founders, provided they have raised less than $2 million and are less than 8 years.
The programme targets tech startups that are still early in their development, including startups with a prototype, minimum viable product, early customers or initial traction. Applications will span sectors including artificial intelligence, fintech, health technology, agriculture, climate technology, enterprise software, commerce, logistics, mobility and education.
“We are looking for startups that are still early enough to surprise the market,” said Sam Wakoba, co-founder of TechMoran. “There are founders building real businesses, solving difficult problems and winning their first customers without necessarily having the visibility that comes with a large funding round. From an investor and mentor’s perspective, this is often where some of the most interesting opportunities are found.”
The nomination process will be followed by shortlisting and public voting, with the finalists recognized at the December conference and awards.
StartupEast is positioning itself less as a conventional awards programme and more as a discovery mechanism for startups that could become significant businesses.
“We are deliberately looking beyond the pitch deck,” Wakoba said. “We want to understand the founder, the problem they are solving, the strength of the product, early traction, the size of the opportunity and whether the business has the potential to scale.”
That focus comes as Kenya’s and East Africa’s startup ecosystem continues to attract founders and capital while competition for funding becomes more selective. For early-stage startups, visibility with investors is increasingly tied to the quality of their networks, traction and ability to demonstrate a path to scale.
StartupEast will use the nomination and selection process to build a startup pipeline ahead of the December event, where startups will meet venture capital investors, angel investors, corporates, technology companies and potential customers.
“The awards are the culmination of a much broader discovery process,” Wakoba said. “StartupEast is about bringing those companies into the spotlight early and giving the ecosystem a role in identifying the founders and businesses worth backing.”
Kenya’s technology sector has earned the nickname Silicon Savannah, helped by startups that have transformed mobile payments, financial services, commerce and other industries. StartupEast is betting that another generation of startups is now emerging beneath the established names.
“The Silicon Savannah story is still being written,” Wakoba said. “We have already seen what Kenyan founders can build, but the next generation will emerge from places that may not yet be obvious.”
The December awards will include categories such as Startup of the Year, Most Promising Startup, Founder of the Year and sector awards covering areas including AI, fintech, health technology, agritech, climate technology and enterprise technology.
But for Wakoba, recognition is secondary to the commercial connections that can follow.
“We don’t want this to be about trophies,” he said. “Recognition matters when it creates opportunity. For an early-stage startups, being discovered by the right investor, landing a first enterprise customer, finding a strategic partner or attracting exceptional talent can be far more valuable than an award itself.”
The first step is now open to the ecosystem and startups can be nominated at TechMoran.com/Nominations. StartupEast Conference & Awards 2026 will take place on Dec. 3 in Nairobi.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing $1 billion to place thousands of artificial intelligence specialists inside customer organisations, in a move that will help businesses use AI in everyday operations rather than experimenting with it.
Dubbed AWS Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE), the unit will work directly with customers to build and deploy so-called “agentic” AI systems to carry out tasks and make decisions with limited human intervention.
AWS says the initiative could cut the time needed to deploy AI systems from months to days, while giving customers the expertise needed to operate them independently.
The engineers will work alongside customers’ business, engineering and security teams, using AI agents to build systems around their data, governance requirements and existing processes.
AWS explained that the approach is different from traditional consultancy because the engagements focus on business results rather than billable hours. Customers are intended to leave with functioning AI systems, as well as new engineering skills, workflows and technical capabilities.
The FDE teams will use an approach AWS calls the AI-Driven Development Lifecycle, in which AI agents assist across the software development process while human engineers oversee and verify their work.
AWS also plans to work with technology partners that can provide expertise in AI models, industry-specific requirements and other technical areas.
The company is already working with organisations including the Allen Institute, Cox Automotive, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, Ricoh and Southwest Airlines.
“The NFL has millions of fans who want to consume football content throughout the year, including the offseason. We innovate at the pace and scale needed to meet the high expectations of our fans,” said Gary Brantley, chief information officer of the National Football League.
