Newsletter

BD Insider, Letter 87: We rise by lifting others

Letter 87 focuses on Disha's acquisition, Helium Health's expansion into the Middle East and Nestcoins' crypto education initiative.

Hello Insider,

Good news! Flutterwave has acquired Disha, an online no-code platform that allows creators to curate digital content and create their portfolios. Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, the founder and CEO of Flutterwave made the announcement on Wednesday.

Until this deal, Disha had plans to shut down in December 2022 due to"shortfalls with the platform’s vision", this was preceded by the exit of one of the co-founders, Blessing Abeng.

This acquisition has not only halted the closure but has also provided an opportunity for the founders to work with Flutterwave to continue with their vision to build a tool that will enable the creator economy. Rufus Oyemade, CTO and co-founder at Disha disclosed that he will lead the software and architectural team behind Disha at Flutterwave.

As part of its expansion into the $100 billion creator economy, Flutterwave has integrated a payout and collection solution on Disha to help users receive payments from audiences globally.

Truly, we rise by lifting others, African founders have been doing this and it's commendable.

In today's issue we will also look at:

Helium Health’s expansion into the Middle East
How Nestcoin wants to drive crypto education through its media platform, Breach.
Tech word for the week: Software as a Service - SaaS

When you dive in, you will also find job opportunities, fundraise announcements from last week, events and other interesting things. Ready? Let’s go inside.

Helium Health has expanded into the Middle East with Meddy’s acquisition

Helium Health has acquired Meddy in an undisclosed deal. Helium Health is a Lagos-based healthcare technology provider and Meddy, a UAE-based doctor booking platform.

Arguably, it’s one of the first acquisition deals between Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). With this deal, Helium will leverage its clinical solutions through Meddy’s marketing solutions to transform healthcare in the Middle East and Africa.

Find out more about the acquisition.

How Nestcoin wants to drive crypto education through its media platform, Breach

Last week, Nestcoin announced that it has hired David Adeleke, a communication expert and former Head of Communication at Eko Atlantic City to lead its editorial team at its recently launched media platform, Breach.

Business Insider carried out a survey (recently) and 64% of respondents in Kenya say they wouldn’t consider investing in crypto because they don’t understand enough about it, while 56% in South Africa and 55% in Nigeria affirm the same.

Breach wants to bridge this gap by providing crypto education in its most simplified form thereby driving the adoption of the currency across Africa. Here’s more about Breach

Tech Word for The Week: Software as a Service - SaaS

Have you ever wondered what SaaS mean? Software as a Service is a cloud-based software licensing model where the provider creates and maintains the cloud application software and every other underlying IT infrastructure for the users. The service is provided on a subscription basis.

Dara wrote a comprehensive guide that will give you a clear understanding of this model.

🗓️Events

Here are some events coming up:

November 15th: 2021 HiiL African Justice Innovation Symposium
November 17th: Conversations in Africa’s Creative Industries
December 9th: Technext Coinference on cryptocurrency in Africa

💰Fundraising

Here are some of the recent startup fundraises across Africa that you should be aware of:

Nigeria's IdentityPass secured $360,000 pre-seed funding
Kenyan mSwali raised an undisclosed pre-seed funding round
Moroccan B2B e-Commerce startup, Sle3ti raised a $1.3 million seed round
Cairo-based e-grocery, Rabbit has closed its pre-seed funding round of $11 million
MFS Africa raised $100 million through equity and debt financing round to scale its operations

Tip: If you're looking to improve your take-home (salary) by moving jobs, companies that have just raised are a great place to apply. Companies almost always hire after a significant raise.

🧐Interesting? Yes!

Here are some of the most exciting stories we've written and read over the last seven days:

How to build a multi-million dollar dating app.
Risevest hired Teni to be its brand ambassador.
How the big consumer apps get their first 1,000 users
Meta CTO thinks bad metaverse moderation could pose an ‘existential threat’.
Lagos is among emerging hotspots for female fintech founders in Africa, really?
Benjamin Dada talks about Stitch's plans for Nigeria and the evolving tech ecosystem in Africa