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💰 TerraPay secures $95m to enhance remittance services in Africa

💰 TerraPay secures $95m to enhance remittance services in Africa

Plus:🤖 OpenAI Unveils GPT-4o Mini

Innovation Village
July 19, 2024

Today’s Menu ☕️

💰 TerraPay secures $95 million in debt financing to enhance remittance services in Africa
📱Microsoft Designer launches new mobile app for Android and iOS
💵 Wema Bank launches AlatPay for seamless instant payments for small businesses
🤖OpenAI Unveils GPT-4o Mini: A Cost-Effective AI Solution

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💰FUNDING

TerraPay secures $95 million in debt financing to enhance remittance services in Africa

TerraPay, an emerging digital payments platform with a focus on the African market, has recently announced the successful closure of a substantial $95 million debt financing round. This financial boost is aimed at propelling the growth of affordable remittance services throughout the continent.

A group of investors, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), ILX, and the British International Investment (BII), have contributed to this investment. The primary goal of this funding is to improve the efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness of cross-border money transfers within Africa.

The infusion of capital is set to play a pivotal role in TerraPay’s strategic expansion into new international markets and partnerships with additional money transfer operators. Such expansion is anticipated to amplify the volume of transactions processed by TerraPay, which in turn is expected to contribute to a reduction in transaction costs…....continue reading

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📱APPS

Microsoft Designer launches new mobile app for Android and iOS

In a move set to transform the landscape of mobile content creation, Microsoft Designer has announced the launch of its new mobile app for Android and iOS. Microsoft Designer allows you to utilize templates for creating personalized images, stickers, greeting cards, invitations, and more. Leveraging advanced artificial intelligence tools, this app empowers users to edit and enhance content seamlessly on the go. Among its standout features are the abilities to erase subject matter from images, change generative art styles, and remove backgrounds, addressing a wide range of creative requirements directly from smartphones and tablets.

Initially accessible via the web and Microsoft Edge, Designer has been in preview for nearly a year. It is now generally available to anyone with a personal Microsoft account and is offered as a free app for Windows, iOS, and Android.

The app provides users with 15 free daily ‘boosts’ for creating or editing AI-powered images and designs. By upgrading to a Copilot Pro subscription, users can access 100 boosts per day..…....continue reading

💵PAYMENTS

Wema Bank launches AlatPay for seamless instant payments for small businesses

Wema Bank, the pioneering force behind Alat, Africa’s fully digital bank, has introduced AlatPay, a cutting-edge instant digital payment platform tailored to empower businesses of all scales to transition into the digital realm. This innovative payment solution was officially launched on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Lagos, and is set to revolutionize how Nigerian merchants and business owners handle transactions on a global scale.

AlatPay emerges as a direct extension of the bank’s digital application, Alat, underscoring Wema Bank’s ongoing dedication to fostering innovation and enhancing the operational efficiency of businesses. The platform is engineered to offer a suite of features that cater to the modern merchant’s needs, including robust security measures, instantaneous payment processing, and customizable online storefronts.

With AlatPay, businesses are presented with the flexibility to select their preferred methods of payment, whether through card transactions or bank transfers. They are required to input their account information to set up the receipt of payments...…....continue reading

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🤖ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

OpenAI Unveils GPT-4o Mini: A Cost-Effective AI Solution

OpenAI has taken a significant step toward democratizing artificial intelligence with the launch of GPT-4o mini, a highly efficient and affordable small model designed to expand AI accessibility across various applications. This latest addition to the GPT-4 family aims to provide developers and businesses with powerful AI capabilities at a fraction of the cost, facilitating the integration of intelligent solutions into more products and services.

GPT-4o mini is engineered to be exceptionally cost-effective, with pricing set at 15 cents per million input tokens and 60 cents per million output tokens. This represents a dramatic reduction in cost, making it over 60% cheaper than the previous GPT-3.5 Turbo model. The affordability of GPT-4o mini opens doors for a wide array of applications, from customer support chatbots to large-scale data processing tasks.…....continue reading