“To create new digital experiences for our fans, the NFL partnered with AWS FDE and got engineers building alongside our team to launch into production in just weeks. Together, we created new fan-facing products like NFL Fantasy AI and NFL IQ that allow fans to interact with NFL data like never before. The engagement from fans and broadcasters was measurable from day one and was made possible by AWS’s delivery model.”
One part of the system is a semantic layer deployed inside a customer’s AWS account. It connects to enterprise data sources, enriches metadata and creates a governed, versioned knowledge graph that AI agents can use.
The system is designed to keep an organisation’s specialist knowledge within its software and data, rather than relying on individual employees or external consultants.
AWS also says security will be built into the deployments, with measures including hardware-based isolation and end-to-end encryption. Customer data will remain within the customer’s governance framework.
The investment builds on AWS’s existing work helping businesses deploy AI. The company has been developing AI solutions for customers since 2017, while its Generative AI Innovation Center has worked on thousands of customer projects over the past three years.
Those projects have included work with BMW to reduce service disruptions across 23 million connected vehicles, Jabil to develop a manufacturing assistant for factory workers, and Lyft to resolve driver-support issues 87% faster, according to AWS.
The new organisation will target companies that have moved beyond AI experiments and need the technology operating in real-world business processes.
Regulated industries, financial services firms and government agencies are expected to be among the main customers, where security, governance and the speed of moving AI systems into production can be particularly important.
Kenya has appointed a consortium led by RSM Eastern Africa and Sweden’s QLOT Consulting as transaction adviser for the country’s first national lottery, marking a key step toward selecting an operator and establishing a state-backed lottery system.
The National Lottery Board said Thursday that the consortium will oversee the procurement process for the lottery operator, support transaction structuring and help prepare the project for launch.
The appointment followed an international tender conducted under Kenya’s Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015, using the Quality and Cost Based Selection methodology.
According to the Board, the consortium emerged as the highest-ranked bidder.
RSM Eastern Africa will provide transaction advisory and institutional strengthening expertise, while QLOT Consulting, an associate member of the World Lottery Association, will contribute experience from lottery procurement projects in international markets. The assignment also includes a knowledge transfer program aimed at strengthening the Board’s internal capacity.
“The appointment of a credible, multidisciplinary Transaction Advisor is a defining step in building a National Lottery that Kenyans can trust,” National Lottery Board Chairperson Farida Karoney said in a statement. “Our National Lottery will be structured transparently, governed responsibly and built to international best practice.”
The National Lottery Board was established under the National Lottery Act of 2023 with the mandate to establish, oversee and safeguard the country’s national lottery, procure and contract an operator, and administer the National Lottery Fund.
Kenya’s broader gambling industry is regulated by the Gambling Regulatory Authority under the Gambling Control Act of 2025. While the future lottery operator will be licensed by the regulator, it will remain contractually accountable to the National Lottery Board.
The government said proceeds from the lottery, after prizes and operating costs, will be paid into the National Lottery Fund and allocated to public interest initiatives, including charitable and humanitarian work, youth and women’s economic empowerment, sports, arts and the creative economy, national heritage, health, education, emergency response and other national development projects.
The Board said responsible gaming measures will be embedded into the lottery’s design, including age verification, spending controls, self exclusion mechanisms, advertising standards and clear disclosure of winning odds.
The next phase of the project will focus on launching a competitive process to attract and appoint a lottery operator.
The Board said timelines for the procurement will be announced later, adding that it would prioritize transparency and rigor throughout the process.
Powered by People, a commerce technology company with deep roots in Africa, has raised new funding to build infrastructure that could help independent brands compete in an increasingly AI-driven global marketplace.
The financing was led by the BESTSELLER Foundation and joined by existing investors Golden Ventures, Susa Ventures and Altos Ventures, according to the company.
The investment comes as Powered by People, or PBP, expands its focus on what it calls the “trust layer” for agentic commerce technology designed to ensure that product information can be discovered, understood and trusted by consumers and AI systems making purchasing decisions.
But behind that emerging AI-commerce business is a company that has spent years working with artisans and independent brands in Africa, helping them overcome some of the barriers that have traditionally kept small producers from global markets.
PBP’s maker network currently includes more than 3,000 businesses globally, with a substantial concentration across Africa. Its directory lists producers in Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, among other markets.
