On today's episode of the Techpoint Africa Podcast, our host, Chimgozirim Nwokoma is joined by Francis Ogbuka, VP Sales, Zone and Abraham Augustine, Comms & Programs Lead, Norrsken to dissect some of this week's biggest African tech stories.
First, we discuss African blockchain payments company, Zone and its recent PoS payment gateway announcement.
Zone, a payment infrastructure company in Africa, has launched a blockchain-powered PoS payment gateway product built on its payment infrastructure.
According to the company, introducing this latest product aligns with its payment goals across multiple channels, following the success of its ATM transaction processing service.
Zone's PoS payment gateway product is expected to enable banks and fintechs that deploy PoS payment terminals to facilitate payments. The product would allow direct routing of transactions to issuers.
Next we go to Kenya with Copia Global.
Kenyan eCommerce company, Copia Global, has temporarily suspended orders from several Kenyan markets. The six affected markets in central and eastern Kenya are Naivasha, Machakos, Meru, Embu, Kericho, and Eldoret.
Meanwhile, employees in these markets have reportedly been placed on leave.
This decision comes just a week after the B2C firm went into administration and appointed Makenzi Muthusi and Julius Ngonga of KPMG, an audit and advisory firm, to oversee the process.
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Here's a fun fact for you: the only publicly traded eCommerce platform in Africa, Jumia, recorded its highest loss in 2019, the year it was listed on the NYSE.
Lastly, we talk about Gro Intelligence.
Gro Intelligence, a Kenyan-born and United States-based agricultural insights platform, is reportedly closing shop, following difficulty in securing sufficient capital to stay in business.
Although the data analytics startup announced raising emergency funding in a bridged round in March 2024, it wasn’t enough to keep the company afloat as it couldn't raise more money from existing and new investors.
Gro Intelligence’s woes were made public in February 2024 following reports that it couldn't pay employees despite raising $117 million since its launch in 2012.
You can catch up on the conversation on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also send your questions and observations to podcast@techpoint.africa or share your thoughts using the hashtag #TechpointAfricaPodcast.
