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VC4Afrcia Reveals 12 Top Tech Start-Ups Building Platforms

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Few weeks after they launched their products at DEMO Africa 2014 before investors, media, strategic buyers and others attendants from around the world, VC4Africa has revealed that 12 African tech start-ups are currently building amazing platforms.

VC4Africa has declared that only accredited investors who registered a VC4Africa Pro Account can access the company’s private documents, business plans, financial projections and all other details from the listed ventures’ VC4Africa profiles.

The 12 top tech start ups are as follows:

Cribpark – Nigeria

Cribpark is a web-platform including home design catalogue, web shop, and project management tools for design and construction.

The service can be used also on mobile devices. Funding amount required: USD 250,000

Funding to date: All funds raised for Cribpark so far have been from the founders.

Other requirements: Mentorship, Partnerships, Endorsements

Cube – Nigeria

Cube enables anyone (whether individual or business entity) to accept card payments in person with their phone.

The service also works without internet connection. Funding amount required: About USD 400,000 additional capital.

Funding to date: Approximately USD 100,000

Feedbackplus – Nigeria

Feedbackplus lets customers give feedback to different organizations online or through a mobile app.

It also provides organizations with a platform on which to interact with customers and track their feedback. Funding amount required: USD 200,000.

Funding to date: USD 55,000. Other requirements: Mentoring

Foodstantly – Nigeria

Foodstantly is an online marketplace which provides customers with fresh as well as cooked food and home delivery services. Suppliers benefit by having a Mobile-web platform to set up online shops, accept payments, sell and deliver their products.

Funding amount required: USD 150,000. Funding to date: Personal funding / Bootstrapped

Other requirements: Co-Founder and recruiting more talent

Hutbay – Nigeria

Hutbay is a platform that helps real estate consumers find and share vital information about real estate, mortgages, and agents. The platform also connects users with real estate professionals in Nigeria. Funding amount required: USD 200,000.

Funding to date: USD 32,000 in seed funding & USD 45,000 in startup funding. Other requirements: Mentoring

LocName – Egypt

LocName is an application that gives a short, unique name for your address, which you can share easily in just 2 seconds. Directions to reach your place! Funding amount required: USD 100,000

Funding to date: USD 15,000. Other requirements: Advertising, Partnership in other companies, Mentorship

MobileJobs (powered by SOMTEC) – Ethiopia

MobileJobs provides web and mobile job alert and recruitment services.

The service is designed for a country where many people have limited access to the internet.

Funding amount required: USD 1,000,000. Funding to date: –

MuZik – Cameroon

MuZik is a virtual music streaming service for feature phones.

It provides the user with music or information regarding it, automatically grabbed online.

Funding amount required: USD 23,000, Funding to date: -(unannounced)

Nikweli – Tanzania

Mobile-to-web job matching platform that connects employers and job seekers for lower skill, “blue collar” type positions.

Funding amount required: USD 200,000 over 2 years

Funding to date: USD 20,000 (self-funded)

Other requirements: Completing the management team (technical talent)

Pliby – Benin

Pliby is an online platform for the African music lovers.

The platform is used to discover underground artists, songs and albums. Funding amount required: tbd

Funding to date: – yet to be announced.

TrafficBytes – Egypt

Trafficbytes is a solution that allows mobile operators and telecom vendors to leverage existing big data and provide real time accurate roads traffic information. Funding amount required: USD 200,000

Funding to date: -Other requirements: Business leads with mobile operators & telecom vendors

VOTO Mobile – Ghana

Mobile phone notification and survey platform.

Interactive SMS or voice call service in local languages, help with instantly reaching across distance, language, and literacy barriers.

Funding amount required: Large seed or series A within 6 months. Currently cash flow positive.

Funding to date: USD 100,000

Other requirements: Strategic partners including mobile operators, international development organisations, mobile platform

The VC4Africa Investor Network is the largest network of dedicated SME investors interested in supporting African based ventures.

Registered investors are also able to follow hundreds of other ventures gaining traction in over 40 African markets, network with fellow members, coordinate due diligence, and co-fund deals with fellow investors.

The platform also advised entrepreneurs look out the five steps to fundraising to learn more about fundraising opportunities through VC4Africa.

 

 


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E-Business

Attackers Target Employees with Fake HR Updates

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Kaspersky has identified an advanced phishing campaign targeting employees with personalised emails and attached documents disguised as HR policy updates.

This campaign marks a significant escalation in phishing tactics, with attackers tailoring not only the email body, but also the attachments by addressing individual recipients, showcasing an unprecedented level of customisation. The goal was to lure the victim into entering their corporate email credentials.

