E-Business
Google Invests in Delivery Science, Three Other Nigerian Startups

Google has invested on four Nigerian startups through its ‘Launchpad Accelerator’ programme.
The four startups include Delivery Science, led by a team of indigenous technology entrepreneurs and offers ‘Enterprise Supply Chain Software as a Service (SaaS)’ solution to companies operating robust logistics and supply chain business processes and Gidi Mobile Limited: gidimo is a mobile learning platform that uses mastery learning & social gamification to deliver personal advancement, in a fun way, and at unprecedented scale.
Others are, Flutterwave: Flutterwave is building technology and infrastructure for digital commerce across Africa starting with Rave, an app that helps merchants accept mobile money, cards and bank account payments across 4 African countries and Paystack: We help businesses in Africa accept payments from their customers.
Launchpad Accelerator is a six-month acceleration program that includes mentorship and access to Google Product Managers, a startup package of equity- free support, product credits (e.g., Google Cloud), and access to our full suite of Launchpad initiatives and connections.
This includes an all-expense-paid trip to Google HQ in Mountain View to collaborate with Google engineers/product managers and regional VCs.
While announcing the fourth class of Launchpad Accelerator featuring new countries, Roy Glasberg, Global Lead, Launchpad Program & Accelerator, said, “We’re back at it again and excited to welcome an inspiring group of startups from all over the world for the 4th class of Launchpad Accelerator.
“This time around, startups from Asia and Latin America will be joined by peers from Africa and Europe.
“In addition to expanding our reach, we’re also expanding our curriculum. We’ll help the startups dig deeper into machine learning and AI, to help them leverage Google’s latest technologies to scale their apps”.
Class 4 kicks off July 17th, 2017 at the Google Developers Launchpad Space in San Francisco and will include 2 weeks of all-expense-paid training.
Other startups drawn from Africa, Asia and Latin America include,
Kenya
Twiga Foods Ltd: A tech-enabled sourcing and distribution platform that replaces informal wholesale markets for the millions of small and medium size food and FMCG retailers in Africa’s urban markets.
South Africa
JUMO Marketplace: Jumo is the largest scale, lowest cost financial services marketplace for emerging markets
Asia
India: EdGE Networks: HR solutions provider powered by Artificial Intelligence
FastFilmz: The Super App for Super Fans of South Indian movies!
IndiaLends: Credit underwriting and analytics platform for unsecured consumer lending
RailYatri: Intelligent, big data platform that leverages crowd-sourced content to help long distance travelers
RecipeBook: Intelligent solutions in food and retail powered by deep learning computer vision
SigTuple: Smart screening solutions powered by data driven intelligence
Indonesia
NADIPOS: Restaurant Management Platform helping simplify operations and analytics
SIRCLO: Empowering businesses to sell online
Malaysia
HealthMetrics: Assisting companies managing their employee health benefits efficiently and cost effectively
Philippines
BLOOM: Transforming remittance businesses with blockchain technology
Honesty Apps: A Do-it-yourself mobile application platform for both iOS and Android
Singapore
Cicil: We allow Indonesian university students to purchase items online, and pay for them in monthly installments without a credit card!
Thailand
Piggipo: An application that helps users manage and monitor credit card spending more easily and effectively
QueQ: Helps users manage time more wisely at crowded places
Vietnam
eDoctor: Allows users to consult doctors anytime, anywhere
Europe
Czech Republic
Gamee: A social gaming platform
Spendee: Helps users understand their finances
Hungary
PublishDrive: Intelligent SaaS enabled ebook publishing platform to increase sales globally
Poland
DrOmnibus: Multimedia tools that support special needs education and therapy for children with developmental and behavioral disorders
Latin America
Argentina
Increase: Simplifies and modernizes how merchants and companies understand, control and manage their income.
Brazil
Arquivei: Empowers companies with smart data from fiscal documents fetch & analysis
Contabilizei: Tax reporting and accounting SaaS for small businesses in Brazil
Contratado.ME: The marketplace that puts candidates at the center of their job search
Guiche Virtual: The app for booking bus tickets in Brazil
Chile
ComparaOnline: The best and the most transparent marketplace for financial products in Latin America
Mexico
InstaFit Workouts: Mobile fitness subscription platform for Spanish speakers
Switch: Low cost, mobile bill pay.
Benefits
Launchpad Accelerator offers you an unparalleled opportunity to scale your technical startup. The program lasts six months and is done on a scale that leverages all that Google has to offer; including expertise of Google engineers, product managers, and trusted experts in Google’s extended network.
Through Launchpad Accelerator, you can utilize this mentorship and privileged product access to scale your business and better capitalize on local markets, while also tapping into new global opportunities.
E-Business
Kaspersky Brings AI-driven Context to Cloud Workload Security

Kaspersky has updated its Cloud Workload Security (CWS) offering, introducing AI-powered workload analysis, enhanced integrations and performance optimisations designed to help organisations better secure complex cloud and hybrid environments.

