Issue 327 September 3rd, 2021

Given that we’ve paid attention to just how much money African startups are raising, Techcrunch african correspondent Tage gives a better, deeper understanding of the continent’s technology activity. Here’s what we got into: The power of Y Combinator in Africa, african e-commerce, fintech investments.

Talk with Berbix Co-Founder Eric Levine. Berbix Co-Founder talks about ID & document verification and the growing problem of synthetic fraud.

To counteract a steep decline in the number of bank branches and ATMs, Community Access to Cash Pilots—an independent initiative backed by banks, consumer groups, and small business representatives—started a program of “banking hubs” in April in a town in Scotland and another in eastern England.

By offloading their data security and compliance burden, startups can reduce their overall compliance costs, better protect their sensitive data, and grow their businesses faster. During this webinar, you will learn the many benefits that startups can enjoy by simply outsourcing their PCI and data security.

The European Commission is considering new regulations for cryptocurrencies, as part of its digital finance strategy (the regulation was already proposed in September 2020). The regulatory draft’s intention is to create a fully harmonized European market for crypto assets and it is currently undergoing its first reading in the Council of the European Union. Similar to other polls, this one also indicates that most of the residents lack sufficient knowledge of cryptocurrencies, therefore there’s a lot of skepticism when it comes to investing in them. The poll also shows that 23% of the respondents support the idea of their own government creating its national crypto in order to assert monetary independence from the EU. The poll’s respondents shared similar views on the general finance sector regulations as on crypto sector regulations, so most would actually like to see these done locally instead of by the EU. Two interesting examples are Hungary (with the least score, 46%) and the Netherlands (with the highest score, 76%).

Twitter (social media giant) is reportedly laying the groundwork for a system that would enable tipping Bitcoin for content creators. The latest Twitter iOS beta application apparently includes certain lines of code that could see Bitcoin become a part of the “Tip Jar”, according to MacRumors. This would fall in line with Jack Dorsey’s (Twitter CEO) previous statements, in which he hinted that Bitcoin tipping was in the works. Tip Jar is a relatively new part of Twitter that was first introduced back in May. This is a way for users to reward content creators on the social media platform. If the reports about the Bitcoin tipping feature is true, then BTC will be added alongside PayPal, Cash App and Venmo as acceptable options on the Tip Jar.

Facebook is preparing for the launch of Novi, a digital currency wallet that will be integrated into its multiple apps. David Marcus, the head of Facebook Financial (F2), the internal group developing the digital wallet, said Novi could be supporting non-fungible tokens (NFTs), an emerging type of digital tokens used to represent ownership of unique items. The release could potentially happen before the introduction of Diem, the stablecoin and payment system the company has been working on through a consortium. Marcus told The Information however that he would prefer releasing Novi alongside Diem.

Electric car insurance is more expensive than conventional insurance, largely due to the need for specialist parts, says Trend Tracker. However, repair costs for electrification technologies will improve as OEMs optimise designs, according to a new report due out on Thursday 9th September.

Nerve offers a multitude of customized tools to help English and Spanish-speaking musicians manage their finances and plan for the future. Services include. Nerve’s app will officially launch in the U.S.A. on September 15, and on-board waiting list customers over the next several months.

Square’s popular free invoicing software is becoming the company’s next big subscription service. The company is poised to announce a paid subscription offering called Invoices Plus, which will offer sellers a set of advanced features, including some that had previously been available with the free service. The service itself had been quietly introduced to individual sellers, but has not yet been publicly announced.

Citizens Bank of Edmond plans to launch a digital bank with a national reach by the end of the year, a platform that will target an underserved affinity group, CEO Jill Castilla said. Castilla said the Oklahoma-based bank will be ready to share more details about the platform’s target audience in the next 60 days. For the new venture, the bank is partnering with Moven’s financial wellness platform, which is powered by Q2’s CorePro core processing technology, the result of last year’s tie-up between the New York-based fintech and the Austin, Texas-based digital banking software company.

BeingAI is creating virtual beings with artificial intelligence. And its first AI being is a virtual character named Zbee. Zbee can exist on different platforms and so can interact with people anytime, anywhere, to bring humanness and gamification into digital experiences. Zbee will come with an engaging personality and personal stories. They will offer friendship, entertainment, and mentorship, just like in the movie Her.