The attackers likely prepared by parsing employee names to make the campaign targeted and more convincing.

The emails feature a deceptive body: a fraudulent “verified sender” badge to build trust, the recipient’s name, and an invitation to open the attached file to review remote work protocols, benefits administration and security standards. However, the whole email body is in reality just an image with no real text in it; this is done to bypass email filters.

The attached document, posing as an updated “Employee Handbook,” does not contain any actual guidelines – only a title page, a table of contents with the items that have supposedly been changed highlighted in red, a page with a QR code, supposedly for going to the full document and common instructions on how to read QR codes using a phone. The document features the victim’s name multiple times to convince that this document was created specifically for them.

If the victim scans the QR code and follows the link, they land on a fraudulent page where they are asked to enter their corporate credentials, which is what the attackers are hunting for.

“This campaign demonstrates a new level of sophistication in phishing attacks, and we may be seeing a new mailing automation mechanism that generates a separate attached document and a separate image for the email body for each recipient.

“This tactic allows to scale the attack and at the same time possibly evade traditional defenses. Organisations must prioritise advanced security measures and employee education to stay ahead of these threats,” comments Roman Dedenok, Anti-Spam Expert at Kaspersky.

 


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Temu Joins INTA to Combat Counterfeits and Elevate IP Standards Worldwide

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Temu, the global online marketplace, has joined the International Trademark Association (INTA) as a corporate member and serves on its Anti-Counterfeiting Committee.

INTA is a global association that brings together more than 6,700 organizations, representing over 37,000 trademark professionals and brand owners across 181 countries. By joining INTA, Temu deepens its commitment to building a trusted online marketplace and advancing global IP protection through broader, cross-industry collaboration.

“INTA welcomes TEMU’s willingness to engage in anticounterfeiting initiatives, including in the Association’s annual Anticounterfeiting Workshop and Online Takedown Certificate Program which serve to share best practices and connect stakeholders,” said Alastair Gray, Director of Anti-Counterfeiting, INTA. “Constructive collaboration with these efforts can contribute to the protection of intellectual property rights for INTA members and support the removal of counterfeit products from the platform which ultimately protects consumers.”

At the 2025 INTA Annual Meeting held in San Diego in May, Temu participated in the Anti-Counterfeiting Committee Roundtable, serving as a moderator to facilitate discussions among brand owners, online platforms, and government officials on emerging technologies, best practices for collaboration, and strategies to strengthen global anti-counterfeiting efforts.

“Joining INTA and serving on its Anti-Counterfeiting Committee reflects Temu’s ongoing commitment to ensuring a trustworthy online shopping experience,” said a Temu spokesperson. “We value collaboration with industry peers and stakeholders and are dedicated to advancing collective efforts in intellectual property protection.”

Temu also participates in INTA-led online workshops, including the Online Platform Notice and Takedown Certification Program, which outlines the latest procedures and best practices used by e-commerce platforms and social media companies. These workshops aim to enhance the quality and accuracy of rights-holder notices, promoting more effective takedown processes and content moderation.

Since launching in 2022, Temu has made significant investments in IP enforcement. Its measures include comprehensive seller vetting and compliance training, 24/7 algorithmic monitoring with manual review, a dedicated IP protection portal and brand registry to streamline takedown submissions, and an internal enforcement team that handles claims with speed and accuracy.


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Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

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China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled an AI computing system on Saturday that an industry expert said rivals Nvidia’s most advanced product, as the company aims to expand its footprint in the country’s booming AI sector.

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

The CloudMatrix 384 system made its public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai, attracting a large crowd to Huawei’s booth with its showcase of cutting-edge AI innovations.

The system has attracted significant interest from the global AI community since Huawei (HWT.UL) first introduced it in April. Industry analysts see it as a direct challenger to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, the most advanced system-level offering currently available from the U.S. chipmaker.

In an April article, Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, stated that Huawei now possesses AI system capabilities that could surpass those of Nvidia.

Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system.

A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.

Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been “moving quite fast” and named the CloudMatrix as an example.

The CloudMatrix 384 system features 384 of Huawei’s latest 910C chips and, according to SemiAnalysis, surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in certain performance metrics, despite the latter using 72 B200 chips.

SemiAnalysis attributes this performance advantage to Huawei’s strong system design, which offsets the lower power of individual chips by leveraging a greater number of them and incorporating system-level innovations.

Huawei describes the system as utilizing a “supernode” architecture that enables ultra-high-speed interconnectivity between chips.

In June, Zhang Pingan, CEO, Huawei Cloud confirmed that the CloudMatrix 384 was already operational on Huawei’s cloud platform.


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