🪙 Rwanda Eyes 2026 for Digital Franc Launch |🤖 Nvidia hits $3 trillion market cap

Today’s Menu ☕️

🤖 Nvidia hits $3 trillion market cap; passes Apple to be 2nd behind Microsoft
🪙 Rwanda Eyes 2026 for Digital Franc Launch, Pioneering Financial Inclusion in Africa.
📱 Meta Misled Regulators on Instagram, WhatsApp Acquisitions, FTC Alleges
💰 Zambian construction e-commerce startup Bosso secures $400K pre-seed funding for expansion and innovation
💽 SAP Expands Global Reach with Acquisition of Israeli SaaS Innovator WalkMe

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🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Nvidia hits $3 trillion market cap; passes Apple to be 2nd behind Microsoft

Nvidia hit $3 trillion market cap on Wednesday after shares rose over 5% to close at $1,224 per share, thereby having a market value of $3.019 trillion. It passed Apple which stood at $2.99 trillion to become the second-most valuable public company, behind Microsoft. Microsoft is the most valuable publicly traded company, with a market cap of $3.15 trillion, as at market close.

Founded by Jensen Huang, Curtis Priem, Chris Malachowsky, Nvidia is a technology company that designs and supplies graphics processing units, application programming interfaces and system on a chip units.

🪙 DIGITAL CURRENCY

Rwanda Eyes 2026 for Digital Franc Launch, Pioneering Financial Inclusion in Africa

Rwanda is set to launch its national digital currency, the “digital franc,” by 2026, making it a trailblazer in Africa’s digital finance landscape. The initiative, spearheaded by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), aims to provide a secure, accessible, and cost-effective alternative to physical cash, driving financial inclusion and modernising the country’s financial infrastructure.

Inspired by similar initiatives in neighbouring nations like Nigeria and Ghana, Rwanda sees the digital franc as a key component of its cashless economy vision. The CBDC is expected to benefit the unbanked population, streamline cross-border transactions, and foster innovation in the financial sector.........continue reading

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💽 ACQUISITION

SAP Expands Global Reach with Acquisition of Israeli SaaS Innovator WalkMe

German software firm, SAP SE, has announced its acquisition of WalkMe Ltd., a Saas company headquartered in Tel Aviv. The deal, valued at approximately $1.5 billion, signals SAP’s commitment to enhancing user experience, accelerating business transformation, and boosting employee productivity across its vast customer base.

Digital adoption platforms like WalkMe offer a suite of tools designed to streamline software adoption and improve user proficiency. These platforms provide real-time guidance, interactive tutorials, and automation capabilities that enable employees to learn and use complex enterprise applications more effectively. By reducing the learning curve and minimising user frustration, DAPs can significantly enhance productivity, drive value realisation from software investments, and contribute to a smoother digital transformation journey.

With this acquisition, SAP aims to integrate WalkMe’s technology into its own product suite, creating a more seamless and intuitive user experience......continue reading

📱 SOCIAL MEDIA

Meta Misled Regulators on Instagram, WhatsApp Acquisitions, FTC Alleges

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is facing yet another legal battle as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit alleging that the company lied about its motives behind the acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. The FTC claims that Facebook’s actions were aimed at neutralizing competitive threats and maintaining its dominance in the social networking and messaging markets, rather than the innovation and integration benefits touted at the time.

This lawsuit is not the first time Facebook has faced antitrust scrutiny. In 2020, the FTC filed a similar lawsuit against the company, accusing it of monopolising the social networking market. However, that lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge who ruled that the FTC had not provided enough evidence to support its claims. This new lawsuit, however, presents a different angle by focusing on the alleged deception involved in the acquisitions.

The FTC’s case draws upon legal precedents from past antitrust cases, such as the landmark U.S. v. Microsoft case in the late 1990s........continue reading

🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Gemini app now in Europe

The standalone app is now accessible in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and more. Launched in February, the Android app introduces the Gemini chatbot to mobile users. However, iOS users need to download the Google App to access Gemini.

💰FUNDING

Zambian construction e-commerce startup Bosso secures $400K pre-seed funding for expansion and innovation

Bosso, a Zambian startup revolutionizing the construction e-commerce landscape, has successfully secured a $400,000 pre-seed investment to enhance its platform and introduce additional functionalities.

Established in 2022 by a team of visionaries—Chisepo Chirwa, Mukopaje Singogo, Ibn Kafwanka, and Salwa Shamapande—Bosso has quickly become Zambia’s premier digital marketplace for construction materials, catering to both hardware stores and contractors.

The platform is dedicated to making high-quality, cost-effective building supplies accessible to all segments of the Zambian population.......continue reading

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📱 SOCIAL MEDIA

Meta Misled Regulators on Instagram, WhatsApp Acquisitions, FTC Alleges

Nigeria’s Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), a pioneering force in the African innovation ecosystem, has unveiled “Let’s Build, Africa,” a comprehensive market-entry program designed to enable African startups to broaden their operational scope and penetrate new markets within the continent.

Since its inception in 2010, CcHub has established Nigeria’s premier open living lab, serving as a collaborative space for technologists, entrepreneurs, tech companies, investors, and hackers. The hub’s mission is to catalyze the use of social capital and technology to drive economic prosperity.

The “Let’s Build, Africa” program is a targeted effort to assist startups that are ready to expand beyond their borders but need strategic guidance and support to successfully enter and adapt to new markets.........continue reading

OTHER STORIES

  • South African startup Revio rebrands to Precium amid surpassing global expansion goals. Revio, South Africa’s innovative payment orchestration platform known for streamlining the order-to-cash lifecycle for merchants, has undergone a significant transformation, rebranding itself as “Precium.” This change marks the company’s progression from a regional processing service to a comprehensive global payments platform..…. read more

  • Egyptian proptech startup Birdnest secures pre-series A funding for market expansion. Birdnest, an Egypt-based property technology (proptech) company, has successfully completed a pre-Series A funding round, the amount of which remains undisclosed, to bolster its presence in the Egyptian market and venture into new territories.…..read more

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Rowland Osahon
Innovation Village