Kenya is particularly important to the company’s operations. PBP’s Kenyan network includes brands such as Kazuri, Adele Dejak, Airi Kenya, Ankole Luxury, Bawa Hope, BeadWORKS, FLOC, Kitengela Hot Glass, Lulu Kitololo Studio, SOKO, Ubuntu Life and We Are NBO.
The company has sought to address a problem that goes beyond simply giving African businesses an online storefront.
Many artisan and creative businesses have products that can compete internationally but lack affordable financing, digital infrastructure, export readiness, technical expertise and access to large buyers.
PBP’s model combines those elements. The company provides financing, training, digital tools and market access, while its dropship platform connects independent brands with international retailers.
In Kenya, that work has included the Jiinue Growth Program, implemented with the Mastercard Foundation and a consortium of partners including Grassroots Business Fund, DT Global, 4G Capital, GROOTS Kenya, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.
Through the program, PBP provides Kenyan makers with financing, digital tools, training and access to markets. The company says the support has helped businesses improve their digital presence, increase production and enter its dropship program, with products reaching buyers including the Smithsonian and Nordstrom.
Ella Peinovich, Founder & CEO
The scale of the company’s earlier Kenya work illustrates the size of the opportunity. In 2023, PBP provided $215,453 in financing to 451 individual Kenyan makers. It also created digital profiles for 65 makers, delivered technical assistance to 55 and generated market access for another 10, according to its 2023 sustainability report.
The company has since expanded its approach to include AI-supported digital tools. PBP says its technology can help artisans address what it calls the “retail readiness gap,” using AI to create professional product catalogs that improve online visibility, product discovery and sales.
That work is becoming increasingly relevant as AI systems begin to influence how consumers find and buy products.
Rather than searching through dozens of websites themselves, consumers could increasingly ask AI agents to find products, compare prices and eventually complete purchases. For a small African brand, being invisible to those systems could become another barrier to international growth.
PBP is building technology intended to address that problem.
Its CatalogAgent solution is designed to optimize product catalogs for agentic-commerce platforms, while PBP Verified provides validation around sustainability, quality, reliability and compliance. The company says the tools are intended to give retailers, consumers and AI purchasing agents greater confidence in the products they encounter.
That represents a shift in the company’s original mission.
PBP was built around helping independent brands and producers of responsibly made goods reach global markets, access financing and use digital tools. Its current strategy combines that mission with technology designed for a retail environment increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
The company’s founders also bring direct experience in global sourcing and African entrepreneurship.
Ella Peinovich is the founder and chief executive officer. She previously built SOKO, an independent jewelry brand that was acquired by Essense Ventures in 2022.
Hedvig Alexander, PBP’s founder and vice president of community and impact, previously built a global sourcing network of more than 5,000 artisans through Far + Wide Collective.
Alison Phillips, founder and vice president of merchandising and design, previously founded the lifestyle home brand Caban, which was sold to Ralph Lauren, and has held merchandising and design roles at companies including Aritzia and BlackBerry.
Their combined experience reflects the company’s unusual position between traditional global sourcing, African artisan businesses and emerging commerce technology.
One example is Kazuri, the Kenyan jewelry company founded in 1975. PBP says Kazuri has rebuilt its artisan workforce after the pandemic and is expanding into Nordstrom while continuing to focus on women and their families. Another is BeadWORKS, a Kenyan social enterprise working with more than 1,300 women artisans across nine community conservancies. The program links artisan income with conservation efforts, with the company saying it indirectly benefits more than 7,800 people.
PBP’s financing model is also aimed at a problem that can become more acute when small businesses receive large international orders: cash flow.
The company offers purchase-order financing, allowing artisans to receive advances after buyer orders are verified, as well as consignment financing designed to help makers meet retailer demand without bearing the full upfront cost of production.
For African businesses, the combination could be significant.
A maker may have a product capable of selling internationally but lack the capital to manufacture a large order, the digital catalog required by a retailer or the product information required by an AI system.
PBP is attempting to build the infrastructure connecting those pieces.
The BESTSELLER Foundation investment therefore comes at a point when PBP is moving from a marketplace focused on connecting makers with retailers toward a broader technology platform for how products are discovered, validated and purchased.