The latest update brings integration with OpenAI API in the Kaspersky Container Security (KCS) part of the offering, also resulting in the creation of a new Advanced Pro license within the product.
The new capability provides contextual descriptions of detected vulnerabilities and potential risks, helping accelerate investigations, reduce knowledge gaps and support faster decision-making.
Designed for modern DevOps and hybrid cloud environments, Kaspersky CWS provides centralised visibility across workloads, Kubernetes clusters and cloud platforms, while supporting runtime protection, shift-left security practices and regulatory compliance requirements.
AI-driven visibility and improved workload protection
The update allows organisations to enrich container image scanning results with automated explanations and risk context generated by third-party large language models integrated via OpenAI API. By transforming technical scan data into actionable insights, the feature helps teams prioritise remediation and streamline security operations.
Additional improvements include single sign-on (SSO) integration and multi-domain Active Directory support, enabling more seamless deployment across distributed enterprise environments.
To optimise performance, Kaspersky CWS now also enhances image scanning efficiency by skipping oversized images when needed and avoiding rescans of identical images within a predefined timeframe. Expanded security policy capabilities and UX/UI updates further simplify workload protection and policy management.
Enhanced protection across cloud environments
The new release also updates Light Agent components, now leveraging the latest versions of Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Windows (version 12.12) and Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Linux (version 12.4) to improve overall security and integration capabilities.
“As AI adoption accelerates across industries, organisations are increasingly relying on containerised environments – placing additional pressure on security teams.
“To help ease this burden, we introduced AI integration within Kaspersky Cloud Workload Security that enables security professionals, including those just beginning their journey in container security, to make faster decisions and gain deeper insight into potential risks and vulnerabilities,” comments Anton Rusakov-Rudenko, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Cloud & Network Security at Kaspersky.
“Combined with performance optimisations and expanded integration capabilities, the solution helps organisations to protect cloud environments more efficiently while maintaining operational resilience.”
E-Business
SARS Denies Being Hacked by Nullsec Nigeria, Hacker Group

South African Revenue Service (SARS) has dismissed claims that its systems were breached, following allegations by a hacker group that it had compromised the tax authority’s digital infrastructure.

The controversy emerged after Nullsec Nigeria, a threat actor also known as Anonymous Nigeria, claimed to have breached both SARS and the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
The hacktivist group allegedly posted links to download what it claimed was compromised data on the Breached hacker forum on Saturday, 23 May 2026, sparking concerns over a possible cyberattack targeting government systems.
However, SARS said it had conducted a thorough investigation into the claims and found no evidence that its systems had been compromised.
“SARS continuously monitors its systems for any suspicious activity and has conducted a thorough investigation in response to these reports. These claims are false and unsubstantiated,” the revenue service said in a statement.
“At this stage, there is no evidence that SARS’s systems have been compromised. SARS wishes to reassure the public regarding the integrity of its systems.”
The tax authority stressed that safeguarding taxpayer information remains one of its core responsibilities and forms part of its broader efforts to maintain public confidence in South Africa’s tax administration system.
SARS said the “protection of taxpayer information and the security of its digital platforms” is treated as “sacrosanct”.
The agency also urged South Africans to avoid sharing unverified claims and instead rely on official channels for accurate information.
“Members of the public are urged to verify information before sharing and not to circulate unverified claims or rely on information from unofficial sources,” SARS said.
At the same time, SARS warned taxpayers to remain vigilant against phishing scams and fraudulent messages falsely claiming to be from the tax authority.
For guidance on identifying scams and phishing attempts, SARS directed the public to its official online resource page: SARS scams and phishing guidance
SARS said it would continue monitoring its digital environment and communicate any developments through official platforms should the need arise.
E-Business
Pope Calls for ‘Disarming’ of AI, Warns of “New Forms of Slavery”

Pope Leo XIV called Monday for the “disarming” of artificial intelligence in his long-awaited manifesto on the rapidly developing technology, and warned of “new forms of slavery” behind its rise.

Leo, warned against “a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets, driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance”.
He presented his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity) in person at the Vatican, alongside AI experts including Christopher Olah, co-founder of US giant Anthropic.
Anthropic is embroiled in a legal battle with the US military after opposing the use of its technology for lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance.
At the presentation, Olah said AI companies operate “inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing”.
He welcomed input from outside actors like the Catholic Church, to “push events in a better direction” saying that “the questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community”.
In the encyclical, Leo also sounded the alarm over AI-directed weaponry, saying it was “not permissible to entrust lethal” decisions to tech.
Leo has repeatedly clashed with the White House over the Iran war and its use of religion to justify conflict.
The “just war” theory — espoused recently by the Trump administration — was “outdated”, Leo wrote, adding that “no algorithm can make war morally acceptable”.
AI could be worth up to $4.8 trillion by 2033, a 25-fold increase in a decade, while concentrating its profits in the hands of a limited few, according to the United Nations.
“Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition,” the pope wrote.
“To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity,” Leo wrote.
AI should be “human-friendly”, accessible to all, and open to discussion and debate, he added.
The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics has made the hot-button issue a cornerstone of his papacy by dedicating to it his first encyclical — a document that lays the basis for Church teaching and longer-term debate.
The manifesto references a range of cultural giants, from Greek philosopher Plato to Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony, even citing a character from JRR Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”.
“Magnifica Humanitas” was signed on May 15, the 135th anniversary of an 1891 encyclical by Leo XIII, which laid the foundations of the Church’s social doctrine during the Industrial Revolution.
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