TECHWARF | Let's Talk Innovations

Scribd, a company offering unlimited access to half a million e-books for $8.99 a month, is reporting that it has raised $22 million in additional funding.

The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with Khosla partner Keith Rabois previously an executive at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide and Square joining the Scribd's board as an observer. Asked via email about how the subscription business will pay out for books, Rabois noted that model has already changed the way we consume other forms content.

''With over 80 million users in nearly every country, the Scribd team is well positioned to develop to a big global audience,'' he said.

Started in 2007 and incubated at Y Combinator, Scribd started out as a document sharing service. While it still supports those features, its focus shifted last year to subscription e-books, where competitors include startup Oyster and Amazon's Kindle Unlimited service.

Echoing Rabois'comment, co-founder and CEO Trip Adler told me that Scribd now reaches more that 80 million unique visitors each month. He didn't specify how many of those visitors are actually paying subscribers, but he did say subscriptions have been developing an average of 31 percent each month since the service was formally revealed in October 2013.

Just a couple of month ago, the company also grew into audiobooks, and Alder said the response ''beat our expectations''. Users have already logged 180,000 listening hours, according to Scribd.

This brings Scribd's funding to $48 million. Previous backers Redpoint ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank also invested in the new round.

Adler said he plans to spend the money on developing the product with a focus on algorithmic book recommendations and the reading experience itself, as well as continuing to grow the content available in Scribd.

He also interpreted a comment he'd made, when he said he was ''not ruling out'' a tiered pricing model in the future. It sounds like I may have explained that as a more definite plan than it really was when I brought it up earlier this week, Adler said, ''I think I was just brainstorming with you there. We are still focused on the $8.99 price point and there are no plans to change it''.

Etisalat and First Bank have revealed First Monie, a product to develop the use of mobile money on the mobile technology driven EasyWallet SIM application.

First Monie, is a mobile payment service that allows phone users send and receive money, pay bills, buy airtime and lots more with their mobile phones without a bank account. As a result of the partnership between Etisalat and First Bank, the First Monie service will run on Etisalat's EasyWallet SIM application menu.

''Etisalat EasyWallet, is one of the most secure and convenient stage for mobile money services. With the easywallet, etisalat subscribers can create financial transactions such as peer-to-peer transfers, bills payment and airtime top-up directly from mobile devices'', Said Dada Lucas, Director, Business Segment at Etisalat Nigeria.

Mobile Money has reported huge success in countries like Cote d'ivoire. Kenya, Gambia and South Africa, according to a Business Day report, but is it is not yet clear if it will achieve similar levels of success in Nigeria.





 

Venture Capital for Africa (VC4Africa) has released a report which it intends to be a seminal resource for investors in African startups for the year 2015. The report is a product of research into the organizational advancements made by early stage startups across Africa in 2014. These advancements were measured in terms of revenue and the number of jobs made over this period.

The report breaks down insights across 5 indicators: employment, performance, investors and ecosystem. It's tone in general is upbeat about the opportunity.

According to an emailed press discharge, the 2015 research detail shows an developing number of African businesses successfully developing their operations over time, generating an increasing amount of revenue and add new jobs to the African market place.

The research shows 49% of the ventures start producing revenue in their first year of operation. 44% of the ventures are successful in securing external capital investment. Compared to last year's research total invested capital more than doubled and the average amount provided per venture increased by 70%.

The top investment categories reflected in the report are on startups related to technology, agriculture, health, finance and energy. The research also reports that ventures that engage in sector events, or join an incubator or accelerator, secure on average 23% more than their counterparts who do not engage in such programs.

''From the research we know that entrepreneurs have been able to secure an increasing amount of venture funding compared to last year. Despite reasonable gains the 'missing middle'finance problem persists mid-level financing for early stage growth entrepreneurs, although narrower than when VC4Africa began in 2007.'' says VC4Africa Co-Founder Ben White.

VC4Africa's stated is to be the world's leading social network for entrepreneurs and investors in Africa, and currently counts over 17,000 members across 159 countries, including 600 investors.

  



 

 
  

Shop4U has started a same day delivery shopping service in Lagos, Nigeria. Shoppers can select grocery and other items from different stores and add them to Shop4U cart. The startup says it will give goods purchased on the platform within three hours across Lagos city.

''The site plans to connect supermarkets to Lagos residents and other urban area across the country. This will save them time and the hassle of traditional shipping'', says Kayode Adekunle, one of the founders.
Delivery is also accessible to other parts of Nigeria. The areas covered are Abuja, Ibadan, Ilorin, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano.

Shop4U joins the likes of Supermart.ng in a high velocity e-commerce niche where speed and convenience are the biggest value propositions. Supermart's range is however at the time of this writing limited to Lagos.

Nigerian online payment processor, VoguePay and South African Bitcoin company, ICE3X have entered into a partnership that will allow the buying and selling of bitcoin in Naira using VoguePay wallets.

