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Thursday, 28 September 2023
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Good morning!
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We begin today with the sad news that has been long coming for 54Gene, the once-ambitious genomics startup founded by Abasi Ene-Obong in 2019 has now shut down.
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Troubles for the genomics startup started last year after the co-founder Abasi Ene-Obong stepped down from his role. The move saw the startup's valuation slashed by over $100 million with 30% of its workforce sacked to cut cost.
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Meanwhile, online transactions are soaring in Nigeria. Nigerian banks made a revenue of N192.010 billion from electronic transactions, a 20.32% increase compared to the N159.577 billion earned in the same period in 2022.
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Chipper Cash CEO, Ham Serunjogi posted on Twitter that he has joined America's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement. America's President Biden said that he will "rely on their advice and counsel on how we can strengthen cultural, social, political, and economic ties between African communities and the African diaspora."
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Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.
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Summary of the news
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- The Black Book is atop Netflix’s global rankings
- Revio has raised $5.2 million in seed funding
- Nigerian banks made N192.010B from electronic transactions
- 54Gene has shut down
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Ecosystem
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The end of a road: 54Gene has shut down. Troubles for the genomics startup started last year after the co-founder Abasi Ene-Obong stepped down from his role. The move saw the startup's valuation slashed by over $100 million with 30% of its workforce sacked to cut cost.
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Internal strife stemming from the C-suit of the company followed and spilt into the public, with a series of high-profile resignations in the past year. Two CEOs that took the helm after Ene-Obong went on to resign. Ron Chiarello, who became CEO in March 2023 left the role in July.
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Per reporting the company started the process of shutting down in July this year By September, its website was no longer available, and the PR agency that represented it for much of its existence said they no longer worked for 54gene.
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Last week, Ene-Obong announced the launch of a new genomics and precision medicine startup Syndicate Bio. (TechCabal)
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- Revio has raised $5.2 million in seed funding to invest in the African payment solutions. (Technext)
- Nigerian banks made a revenue of N192.010 billion from electronic transactions, a 20.32% increase compared to the N159.577 billion earned in the same period in 2022. Pre-tax earnings went to N1.665 trillion, a 132% increase compared to the N716.943 billion recorded in the same period of 2022. (Technext)
- Chipper Cash CEO, Ham Serunjogi has joined America's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement. Serunjogi was selected alongside eleven others which also include two Nigerian-Americans; Osagie Imasogie and Chinenye Joy Ogwumike. (Technext)
- Accelerated adoption of cloud services could generate N30.2 trillion to Nigeria’s GDP over the next ten years, representing 0.36% of Nigeria’s cumulative gross domestic product (GDP). (Technext)
- In 2022, remittance flows to sub-Saharan Africa reached $53 billion, a 6.1% increase from the previous year, putting the region in the top 10 remittance recipients list in 2022. (Benjamin Dada)
- Kenyan Google Premier partner, Incentro Africa has filed insolvency against Twiga Foods for its failure to remit KES 39 million ($263,691) as payment for Google Cloud Services and Partner Service Funds that it provided. (Benjamin Dada)
- Kenya's Sendy has enlisted Peter Kahi of PKF Consulting to provide strategic advice as it goes into administration. (TechCabal)
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Policy
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Tinubu's plans for BDC: for The Federal Government has urged the CBN to reduce the number of Bureau de Change (BDC) operating in the country from over 5,000 to about 200.
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Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua said that the high number of BDCs in operation makes it difficult for the CBN to supervise them, which eventually leads to irregularities in the forex market.
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“We need to do some structural reforms. For example, I believe we should reform the BDCs’ sector, and make them stronger. You can’t manage over 5,000 BDCs selling money on the streets, it is not normal. You have to define the illegal market and by then, we will be able to find stability," he said. (Nairametrics)
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Social Tech
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X in its own world: X said that the EU's claims it is the most notorious platform for misinformation and disinformation is untrue.
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"We disagree with the overall framing of this data and believe that the data does not fit the narrative being covered in the media. This important debate should take into account the full range of actions taken by platforms and recognize the importance of protecting free expression," X said.
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The EU Commission’s Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourova, had on Tuesday declared that X, formerly Twitter, is the social media platform with the largest ratio of misinformation and disinformation posts. (Nairametrics)
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- Editi Effiong's The Black Book has soared to the top spot on Netflix’s global rankings just five days after its debut, surpassing other titles like “Love at First” and “Spy Kids Armageddon.” (Technext)
- Multichoice said it will discontinue Showmax Pro by November and plans to launch an EPL-focused offering soon. (Showmax)
- Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders, is adding a major new feature: the ability to post. So far, the app has been an aggregator for news and links from around the internet. (TheVerge)
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Global News
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Binance abandons Putin: Binance has exited the Russian market over compliance concerns. It has also agreed to sell the entirety of its Russia business to CommEX as it looks to fully exit the market over compliance concerns. CommEX is a crypto exchange that was officially launched on Tuesday, September 26.
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Earlier in the year, there were reports that Binance was facing a Department of Justice inquiry into whether Russian customers were able to access the exchange in violation of United States sanctions related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Following that, the crypto company said it was cutting ties with sanctioned Russian banks in August.
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“As we look toward the future, we recognize that operating in Russia is not compatible with Binance’s compliance strategy. We remain confident in the long-term growth of the Web3 industry around the world and will focus our energy on the 100+ other countries in which we operate,” chief compliance officer, Noah Perlman said. (Technext)
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Latest in funding
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Other stories we are following
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