Tech News
Interswitch to launch multi-currency prepaid card with Kenya’s credit bank
Interswitch Group has announced its partnership with Kenya’s Credit Bank to launch a multi-currency prepaid card.
Interswitch Group, an Africa-focused integrated digital payments and commerce company, has announced its partnership with Kenya’s Credit Bank to launch a multi-currency prepaid card.
The card is a contactless touch and go card that can be used in restaurants, filling stations, stores, or to pay for services anywhere in the world. It can also be used on ATMs to withdraw funds. The card has a Chip and PIN enabled to ensure secure online transactions.
READ: Interswitch expands operations, acquires majority stake in eClat Healthcare
The prepaid card is similar to a debit card but does not require an account attached to it. It is value-based, such that customers can only spend the loaded amount on the card at a time. The card is considered ideal for everyday payments like utility payments or travelling expenses.
READ: AfDB to fund climate change in Africa with $25billion by 2025 – Adesina
Credit Bank’s new collaboration with Interswitch further advances the digital payments’ ecosystem across Africa. The partnership is expected to boost Interswitch’s issuing business, further enhancing the company’s leadership position in the financial services industry on the continent.
READ: AfCTA: Effective implementation to boost Africa’s export by $560 billion
What they are saying
Speaking on the development, Romana Rajput, Country General Manager, Interswitch Kenya stated that:
- “This is definitely a boost to Interswitch’s issuer-support & third-party processing business. We have been around for a while and we intend to keep entrenching digital payments in East Africa and across Africa as a whole. Now, customers will have access to the prepaid cards without necessarily having a bank account. The card can be funded through mobile money and it is widely accepted by merchants for payments and at the ATMs for withdrawals.”
READ: Bill to assist banks recover bad loans scales through 2nd reading in Senate
Mr Jack Ngare, Credit Bank Director submitted that:
- “It is our aim to provide our customers with the control and confidence they need to manage their money smartly. Membership of the Visa network will allow the cardholders to use it worldwide for payments and withdrawals, and to transact safely online and at ATMs.”
READ: Nigeria Fintech startup, CredPal raises $1.5million funding
Billionaire Watch
How young Elon Musk started and sold 3 businesses for $1.9bn before Tesla
We look at the 3 successful businesses Elon Musk founded and sold for a collective $1.9bn before starting Tesla.
Success is never an accident. It is most times the result of many years of hard work and consistent effort. Elon Musk is popular today for his electric car company Tesla and his space project SPACE X. But long before these, he was already a multi-millionaire and had founded 3 successful companies which he sold for a collective $1.9bn.
The purpose of this article is to paint a clear picture of what it takes to be among the top 1% of any field. It takes years of consistent hard work to get there. Elon Musk is the perfect example of an individual with a very strong work ethic. His story below will prove that to you.
This article will briefly look at the 3 successful businesses Elon Musk founded and sold for a collective $1.9bn before starting Tesla. Let’s go!
READ: Blue Origin Vs Space X: Bezos and Musk’s subtle battle for supremacy
Blaster ($500)
A 12-year-old Elon Musk facing bullying in high school and a not so friendly dad taught himself how to code. According to the Inc. Magazine, he mastered BASIC a general-purpose coding language making use of a commodore PC he acquired himself. He later that year, sold the code for his PC game Blastar to a PC magazine for approximately $500.
This was his first business endeavour which he started and sold.
READ: Tesla investor sues Elon Musk for causing problems with his tweets
ZIP 2 ($340m)
After the sale of Blastar for $500, Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal took a $28,000 seed money from their dad and started another internet venture, Zip 2. They rented an office and slept in it because they couldn’t afford a house.
Zip 2 was a web software startup that created online city guides for newspapers. The software was patronized by the New York Times and other notable media companies.
Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal sold Zip 2 to PC giants Compaq for $340m. The year was 1999 and Elon Musk was 28 years old.
READ: Reinvestment: The powerful strategy used by the 2 richest men in the world
X.com/PayPal ($1.5bn)
Elon Musk continued on his journey of starting companies and selling them. He took $10m out of his earnings from the Zip 2 deal and joined the internet boom.
He founded x.com an online platform he envisioned to be the future of internet banking. In 2000 X.com merged with a Fintech startup, Confinity, founded by Peter Thiel, another would-be billionaire. Both companies combined to become what we know as PayPal today. Elon musk was named CEO of PayPal and had the highest number of shares in the company.
In 2002 PayPal was acquired by eBay for a whopping $1.5bn.
READ: Elon Musk gains $25 billion in a day, as Tesla surges by 20%
What you should know
Elon Musk has often stressed the need to be consistent and have strong work ethics. In a graduation ceremony by the USC Marshall School Of Business, Elon Musk shared his opinion on work ethics according to CNBC.
“You need to work super-hard. Work hard every waking hour,” Musk said in 2014.
“If you do the simple math, and say if somebody else is working 50 hours [a week] and you’re working 100, you’ll get twice [as much] done in the course of a year as the other company.”
We hope this Monday article will inspire you to work harder and strive to get more work done in record time.
Corporate deals
DEAL: Nigerian fintech software provider, Appzone raises $10m to scale its products and services
Appzone platforms are used by 18 commercial banks and over 450 microfinance banks in Africa.
Appzone a fintech software provider that builds proprietary solutions for financial institutions and their banking and payments services announced that it has closed $10 million in Series A investment.
The Series A round was led by CardinalStone Capital Advisers, a Lagos-based investment firm. Other investors include V8 Capital, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures. New York-based but Africa-focused firm Lateral Investment Partners also participated.
Founded in 2008 by Emeka Emetarom, Obi Emetarom, and Wale Onawunmi, Appzone functions as an enabler (at payment rails and the core infrastructure) within banking and payments.
READ: Shola Akinlade: The inspiration behind Paystack’s success
Appzone platforms are used by 18 commercial banks and over 450 microfinance banks in Africa. Together, they amass a yearly transaction value and yearly loan disbursement of $2 billion and $300million.
Before now, Appzone closed a $2 million deal from South African Business Connexion (BCX) in 2014. Four years later, it raised $2.5 million in convertible debt and bought back shares from BCX in the process. But overall, the company says it has raised $15 million in equity funding.
This new funding will be used to scale its products and services and expand across more African countries. The startup also plans to achieve scale by growing its engineering team.
READ: From Chemist to Bank CEO – The Story of Uzoma Dozie
What they are saying
Yomi Jemibewon, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Cardinal Stone Capital Advisers, said the firm’s investment in Appzone is further proof of Africa’s potential as the future hub of world-class technology.
READ: Bill Gates holds far more cash than Nigeria’s foreign reserve
“Appzone is building a disruptive fintech ecosystem that will be the backbone of Africa’s finance industry with products across payments, infrastructure, and software as a service. The impact of Appzone’s work is multifold — the company’s products deepen financial inclusion across the continent whilst providing best-fit and low-cost solutions to financial institutions. Its emphasis on premium talent also helps stem brain drain, rewarding Africa’s best brains with best-in-class employment opportunities.”