“At BESTSELLER Foundation, we invested in PBP to expand access to markets, income to global suppliers, and ownership within local economies,” Tine Henriksen, managing director of BESTSELLER Foundation, said in a statement.
She said PBP’s dropship platform and verified product catalog data could help producers participate in an economy where AI increasingly influences how products are discovered, trusted and purchased.
For Africa’s independent brands, that transition could matter beyond e-commerce. The next gatekeeper to a global customer may not be a department-store buyer or a Google search result. It could be an AI agent deciding which products are relevant enough to recommend.
PBP is betting that African makers should have the data, financing, technology and market access needed to compete when that happens. Its broader proposition is that the future of global commerce will not be built only around transactions, but around whether consumers and the machines increasingly shopping on their behalf can trust the products being offered.
Absa Bank Kenya and Simba Corporation are partnering to expand financing for vehicles and agricultural equipment, targeting businesses and individuals seeking to acquire productive assets amid persistent pressure on access to capital.
The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding that will combine Absa’s revamped asset-based financing offering with Simba Corporation’s portfolio of commercial and passenger vehicles and agricultural equipment.
The agreement allows businesses to finance up to 95% of the cost of trucks, buses, light commercial vehicles and fleet solutions, with repayment periods of as long as 72 months. School buses can qualify for 100% financing over as long as 84 months, according to the companies.
For individuals, financing of as much as 95% will be available for passenger vehicles, also repayable over 72 months.
The partnership comes as Kenyan businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, continue to face financing constraints that can limit investment in vehicles, machinery and other assets needed to expand operations.
“For many businesses, particularly SMEs, access to affordable and flexible financing remains a key barrier to acquiring the vehicles and equipment they need to grow,” Renato D’Souza, Absa Bank Kenya’s director of business banking, said at the signing ceremony.
Absa unveiled its revamped Asset-Based Finance, or ABF 2.0, proposition earlier this year, with plans to deploy KES 100 billion ($774 million) over three years to businesses and individuals. The bank is targeting sectors including manufacturing, trade and logistics, infrastructure, healthcare and education.
The collaboration with Simba extends that strategy into vehicle and agricultural equipment financing, giving customers access to assets that can directly support revenue-generating activities.
The agricultural component will provide financing of up to 90% for tractors, farm machinery, pick-ups and other equipment, with repayment periods of up to 60 months. The offering is aimed at farmers and agricultural businesses seeking to increase mechanisation and productivity.
Simba Corporation Executive Director Suraj Shah said the financing would make vehicle ownership more accessible to individuals while helping businesses acquire equipment needed to operate and expand.
The partnership also gives Absa access to Simba Corporation’s distribution and customer network across the mobility and equipment markets, while Simba gains an additional financing channel for customers purchasing its products.
For banks, asset-backed lending can provide a way to finance business expansion while tying credit to tangible assets. For customers, longer repayment periods can reduce the immediate cash-flow burden associated with acquiring vehicles and machinery, although the overall cost of financing remains an important consideration.
The agreement underscores a broader push by Kenyan lenders to direct credit toward productive assets as businesses navigate higher operating costs and seek to invest without tying up large amounts of working capital.
Absa said its ABF 2.0 proposition is intended to give customers greater flexibility, faster turnaround times and financing structures aligned with their cash flows.
“As part of our revamped Asset-Based Finance proposition, this collaboration reinforces our commitment to empowering SMEs and businesses across Kenya with the tools they need to scale, create jobs and contribute to economic growth,” D’Souza said.
Bilibili Inc., one of China’s biggest video platforms, is stepping up its push beyond the country’s borders, targeting international creators and audiences as it seeks to challenge YouTube’s dominance in online video.
The Shanghai-based company this week relaunched its international app and is preparing an English-language website, according to marketing materials circulated to creators and recent job listings. Bilibili is also building teams in markets including the US, Japan and Europe, signaling a broader effort to turn its largely China-focused platform into a global creator business.
