Nigerian fintech unicorn, Flutterwave, was likely breached a second and third time on March 1 and 14, 2023.
The sources alleged that, much like the first incident on February 5, the perpetrators used monies fraudulently obtained from Flutterwave accounts to buy USDT on the crypto platform Binance.
The monies involved in both incidents in March are estimated to be N550 million. It remains unclear how the perpetrators were able to move the money.
Flutterwave denied the claims that the Flutterwave systems have not been hacked.

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There’s a new social media content sheriff in town. As TikTok tried not to get banned in the U.S., thousands of Gen Z creators are using Fanfix to monetize content and interact with fans. And it’s already paid out $11 million to creators so far.
Fanfix, a Patreon competitor that is focused on Gen Z creators and only allows clean content, may provide an extra revenue stream for creators.
The subscription content monetization platform enables influencers to earn money directly from their followers.
Fanfix says it paid out $11 million to creators so far, with projections to be at $50 million by the end of the year. It also claims a revenue run rate of $35 million and believes it will be profitable by Q1 2024.

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Zyod, an Indian startup offering apparel sourcing and manufacturing to fashion brands globally, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture India Partners.
As the e-commerce sector makes inroads, consumers are finding increasing convenience in purchasing clothes online.
This stands in stark contrast to the traditional supply chain’s 180-day lead time and 2,000-piece minimum order, said Zyod co-founder Ankit Jaipuria in an interview.

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Shuttlers, a Nigerian shared mobility company that allows individual and corporate passengers to take rides on multiple bus routes via an app, has raised $4 million in a new funding round led by Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, a Pan-African focused venture capital firm.
Shuttlers’ business primarily focuses on corporate trips and commutes. In Lagos, Africa’s most populous city, the average professional who commutes to work daily or several times a week meets roads riddled with intense traffic congestion and dangerous carbon emissions.
It has three payment plans: Companies pay full fares for employees, companies split fares with employees, and individual customers — unaffiliated with any partner company — pay fares themselves. The fares range from N850 (~$1.96) and N1300 (~$2.60).

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Edward Ochieng, CTO of Sklylab Systems, Microsoft’s Africa Development Centre was also affected by the layoffs. Microsoft opened its ADC branch in Kenya and Nigeria in 2019 in a move it called a long-term investment and promised to spend $100 million in its first five years. The Lagos branch expanded last year with a new facility.
Microsoft had hired over 500 developers by June 2022, most of whom were poached from local tech firms. According to several LinkedIn posts from now-former employees, the global giant has laid off some developers in Kenya.

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Kenya has received Ksh 50 billion from the European Union to facilitate the electrification of the country’s public transport system.
The financing will enable Kenya to build the necessary infrastructure to make its bus rapid transit system more efficient and cost-effective.
Kenya’s upcoming Green Mobility-Nairobi core bus rapid transit line 3 will feature zero-emission electric buses and will introduce intelligent transport system features.
Kenya announced it would only operate electric vehicles on the BRT system, but that has not been the case as the funds to move this from plan to project have not been particularly available.

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Cote d’Ivoire has announced plans to launch its startup act, which will offer support to its burgeoning startup ecosystem.
This follows a string of startup laws that have been enacted across Africa as several governments looking to support and build their technology ecosystems.
Florence Tahiri Fadika, a technical advisor in charge of innovation and change at the country’s Ministry of Communication and the Digital Economy says the benchmarking mission, organised by the NTF V project, enabled us to benefit from Tunisia’s experience and to identify good practices.
A committee of experts and enthusiasts will grant a Startup Act award, with beneficiary startups able to access new opportunities in terms of training, financing, promotion, and access to public contracts and international markets.

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Kenya’s president William Ruto has reversed the rule that mandates that foreign companies must have at least 30% Kenyan ownership to operate in the country.
The rule was implemented in 2020 to encourage Kenyan participation in the ICT and science and technology sector through equity ownership.
It has also limited competition from foreign-owned companies that could not afford the heavy regulation.
Tech publication Techweez suggests that the president did away with the rules for the tech giant Amazon which is about to set up shop in Nairobi.

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GitHub, the popular developer platform, has laid off virtually its entire engineering team in India in an unusual move as the Microsoft-owned firm cuts its expenses amid the weakening global market conditions.
The developer firm has eliminated over 100 jobs in the South Asian market.
Gergely Orosz, a former software engineer who runs a popular newsletter Pragmatic Engineer, first reported about the job cuts.
A GitHub spokesperson says that the layoff is part of the streamlining effort the firm had disclosed in February.

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German launch startup Isar Aerospace has scored $165 million in new funding as it races toward the inaugural flight of its Spectrum small rocket later this year.
Isar CEO Daniel Metzler says that European governments are waking up to the geopolitical and economic upsides to sovereign launch capabilities.
Isar’s funding history reflects this increasing overlap between public and private interests.

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