The Africa SMME Tech Report
Issue No. 77. Africa SME tech news and insights for 17th May 2024.
This edition of the Africa SMME Tech Report is brought to you by Realm Digital
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The Africa SMME Tech News Digest
SMME Tech News & Insights for 17th May 2024
Jack Dorsey Comes Through on Africa
Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey has long been fascinated with Africa. Now, via his Web5 payments company TBD that sits within Block (formerly Square), Dorsey is in the payments game in Africa via a new partnership with Chipper Cash.
Dorsey is best known as the founder of Twitter, the microblogging platform, now called X and owned by Elon Musk. Dorsey has become a giant in fintech, having co-founded and helped scale Square, which is now called Block but Square remains the name of the company’s flagship payments (and more) app.
On its website, TBD describes its mission this way. “Make the decentralized financial world accessible – for everyone.” Further, it says:
“Decentralized and trustless systems create a world that empowers individuals: one’s right to engage in financial services and economic transactions is neither gated on proving creditworthiness and the ability to pay account fees, nor subject to censorship.”
Chipper Cash, domiciled in the U.S. but African-founded and Africa-focused, was launched in 2018 to use digital peer-to-peer payments to solve the high cost of remittances. It has since evolved to add a wider array of payment products, including crypto trading, bill payments, and more.
The deal with Dorsey’s new payments company TBD involves allowing peer-to-peer payments using digital assets (like cryptocurrencies). This may be aimed at boosting Chipper’s appeal to younger consumers.
And of course, this gives Block more entree into Africa. Last year, Dorsey said on a Block earnings call that the emergence of the “global south” (including Africa) was one of three trends the company has focused on. Not surprisingly the other two were artificial intelligence and open protocols.
Recommended Reading
The following is a curation of content from around Africa and the world related to big tech, digital marketing, small business, startup life, venture funding, M&A, and more. Please vote with your clicks and guide us on what we should curate for you in future editions.
Jumia Focused on Nigeria in Quest for Profitability (Paywall)
Does Amazon’s Launch Confirm SA’s Investor Friendliness?
Is B2B eCommerce ‘Just Getting Started’ in Africa?
Is Ghana a Key Player in African Fintech?
Ghana Embracing Blockchain for Government Operations
IMF Pushes Crypto as an Answer to Nigeria’s Currency Woes
Is Egypt Becoming an African AI Hub?
How AI in Africa is Becoming a US-China Battleground
Egyptian Group-Buying Startup Waffarha Raises 7-Figure Seed Round
SA Fintech Lesaka to Acquire Adumo for c$89M
Investment Program Madica Launches Inaugural Set of Investments
TikTok to Begin Labeling AI-generated Content
Is TikTok Trying to Become More Like YouTube?
Will Iraq Be the Next to Ban TikTok?
Are Marketers Using AI Behind Their Bosses’ Backs?
Highlights from Google I/O
Meta Streamlines SME Ad Creation
Is Search Undergoing an AI-Driven Shift from Ads to Offers?
Partner Message
Thank you Realm Digital for sponsoring this edition of the Africa SMME Tech Report
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From the 2024 BigFive Summit
The 2024 BigFive Summit (19-20 March) in Cape Town featured multiple high-impact presentations, panels, and fireside chats. We will share a 2024 Summit video (or two) in each weekly edition of this newsletter until we run out of them.
In this edition, we feature a fireside chat with Simon Ellis. Simon is the Co-founder and CEO of Jem (formerly SmartWage), a company that provides corporations with tools to communicate with their front-line workers via WhatsApp. For example, corporates can use Jem to share payslips, timesheets, rosters, and so on with frontline workers.
Jem’s original offering, which it still makes available, is called earned wage access. This enables “front-line workers” to access wages early at affordable rates so they do not have to access payday or street loans to make ends meet. This addresses a real pain point for the workers, but most corporates didn’t see it as a necessity, which compelled Jem to rebrand and pivot to HR and payroll software, which has proven to be an easier sell to corporates.
Simon explains why there is so much need for earned wage access here.
Please enjoy the full interview with Simon on our YouTube channel.
Build Your Brand with BigFive Digital
Those of you who attended our recent BigFive Summit in Cape Town know that BigFive Digital addresses an audience of high-powered leaders from corporates, startups, VCs, and other power centers in Africa’s tech ecosystem.
Do you want to speak directly to our high-powered audience of founders, investors, and corporate leaders? Write to info@bigfivedigital.org and let’s talk about sponsoring our newsletter and podcast. Or we can discuss partnering with you to create original, high-impact content for your organization.
BigFive Summit 2024 Sponsor Profile
The recent BigFive Summit (19-20 March in Cape Town) would not have been successful without the support of its sponsors. We are devoting each edition of this newsletter to showcasing one of these sponsors to thank them for supporting BigFive and encourage our community to support them in whatever way makes sense for your organization.
Vendasta is an end-to-end platform for local entities that market, sell,
bill, fulfill, and deliver digital solutions to small and medium businesses. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in Canada.
Vendasta was a Gold 2024 BigFive Summit sponsor. BigFive Digital is grateful for their ongoing support of BigFive Digital and the annual BigFive Summit.
Vendasta’s platform offers agencies and others serving the small business market a range of solutions from CRM and marketing automation to payment and project management. The company has also recently launched a set of AI tools that are built directly into Vendasta’s platform to automate more tasks and allow end users to get more done with less.
Reach out to Vendasta to learn more.