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🌾 Babban Gona Secures $7.5m from BII

🌾 Babban Gona Secures $7.5m from BII

Plus: 🏦 Union Bank completes Titan Trust merger

Innovation Village
September 03, 2025

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Today’s Menu ☕️

🌾 Babban Gona Secures $7.5 Million from BII to Expand Farmer Impact
🏦 Union Bank completes Titan Trust merger
☂️ South African insurer Santam launches UK operation to drive global growth
🤖 OpenAI introduces parental controls for ChatGPT users
💵 216 Capital invests in Addvocate.AI to transform sales performance with AI
🤖 Intella secures $12.5M to advance Arabic AI and expand across MENA
📱 Instagram Tests Picture-in-Picture Viewing for Reels

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🌾 AGRICTECH

Babban Gona Secures $7.5 Million from BII to Expand Farmer Impact

Babban Gona, a Nigerian agri-tech platform, has secured a $7.5 million debt investment from British International Investment (BII) to strengthen food security and climate resilience for smallholder farmers in Northern Nigeria. The AI-powered platform provides farmers with access to finance, quality inputs, agronomic training, storage, and markets, while also offering climate-smart solutions such as drought-tolerant seeds and yield insurance.

With this investment, Babban Gona aims to improve the livelihoods of 140,000 farmers by 2029, with a long-term ambition to support 50 million farmers globally. Managing Director Kola Masha hailed the partnership as a testament to shared vision, while UK and BII officials praised the model for unlocking growth, jobs, and resilience. The deal positions Babban Gona as a blueprint for agricultural transformation in Africa...…..continue reading

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🏦BANKING

Union Bank completes Titan Trust merger

Union Bank of Nigeria has completed its merger with Titan Trust Bank, fully absorbing its operations and assets. The Central Bank of Nigeria approved the consolidation, ensuring customers experience no disruption as the bank expands its digital services and nationwide reach.

The deal, rooted in Titan Trust’s 2021 acquisition of Union Bank shares, strengthens Union Bank’s balance sheet and positions it among Nigeria’s top ten banks by assets. The merger comes ahead of the CBN’s 2026 recapitalization deadline and is expected to drive financial inclusion while setting the stage for further banking sector consolidations..…..continue reading

🤖ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

OpenAI introduces parental controls for ChatGPT users

OpenAI has announced new safety features for ChatGPT, including parental controls that let parents link accounts with their teens, customize chatbot responses, disable features like memory, and receive alerts if a child shows signs of acute distress.

The company is also enhancing how ChatGPT handles sensitive topics, working with health experts and deploying a new deliberative alignment model to ensure safer, more responsible responses in areas like mental health and substance use.

These updates come after a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against OpenAI by parents who allege ChatGPT provided their son with information that contributed to his suicide. OpenAI says the changes will roll out over the next 120 days, with broader safety improvements planned by year’s end....…continue reading

💵 INVESTMENTS

216 Capital invests in Addvocate.AI to transform sales performance with AI

216 Capital has invested in Addvocate.AI, a Franco-Tunisian startup founded by Ridha Mami to optimize sales performance through artificial intelligence. The platform, built on an AI-native architecture and powered by its proprietary Sales Performance OS, helps sales teams with pre-meeting prep, real-time insights, and pipeline optimization.

With this funding, Addvocate.AI plans to accelerate product development, expand into Europe and North Africa, and strengthen its global position in intelligent sales enablement. 216 Capital’s Dhekra Khelifi says the deal marks a “pivotal moment” as the startup aims to redefine how sales teams operate in the digital era......…continue reading

☂️ INSURANCE

South African insurer Santam launches UK operation to drive global growth

South African insurer Santam is expanding internationally with the planned launch of Santam Syndicate 1918 at Lloyd’s of London, pending final approval. The move aligns with its FutureFit 2030 strategy, enabling diversification and global growth by underwriting specialist insurance lines.

Through Lloyd’s licenses, Santam will gain access to over 75 insurance and 200 reinsurance markets, scaling internationally without costly greenfield operations. Strategic partnerships, including SanlamAllianz, and leadership hires in London, position the syndicate for success. Operations are expected to begin 1 January 2026 with positive earnings from year two.

In H1 2025, Santam posted robust results: EPS up 20%, HEPS up 19%, underwriting margin at 11.3%, and strong growth at subsidiary MiWay. Despite domestic challenges, Santam remains committed to South Africa while driving international expansion...…..continue reading

🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Intella secures $12.5M to advance Arabic AI and expand across MENA

Intella team

Intella, a pioneer in dialectal Arabic speech intelligence, has closed an oversubscribed $12.5 million Series A led by Prosus Ventures with support from 500 Global, Wa’ed Ventures, Hala Ventures, Idrisi Ventures, and HearstLab. Founded in 2021 by Nour Taher and Omar Mansour, the company delivers enterprise-grade solutions in speech-to-text, voice analytics, and AI-powered customer engagement, covering over 25 Arabic dialects with a world-leading 95.73% accuracy rate.

The funds will fuel R&D, launch new conversational AI agents like Ziila, and scale operations across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and North Africa. Intella doubled revenue in 2024 and projects 7x growth in 2025, positioning itself as the foundational AI layer for Arabic voice and text. With this round, total funding exceeds $16.9 million, cementing Intella’s leadership in Arabic-first AI innovation.........continue reading