ICE3X founder, Gareth Grobler said, ''Bitcoin technology has yet to be packaged and applied correctly for it to be a mainstream alternative currency, but as an agnostic payment settlement mechanism within a larger framework it ticks all boxes and could perhaps have a important impact on shaping the Nigerian digital economy landscape. It is a market that simply just cannot be avoided any longer.''

Confidence in Bitcoin waned in 2014 as a frenzied speculation, followed by enormous security breaches and theft to the tune of millions took over 60 percent off the currency's value. Security still remains a burden as $5 million worth of Bitcoin went missing on the 5th of January from a major Bitcoin exchange based in Slovenia.

Nonetheless, experts still expect that Bitcoin could mark a watershed moment for financial services and inclusion in Africa. So far, South Africa and Kenya have been the continent's cryptocurrency's biggest adopters, with a slew of startups rushing to implement locally important applications for the technology.

Nigerians in Nigeria will be able to trade bitcoin on the VoguePay and ICE3X powered platform from the 12th of January, 2015.

I don't know if you have ever felt like you're so busy but when you do settle down to look at the work you have done you realize you haven't done anything profitable? I get this feeling a lot and it can be really annoying. You feel like if you don't get this done nothing else would move forward, like someone is pressing you for time and yet you haven't got anything done.

I'm here to let you know there is a way you could get more productive work done in 15 minutes than you could get done in an entire day. You may be skeptic but what I propose to you is the truth. Productivity is made possible when you have intentionality.

You can create this productive 15 minutes of your day right this moment and I'm here to help you do just that. Here's how we get started with being productive:

1. Take 15-minutes out of your busy schedule.
It doesn't matter if it's in the morning, afternoon or evening or if you're at work, at home or anywhere at all. All that matters is that you get 15 minutes of complete peace of mind. You can't afford to be interrupted in anyway.

2. Determine the most powerful use of this time taken.
At this stage you don't go about doing things you feel are relevant but you actually sit and think of something you know if done would make an impact not only on you but also on someone or something else. Make sure it's important and not urgent so that no one has a gun to your head to get it done.

3. Take this time serious and make it a holy one.
This isn't the time to go online on all the social networks available to us neither is it the time to make unnecessary phone calls or gist with friends. There would always be time for that trust me but that time isn't this special 15 minutes of our day. For those of us who might be at work, it won't be a bad idea if the 15 minutes you take is your break time so as not to be interrupted. Otherwise you could post a sign saying "do not disturb". Just make sure you aren't distracted in any way at all.

4. Put your head down and focus.
You can't afford to start daydreaming or fantasizing about things that are not relevant to the task at hand. This is about making productive work done, so put your head into it and work furiously. Focus everything you have on this.

If you follow these steps, you would realize you have been exceedingly productive and you would feel amazed at how much you've gotten done in just 15 minutes. Set aside this little time to achieve maximum productivity every day. This new habit of intentionality can change your world. Adios

Now that the festive season is grinding to a halt, every one of us would start taking into account how much we spent this season. Most of us spent moderately, maybe because we knew work/school would soon resume, while most of us spent like there was no tomorrow. Don't get me wrong I'm not here to castigate you or anything, I'm just here to ask what where the things we all spent on this season? Let me guess the answers to that; gifts, eateries, cinemas, pools, beaches, travelling and I'm pretty sure the list goes on.

Well I'm more concerned about the gifts we bought or we got. Recent survey shows that the gift items that topped the list of things anyone could get were mobile phones and fashion items. Most online shopping malls were buzzing with orders for these gift items. I got one also, a blackberry bold 6 to be precise. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but then again it was a gift given with love.

So with this we know where most of our spending was focused on. I say Happy New Year to you all reading this and I do hope this New Year gives us a wider and better range of gadgets to get as gift items for our loved ones. Adios!

Back in the day, we reported that messaging app Snapchat was raising over $100 million in a round led by Kleiner Perkins and then the WSJ stated that it was $20 million, which left us wondering why a growth round would be so small in terms of total principle. Well, it turns out it's not.

Snapchat has raised a much bigger amount nearly $500 million in aggregate, according to an SEC filing that it slipped out as the working day for New years Eve was coming to a close. The filing notes that 23 investors took part, although it is not clear from the SEC document who led the round.

Here is what happened, according to our sources. Snapchat originally set out to raise $40 million, but request for the round skyrocketed, and it decided to shoot for an ambitious $900 million instead. When that didn't work out, it dialled it back to $500 million. Rumor has it that Kleiner is leading this latest round, with GIC, Yahoo and maybe wildcards August Capital participating. Portion of that, such as the Yahoo part of the fund-raise, shut out some time ago. The SEC filing notes that the date of first sale was in April 2014.

We have also heard that the current post money valuation is $20 billion, although others have disputed this and said it is closer to $10 billion.