We've just launched the intl app globally (currently on Android, iOS coming soon; and more countries coming soon)
Globally distributed content, better localization & easier sign ups with no identity verification…and more localization optimization and features to come!… pic.twitter.com/5H7maZSMQh
The expansion could put Bilibili into more direct competition with Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and other global video platforms. It also raises questions about how the company will handle content moderation, censorship and data security as it enters markets where Chinese technology companies face heightened scrutiny.
Bilibili didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The company already has a substantial audience to build on. Its main Chinese-language platform had 376 million monthly active users, giving Bilibili a scale that few emerging global video platforms can match.
Bilibili has also been courting international personalities. Among the most prominent is MrBeast, the American creator whose videos have appeared on Bilibili’s Chinese platform. The strategy suggests the company sees globally recognized creators as a way to broaden its appeal beyond its existing base of Chinese users.
The revamped international app appears designed to reduce some of the barriers that previously faced overseas users. New accounts can be created without the passport or identity-document verification that had been required for international users of Bilibili’s main platform, according to information shared through an account promoting the service to global creators.
“Bilibili is going global,” the account said in a post on X, adding that content on the international and Chinese services would be the same.
That approach could give Bilibili an unusual proposition for international creators: access to a platform with an established Chinese audience while also building a presence among users outside China.
The company is pitching the platform to creators as a way to reach young, affluent and highly educated audiences. Marketing material shared in a Discord community for Bilibili creators describes an international marketplace for connecting creators with brands for sponsored content as being under development.
An English-language version of the platform is also being prepared.
“We are working hard,” the company said in a presentation circulated to creators, which described the English version as “coming soon.”
Bilibili is simultaneously building a local presence. Job listings show the company is seeking community managers in Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Istanbul and Tokyo. A Singapore-based position calls for staff to help develop global AI-powered content moderation systems.
That moderation infrastructure could become particularly important as Bilibili expands into the US and Europe.
Chinese internet companies have faced increasing pressure in Western markets over how user data is handled, how content is moderated and whether their platforms are subject to influence from Beijing. TikTok, owned by ByteDance Ltd., has spent years navigating similar concerns in the US, making Bilibili’s expansion a potentially sensitive test for another Chinese consumer internet company.
Bilibili’s challenge will also be commercial.
YouTube has spent more than a decade building a global ecosystem around creators, advertising, subscriptions and video discovery. It operates at enormous scale, with creators accustomed to sophisticated monetization tools and audiences spread across virtually every major market.
Bilibili will therefore need to offer more than access to its existing Chinese audience. It will have to convince creators that the platform can generate meaningful revenue, attract international viewers and provide the tools needed to build businesses around their content.
The company’s global strategy appears to recognize that challenge. Rather than relying solely on Chinese users traveling to its existing platform, Bilibili is establishing local teams, developing an English-language experience and building systems aimed specifically at international creators.
The result could be a new competitor in an increasingly crowded global video market.
For Bilibili, the opportunity is significant. Its domestic success has given it a large audience, a strong creator culture and experience operating one of China’s most influential online communities.
But taking that model overseas will require navigating a very different regulatory and competitive environment.
The next phase of Bilibili’s expansion will show whether its Chinese success can translate into a global creator platform — or whether the barriers facing Chinese technology companies in Western markets prove too difficult to overcome.
Samsung Electronics is preparing to expand its Galaxy S26 lineup, with the company confirming a new Galaxy event for August 27 that is expected to introduce another device built around the series’ camera, artificial intelligence and software capabilities.
The company announced the event in an invitation published this week, describing the upcoming product as the “newest addition to the Galaxy S26 family.” Samsung has not yet disclosed the device’s name or detailed its specifications.
The announcement comes as Samsung positions the Galaxy S26 series around photography, content creation and AI-powered experiences. The company says its latest flagship range has raised the bar with its camera and AI innovations, allowing users to capture, create and connect more easily.
For the new device, Samsung says it intends to bring the “core Galaxy S26 experiences” from camera to AI, together with the latest version of One UI, to a broader group of users.
Galaxy S26 FE expected
Although Samsung has not named the device, the announcement has intensified expectations that the company will unveil the Galaxy S26 FE, the anticipated Fan Edition model.
