• NALA raises 40 million dollars to fuel international expansion and launch its own payment rails for Africa and beyond.
• The US fintech building global payments for emerging markets. 
• $40million Series A for NALA, the fintech that took Africa’s payment problems personally. 

NALA raises 40 million dollars to build cross-border payments for emerging markets. NALA, one of Africa’s largest fintech companies, has announced the Series funding to support its global expansion and enhance the reliability of payments to Africa by developing its own payment rails.

The past 12 months have been transformative for NALA. The company achieved a 10x increase in revenue, reached profitability, and had positive cash flow.

In the past 20 months, NALA saw a 34x increase in transaction volume. The NALA team has grown from just 7 members to a robust team of over 100. Finally, today, NALA proudly serves 500,000 customers.

The $40 million funding round …

• Dr. Patil VijaySinh, an interventional cardiologist at The Nairobi West Hospital, led the team in performing the Renal Artery Denervation procedure.
• Hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure, is a major global health concern, contributing to an estimated 8.5 million deaths in 2015 alone.
• Innovative healthcare techniques like Renal Artery Denervation offer new hope for patients with resistant hypertension.

The Nairobi West Hospital has successfully conducted the first Renal Artery Denervation procedure for resistant hypertension in Kenya and East Africa.

This pioneering procedure marks a significant step forward in the region’s battle against hypertension, a leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide.

Hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure, is a major global health concern, contributing to an estimated 8.5 million deaths in 2015 alone.

Despite the availability of various antihypertensive medications, only 18-23 per cent of patients achieve optimal blood pressure control.

In Kenya, prevalence of hypertension is …

•  A new study analysed billionaires and their earnings to rank the billionaires who got rich the fastest.
• Changpeng Zhao, a co-founder of Binance, got rich the fastest, earning his first billion dollars in only 7 months after the start of the company.
• Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg made their place in the ranking, both spending 4 years to acquire their first billion dollars.

Experts at EvenBet Gaming have recently conducted a study to rank the billionaires who got rich the fastest. The study considers the years since the company’s founding that brought the first billion.

In addition, the study includes the age when they became billionaires, their education, current net worth, and most recent revenue made by that company.

The original data related to net worth and companies’ revenues was taken from Forbes billionaires’ lists. Changpeng Zhao is a billionaire that got rich the fastest, earning his first billion …

• The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its Top 10 Emerging Technologies for 2024 on Tuesday
• The list of the technologies included Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Genomics for transplants 

Two decades ago today, an automated system that uses artificial intelligence to write a story or electric vehicles cruising down the street – were only things on a sci-fi movie or predicted in a peer-reviewed paper.

Gone are those days, the future is here. In today’s world, both governments and automakers are seeking real-life and real time solutions to at least pressing challenges known to man. Further, these solutions offer near-perfect options that fit the needs of the consumers/people.

In a quest to solve toxic gas emissions from vehicles, the developed world is churning out – especially Europe electric vehicles (EVs). The latter has witnessed a surge in demand with hybrid electric vehicle sales rising by 33.1 per cent.

Despite of the …

• Cyber recovery costs have over the past one year increased to $2.73 million.
• The survey included responses from 5,000 IT and cybersecurity leaders in 14 countries, covering organisations with 100 to 5,000 employees
• Only 1 per cent of claimants said their insurance covered all costs

According to a new report by online security solutions provider Sophos, the recovery costs from cyber-attacks have outpaced insurance coverage.

The survey titled “Cyber Insurance and Cyber Defenses 2024: Lessons from IT and Cybersecurity Leaders,” shows that recovery costs from cyber-attacks are outpacing insurance coverage with only one percent of those that made a claim saying that their carrier funded 100 percent of the costs incurred.

The most common reason for the policy not paying for the costs in full was because the total bill exceeded the policy limit.

According to The State of Ransomware 2024 survey, recovery costs following a ransomware incident increased by …

• SME loan products offer a considerably low interest rate, which helps fund businesses.
• Pezesha is a financing platform for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that enables them to access affordable credit and other financial services through embedded finance infrastructure.
• Safaricom has partnered with Pezesha, a digital lender, to credit small business owners, adding to the telco’s existing loan products.

Pezesha loan products

Pezesha is a financing platform for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that enables them to access affordable credit and other financial services through embedded finance infrastructure.

Pezesha has created an integrated digital financial infrastructure whose mission is to lead platforms and marketplaces where small and medium-sized businesses work through a collaborative approach. Financial institutions or networks connect on this platform and are matched with quality SMEs, driving meaningful financial inclusion and reducing any inequalities in access to formal financial services.

In 2023, Pezesha partnered with FSD Kenya to …