Twitch is lifting its exclusivity agreement that prevented its partners from streaming on other services.
Starting today, partners can now stream on YouTube, Facebook Live and more, just not while streaming on Twitch at the same time.
Twitch clarified that it doesn’t allow simulcasting on web-based, Twitch-like services that support streaming for extended periods of time, such as YouTube and Facebook, because it believes that engaging with two streams at once can lead to a suboptimal experience for viewers.
The company, however, says it’s aware that some partners want to use other services to grow their community, so simulcasting on TikTok and Instagram Live is allowed.

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Toyota has joined the growing list of automakers that have recognized the state of California’s authority to set vehicle emissions standards under the U.S. Clean Air Act.
The move will make the Japanese automaker eligible for government fleet purchases by California.
Toyota continues to share the vision of greenhouse gas reduction and carbon neutrality goals with the California Air Resources Board and the State of California.
Toyota is certainly singing a different political and environmental tune than it has in the past.

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Servify, a startup that manages the lifecycle of devices for several popular smartphone vendors including Apple and Samsung in many markets, has raised $65 million as it eyes becoming a public company in two years.
Singularity Growth Opportunity Fund led the Mumbai-headquartered startup’s Series D funding. AmTrust and family offices including Pidilite and existing investors Iron Pillar, Beenext, Blume Ventures and DMI Sparkle Fund also participated in the round.
Partner firms also use Servify’s eponymous platform to offer trade-ins, upgrade and financing programs to customers.

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Meta, formerly Facebook, has officially rolled out what it’s calling Meta accounts and Meta Horizon Profiles.
The global launch will be gradual, but both accounts are to be used in place of the personal social media account logins once used to log in to the company’s virtual reality system.
Users, new and old, of Meta’s VR devices, will be required to sign up for a Meta account to log in and access the metaverse.
The company is ditching the old way of logging on after complaints around privacy concerns arose regarding using personal social media accounts.

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The South Africa Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority has issued a guidance note to banks for dealing with transactions by crypto asset service providers.
The central bank says that it is aware that certain banks in the country have previously opted to terminate the bank/customer relationship with CASPs.
The banks opted for this termination because of the risks of money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing that come with the CASPs’ lack of formal regulatory requirements.
Th Bank states that de-risking may pose a threat to the country’s financial integrity.

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The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume of transactions, Binance, has announced that its users will now be able to deposit and withdraw the South African Rand to and from their Binance wallets.
Binance says this is meant to increase the region's adoption and mainstream accessibility of crypto.
Binance stated that the service would be rolled out in 2 phases. Phase 1, which went live with immediate effect enables Binance users to deposit ZAR into their Binance wallets and convert ZAR to bitcoin, binance USD, Ethereum, tether and binance coin.
Phase 2 will include ZAR fiat withdrawals for all Binance users and will be launched on August 25

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Omnibiz, a Nigerian B2B e-commerce company, has recently secured a $15 million pre-Series A investment led by Timon Capital.
The raise is structured as a $5M equity and $10M debt investment deal and saw participation from Ventures Platform, Lofty Inc, Chapel Hill Denham, Chandaria Capital, and Musha Ventures.
Omnibiz provides retailers with a fully integrated digital platform. Retailers can purchase and restock conveniently from over 200 product brands, such as Coca-Cola and Nestle, through the Omnibiz app.
Deepankar Rustagi, CEO and co-founder of Omnibiz, said that this funding came about because existing investors motivated the company to raise a pre-Series A.

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The company’s co-founders Monsurah Oluwafuyi, COO Muhammad Muazu, and Chief Product Officer Kamaldeen Ibrahim, say the company is providing a safer option for female drivers and riders while creating work opportunities for more women.
They said the company’s idea came from their collective desire to change the reality that too many women get harassed and abused on ride-hailing trips.

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Bolt, the ride-sharing business valued at $8.4 billion, almost witnessed a crushing fate to its operations in Tanzania due to regulations from the country’s authorities.
Bolt has restricted their business activities to corporate clients only.
Tanzania’s Land Transport Regulatory Authority mandated ride-hailing operators to collect a maximum of 15% from their drivers.
Bolt agreed, citing that it was only doing so to buy time for stakeholders’ negotiations and reconsiderations. It also stated that there was hardly a future for the company in Tanzania, should LATRA maintain its order.
To remain in the East African country, Bolt has now adjusted its business model, restricting its business activities to corporate clients only.

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A former Twitter employee suspected of spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia was found guilty.
The employee, U.S. resident Ahmad Abouammo, was also convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsifying records and money laundering. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
According to the federal complaint, he and another Twitter employee, Ali Alzabarah, were approached by the Saudi government and offered cash and luxury goods for their cooperation in collecting personal information on Twitter users of interest.
According to Bloomberg, the prosecution was not allowed to instruct the jury directly about the brutal punishment that Saudi Arabia doles out to its critics, but they were able to gesture toward that reputation through witnesses, including a woman who described how her brother disappeared in 2018 after criticizing the country on Twitter.

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