The S26 FE has been the subject of extensive leaks in recent weeks. Reports have pointed to a 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, Samsung’s Exynos 2500 processor, up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. A triple-camera system consisting of a 50-megapixel main camera, 12-megapixel ultrawide and 8-megapixel 3x telephoto camera has also been reported.
Other reported specifications include a 4,900mAh battery, 45W charging, an IP68 rating and an aluminium frame. The device is also expected to run One UI 9 based on Android 17 and potentially receive seven years of software updates, although Samsung has yet to confirm these details.
The leaks suggest Samsung could position the phone as a more accessible entry point into the Galaxy S26 experience while retaining many of the features associated with the flagship family.
AI remains central to Samsung’s strategy
Samsung’s decision to highlight AI in the event announcement underscores how central artificial intelligence has become to its smartphone strategy.
Rather than treating AI as a standalone feature, Samsung has increasingly integrated it into photography, content creation, communication and everyday smartphone interactions. The company says the upcoming device will extend many of these Galaxy S26 experiences.
Samsung also highlighted the latest One UI as part of the new device, suggesting that software will be an important component of the announcement alongside the hardware.
The company cautions that while basic Galaxy AI features are provided free of charge, future releases could include enhanced features or services offered on a paid basis.
Samsung keeps the device under wraps
Notably, Samsung’s invitation stops short of identifying the product as the Galaxy S26 FE. That leaves the company room to reveal the device and its positioning during the event.
The approach also allows Samsung to build anticipation around the announcement while leaks have already provided considerable information about what is believed to be coming.
For now, the Galaxy S26 FE remains an expectation rather than an officially confirmed product name.
When to watch
Samsung’s Galaxy Event August 2026 will take place on August 27 at 9 p.m. KST, equivalent to 3 p.m. East Africa Time.
The event will be streamed live through Samsung’s website and its YouTube channel.
If the Galaxy S26 FE is indeed the device Samsung unveils, the event could give the company another opportunity to extend the S26 platform beyond its flagship models and bring its camera, AI and software experience to a wider market.
Samsung Galaxy Event August 2026 begins August 27 at 3 p.m. EAT.
Terra Industries has appointed former SpaceX executive Ben MacWilliams as vice president of strategy, as the defense technology company expands its autonomous security systems across Africa and other markets in the Global South.
MacWilliams joins Terra from SpaceX, where he served as director of Starlink Market Access, overseeing the satellite internet service’s regulatory and market expansion across all 54 African countries. He helped launch Starlink in more than 20 African markets, working with government leaders, regulators and ministers.
Before taking responsibility for Africa, MacWilliams led Starlink market access across the Middle East and Central Eurasia, securing the first low-Earth-orbit broadband operating licenses for the service in both regions.
At Terra, MacWilliams will oversee market entry, licensing strategy and government partnerships as the company seeks to deploy its autonomous defense systems in new markets.
“The next phase for us at Terra is getting our technology to governments that need it,” said Nathan Nwachuku, Terra’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “That means licenses, regulators, and relationships across dozens of markets at once. Ben has done this at the highest level.”
MacWilliams said his experience expanding Starlink across Africa had reinforced the importance of sovereign defense capabilities for governments seeking to protect people, infrastructure and natural resources.
The appointment comes as Terra accelerates its expansion following a $52 million seed financing round. The company has also opened its first international office in London and plans to open Pax-2, a new manufacturing facility in Ghana, in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Founded in 2024, Terra develops integrated air, land and maritime security systems powered by ArtemisOS, a software platform designed to coordinate large-scale security operations.
The company targets critical sectors including energy, mineral resources, urban infrastructure, maritime assets, border security and counterterrorism operations, positioning itself as a defense technology provider focused on Africa and the wider Global South.
Mercedes-Benz marked 140 years of automotive innovation in Kenya with the launch of its latest S-Class and a celebration of the brand’s global anniversary at Muthaiga Golf & Country Club in Nairobi.
CFAO Mobility Kenya hosted the event, which brought together German Ambassador to Kenya Sebastian Groth, Mercedes-Benz customers, business leaders and automotive enthusiasts as the luxury automaker celebrates a milestone dating to 1886, when Carl Benz patented the Motorwagen.