The cash is much needed. One source said that Snapchat has an over $30 million per-year burn rate, and pays half of that to Google Apps Engine to host all it's photos, though this number seems low to us. Another noted that at one point the company was paying $3 million each month in legal fees alone. Snapchat's had its share of lawsuits.

Alibaba was the initial lead on that round as Re/Code stated. According to a source, the Alibaba position was then punted to Yahoo, which put in $20 million of its own cash on hand post the Alibaba IPO. We have also heard that Yahoo has really put in more than this but have been unable to verify that beyond the $20 million close.

The cause of the numerical ups and downs of Snapchat's fundraising is the company's unique spin on financing, which works on a ''rolling'' basis, from how one source describes it.

Snapchat is interesting in that they break the conventions of traditional fundrasing, one source tells us. Traditionally an entrepreneur will set out raise a round for a specified amount of money, and then you get interested investors on the same page based on an agreed valuation and then you close it. Spiegel does this some what differently. ''He goes after individual investors at different valuations. It is a rolling contribution and a rolling close. In theory you could say he is already done 40 rounds.

What this means is that, if it is true, then yes, Snapchat may have raised nearly $500 million in the last six months. of that $ 500 million, it may be that only 75% of it is closed, and with portions at different valuations, some getting in pre $10 billion, like Yahoo, and some above it and closer to $20 billion.

The logic for the high valuation is fascinating, and points to some of the big hopes Snapchat and its investors have for the app. The last announced number of active monthly users of the ephemeral message app was 100 million back in August 2014, but things moving fast. From what we get the MAU number is now approaching 200 million users. The company in May 2014 announced 700 million photos sent per day on the app, with 500 million Snapchat Stories.




 



 

As the year slowly comes to an end, we can look back and agree on one positive thing that has been on the rise, that has been on the rise, that is e-commerce. Add that to the fact that Internet penetration across Africa is on the increase and judging from our Submit Your Company form, we can say that e-commerce is the new witch money.

Africa is a burgeoning and largely unexplored consumer market. According to  McKinsey and Co. Consumer facing industries in Africa are predicted to increase by over $400 million in 2020. This includes the aforementioned e-e-commerce among other sectors.

This has led the Africa Internet Group to access and rank the top 7 countries for technology and e-commerce increase in the region, with the help of independent studies, field surveys and research.

Below is a list of the top seven countries in Africa where iGDP is important and why it is in the spotlight for AIG's ventures, investors and venture capitalists.

 1. SENEGAL

This country leads the pack in Africa with an iGDP of 3.3%. Initiative like the Jjiguene Tech Hub, Jjiguene means 'woman' in wolof are made by women for women in Senegal, it goal to help women enter the world of IT driven businesses. The potential for this initiative has been recognized by a number of investors including IT giant Microsoft.

2. KENYA

Close on the heels of Senegal is Kenya, with an iGDP of 2.9%. The previous president of Kenya started $14.5bn project earlier this year to create  city to shape African tech businesses something similar to the Silicon Valley; called the African Silicon Savannah. This city is designed to become a hub for outsourcing of BPO operations and general IT support, as well as helping to foster growing businesses. Kenya is also the birthplace of the BRCK.

3. MOROCCO

This North African country is developing fast and is well positioned to become Africa's financial center. With projects like Casablanca Finance City and Casablanca Technopark, it isn't surprising that their iGDP is 2.3%. King Mohammed VI of Morocco is on his way to achieving his dream of making Casablanca the financial hub of Africa and attracting investment to help companies tap into the huge Franco-African market. There are over 100 companies in the Technopark already.

4. MOZAMBIQUE

On the international radar as one of the top three African countries with rapid development. Recent collaborations with China have further improved their agricultural industry and in addition to this, real estate and hospitality opportunities are bountiful. It is among the top five economies in Africa which have made significant progress in the IT sector. Mozambique now has an iGDP of 1.6% and this looks set to increase as IT underpins many other areas of development in the country.

5. NIGERIA

The pride of Africa, being its largest economy. It has an iGDP of 1.5% and is also the e-commerce hub of Africa with businesses like Jumia, Kaymu, Konga and many others. IT is  successful in Nigeria and apart from multiple technology hubs, there are several accelerators in Nigeria to help start ups and to promote IT based businesses. I really would like to know how the iGDP was calculated and how we are 5th. but maybe I'm being biased.

6. SOUTH AFRICA

Follows Nigeria closely with an iGDP of 1.4%. It is among the most economically grown nations in Africa and it is one of the most receptive. South Africa has IT hubs all along the Western Cape province among which is the city of Stellenbosch is known as  the Silicon Valley of South Africa but development needs to be accelerated as other African countries are steaming ahead with investment into the IT sector.

7. GHANA

Though last on the list here, with an iGDP of 1.1%, it is definitely not the least. Only recently, the president of Ghana agreed to build an IT city near Accra the capital with a total investment of about $5,2bn. Plans involve building a tower which aims to be the tallest in Africa.