The Nairobi event forms part of Mercedes-Benz’s global “140 Years. 140 Places” campaign, under which three S-Class sedans are travelling more than 60,000 kilometers across six continents and 140 locations associated with the company’s history, innovation and global presence.
The expedition, which started in Stuttgart, Germany, has already covered more than 70 destinations, including cities and landmarks across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Southeast Asia. Kenya is among the selected stops before the vehicles return to Stuttgart in October 2026.
For Mercedes-Benz, the campaign provides a global showcase of its heritage while highlighting markets where the brand sees continued importance.
“Tonight is not simply about celebrating a number, it is about celebrating legacy,” Arvinder Reel, managing director of CFAO Mobility Kenya, said at the event. “A legacy that began in 1886, when Carl Benz patented the Motorwagen and fundamentally changed the way the world moves.”
Kenya has a long association with Mercedes-Benz. The brand has been represented in the country since 1949 through DT Dobie, which later became part of CFAO Mobility Kenya following the integration of CFAO Motors and DT Dobie in 2023.
The new S-Class was the centerpiece of the Nairobi event, positioning Mercedes-Benz’s flagship sedan as a showcase for the company’s latest technology, comfort, safety and connectivity features.
The model has traditionally served as a technology platform for Mercedes-Benz, with innovations introduced in the S-Class often influencing vehicles across the wider lineup.
Idrissa Diagne, general manager of Mercedes-Benz at CFAO Mobility Kenya, said the company would continue focusing on technology, safety and premium customer service.
“Together with our customers, enthusiasts, and communities, we are celebrating a historic milestone that honors the brand’s enduring legacy of innovation, engineering excellence, and pioneering spirit,” Diagne said.
CFAO Mobility Kenya’s current Mercedes-Benz lineup includes the C-Class, E-Class and S-Class sedans, alongside the GLC, GLE, GLS and G-Class SUVs. Its commercial range includes the Vito, V-Class and Sprinter vans.
The anniversary comes as luxury automakers increasingly compete not only on vehicle performance but also on technology, personalization and the broader ownership experience.
Reel said CFAO Mobility Kenya’s role extends beyond selling vehicles, with the distributor investing in technical capabilities, facilities and customer service.
“Our responsibility is not merely to sell you a Mercedes-Benz. Our responsibility is to earn the privilege of serving you,” Reel said.
The Kenya stop gives Mercedes-Benz an opportunity to connect its century-plus history with a market increasingly positioned as a regional commercial and innovation hub. For CFAO Mobility Kenya, the anniversary also provides a platform to reinforce its position as the local representative of one of the world’s best-known luxury automotive brands.
With the global expedition continuing toward its October return to Stuttgart, Kenya now forms part of Mercedes-Benz’s 140-year story — linking the company’s origins in the invention of the automobile with its latest generation of luxury mobility.
Equity Group Holdings Plc has reported a 32% increase in its first-half profit after tax to KSh45.5 billion ($351 million) boosted by stronger lending, regional expansion and technology-driven financial services.
The Kenyan banking group’s profit after tax rose from KSh34.6 billion a year earlier. while its profit before tax increased 39% to KSh57.8 billion ($447 million) reinforcing Equity Group’s position as one of East Africa’s largest financial services groups
With a presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, the group’s balance sheet expanded 20% to KSh2.16 trillion ($16.7 billion), while customer deposits increased 21% to KSh1.59 trillion ($12.3 billion). Net loans rose 19% to KSh981 billion ($7.58 billion).
Equity Group Revenue Rises 25%
Equity Group’s total income increased 25% to KSh124.9 billion ($965 million) from KSh100.2 billion in the first half of 2025.
Net interest income rose 17% to KSh69.3 billion ($535 million), reflecting stronger lending and balance-sheet management.
Non-funded income provided a larger boost, climbing 36% to KSh55.6 billion ($429 million). It accounted for 44.5% of total group income, compared with 40.8% a year earlier.
The shift highlights Equity’s strategy of diversifying revenue through payments, foreign exchange, insurance and other financial services rather than relying primarily on interest income.
Equity Bank Kenya Profit Rises 32%
Equity Bank Kenya reported a 32% increase in profit after tax to KSh25.7 billion ($198 million). The Kenyan subsidiary’s balance sheet grew 13%, supported by a 24% increase in customer deposits and an 8% increase in loans.
Quarterly loan growth reached 11%, marking the first double-digit quarter-on-quarter increase since the third quarter of 2021 and signaling improving credit demand in Kenya.
The bank also maintained its position as a major MSME lender, disbursing 36% of the KSh101 billion in MSME loans issued in Kenya between January and March 2026.
Tanzania and DRC Drive Regional Growth
Equity Group’s regional operations continued to account for an increasing share of earnings.
Regional subsidiaries contributed 42% of group banking profitability and 47% of banking revenue. They also accounted for 51% of deposits, 54% of loans and 52% of banking assets.
Equity BCDC in the Democratic Republic of Congo increased profit after tax 30% to KSh11.8 billion ($91 million).
Equity Bank Tanzania delivered the fastest profit growth, with earnings jumping 82% to KSh2 billion ($15.4 million).
Equity Bank Rwanda increased profit after tax 12% to KSh2.9 billion ($22.4 million).
The performance strengthens Equity’s case for its pan-African expansion strategy as growth in several of its regional markets outpaces Kenya.
Equity Group NPL Ratio Falls to 9.5%
Asset quality improved significantly during the first half. Equity Group’s non-performing loan ratio fell to 9.5% from 13.7%, moving into single digits. NPL coverage increased to 70% from 68%.
Loan-loss provisions declined 6% year-on-year, while cost of risk improved to 1.4% from 1.7%. The improvement in asset quality helped support profitability while reducing pressure on the group’s credit costs. Operational efficiency also improved, with the cost-to-income ratio falling to 48.6% from 51.7%. Return on assets stood at 4.5%, while return on equity reached 26.5%.
Equity Accelerates Digital Banking
Technology remains at the center of Equity Group’s growth strategy.
The group said 98.3% of transactions now take place outside branches, while 89.7% are processed through digital platforms.
Equity serves 23.3 million customers through Equity Online, the Equity Mobile App, Eazzy FX, *247# and Equitel. Its physical and agent network includes 410 branches, 886 ATMs, 92,572 agency outlets and 1.4 million merchants.
The bank is also investing in artificial intelligence and employee training. About 82% of staff have completed a business-focused generative AI course, with employees completing 119,980 hours of guided AI instruction.
A total of 406 staff have been admitted to master’s programs in financial engineering and applied AI through WorldQuant University.
Equity Group Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi said the investments are part of a broader transformation from traditional banking toward an integrated, technology-enabled financial services company.
Equity Insurance Becomes Third Growth Engine
Equity Insurance Group continued to expand rapidly, with gross written premiums rising 24% to KSh6.4 billion ($49 million).
Profit before tax increased 34% to KSh1.25 billion ($9.6 million).
About 79% of insurance policies were distributed digitally, reinforcing the role of technology in Equity’s efforts to expand insurance penetration.
The group’s non-banking subsidiaries increased their contribution to group revenue to 4.8%, from 4% a year earlier.
Equity Targets 100 Million Customers by 2030
Equity Group is pursuing an ambitious expansion strategy under its Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan 2030.
The strategy targets operations in 15 countries and 100 million customers by 2030, alongside the deployment of next-generation digital and artificial intelligence systems to expand transformation finance across Africa.
Mwangi said Equity is building a “future-ready” institution that is scalable, secure and focused on impact.
The group also continues to expand the work of Equity Group Foundation in education, entrepreneurship, agriculture, healthcare and climate finance. The foundation has trained more than one million entrepreneurs and facilitated more than KSh436 billion ($3.37 billion) in credit access to MSMEs.
Equity Group has also received accreditation as a Direct Access Entity to the Green Climate Fund, positioning it to directly mobilize international climate finance for projects across Africa. With improving asset quality, stronger regional earnings and a growing contribution from non-funded income, Equity Group’s first-half results point to a business increasingly diversified beyond conventional banking.
The group said its H1 2026 performance exceeded management guidance in nearly all key parameters.
