Business Archives - Page 23 of 29

17Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Medicine, Tech

54gene Closes $25M Series B to Advance Global Drug Discovery Capabilities

Cathay Africinvest Innovation leads round as company expands precision medicine capabilities across the African continent 54gene, the health technology company advancing African genomics research for improved global health outcomes, has secured $25M in a Series B round, led by Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund. The round also included participation from Adjuvant Capital, KdT Ventures, Plexo Capital, Endeavor Capital, Ingressive Capital and others. This round brings the company’s total investment to date to more than $45M since being founded in 2019. The new capital raised will be deployed to expand 54gene’s capabilities in sequencing, target identification and validation, and precision medicine clinical trials enabling drug discovery in Africa for both Africans and the global population...

17Sep

By Sir Ian CheshireNo Comments

Business, Main, Medicine, South Africa News

Collaborating for the benefit of employee mental health

Sir Ian Cheshire Chair, The Global Business Collaboration for Better Workplace Mental Health Before the Covid 19 pandemic hit, mental health was already an issue on the rise around the world, with an estimated 13% of the global population, just short of 1 billion people suffering from some kind of mental illness. In South Africa, according to statistics released by the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), as many as one in six South Africans suffer from anxiety or depression. The pandemic experience has put additional pressure on the mental health of millions of people. This pressure has been felt in workplaces across the world in numerous ways, from the need to support employees with what they are dealing with outside of work to managing new and different ways of working...

24Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Startups

Generational Marketing: How to ensure your brand lands with the right audience

Did you know that, contrary to what one might think, older age groups are the fastest-growing segments of many social media platforms’ audiences[1]? Facebook, for example, saw users above the age of 65 increase by roughly 25% over the past year[2], while those aged 50 plus represent Snapchat’s fastest-growing audience segment[3]. “When brands decide that they want to be on social media, they first need to consider the ages of the audiences on each platform as this plays a massive part not only in the messaging they should use but the format thereof too,” says Alistair Errington, Sales Team Lead at Ad Dynamo – Africa’s leading media sales house. He unpacks some of today’s most popular platforms and the typical age groups of audiences associated with each: TikTok’s ability to provide...

18Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Fintech, South Africa News

Four steps to fixing cash flow and help SMEs survive

We are all familiar with the saying in business that "cash is king" and, if that’s the case, then cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. For small or mid-size businesses, cash flow is a critical component of success. Profits are meaningless without it. The harsh reality is that SMEs who don't exercise good cash flow management may not be able to survive the current economic climate. In South Africa, the recession and pandemic have had a devastating impact on the approximately 2.5 million SMMEs accounting for 10.8 million jobs. In a recent report published by Transunion, 6.4% of formal SMEs going into bankruptcy (up 50% from last year), with 260,000 jobs lost and another 240,000 at risk. According to Trevor Gosling, CEO of SME funder, Lulalend, there are four practical ways in which...

18Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News, Tech

PRP Solutions Improves Decision-Making with Digital People Management Solutions

Modern business practices in a hybrid work from home and work from office environment needs a flexible work environment that boosts productivity and increases operational efficiency PRP Solutions, people management and workplace cloud solutions specialists, announced it is providing organisations with a more systemic and centralised solution suite able to show accurate, real-time data to improve people management in an increasingly distributed work environment. "Even though the business environment has changed dramatically since March last year, companies still want to find the best ways to unleash the power of their people," says Kriya Govender, CEO of PRP Solutions. "Now, more than ever, there is an awareness of how precious time has become with employees trying to balance work from ho...

18Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

Entrepreneurs need to better understand risk and fail better by failing fast and forward

Are entrepreneurs risk takers at heart or calculated visionaries? According to serial entrepreneur and Ukheshe Technologies CEO, Clayton Hayward, many entrepreneurs don’t truly understand the nature of risk, which has a direct impact on the success of their business idea. He says that to be a successful entrepreneur you need to be willing to take risks with a greater vision in mind – and become comfortable with the possibility of failure. Hayward, who has started more than 26 businesses since graduating in the early 90s, says that globally, managing risk is probably one of the biggest entrepreneurship obstacles: “It is important not to overthink, over strategise or over plan the launch of a business. Understand the nature of the risks involved and go for it. Too many entrepreneurs let ...

12Aug

By Mike van RensburgNo Comments

African News, Business, Main

Massive increase in M&A deal value in Sub-Saharan Africa in the first half of 2021

There were 333 M&A deals announced in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the first six months of 2021 (H1 2021), valued at USD 57.7 billion, according to Baker McKenzie's analysis of Refinitiv data. When compared to the same period last year (H1 2020) this amounted to a 14% increase in deal volume and an astounding 576% increase in deal value. H1 2020 recorded 293 M&A deals with a deal value of USD 8.5 billion. Last year was a relatively difficult year for investors in Africa, with considerable uncertainty. Pandemic impacts had a limiting effect on numerous sectors and many deals had to be postponed as a result. The boost in M&A deal value in 2021 is, in part, due to a post-COVID boom, where last year’s postponed and delayed transactions were able to proceed in the first half of 2021...

29Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Tech

The Future of Facebook: Will the oldest surviving social media platform remain relevant?

Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is today the oldest surviving social media platform. But with more and more platforms entering the market, will it go the way of MySpace and MxIt? Kyle Oosthuizen, Chief Operating Officer at Blue Robot, the leading provider of socially powered messaging solutions, doesn’t believe it will. “Because of Facebook’s development power, it’ll never fall behind other platforms. It is also catering to a changing audience and has changed with that audience.” He explains that when Facebook first launched, it was catering to the age group that is now using TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. “Now Facebook’s original audience is 30 plus, and the platform provides value to this market through features such as Marketplace, groups, albums. Other platforms either ...

29Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News, Tech

G4S: Security beyond just access control in Mining and heavy industry

Mining is a hazardous occupation with elevated risks of injury, and the emphasis placed on health and safety has never been greater. G4S has a proud history of providing security at some of the world’s biggest mines. Our mining security solution has evolved over many years, from access control to a far more holistic approach. Suveer Gajoo, Regional Director for G4S in South Africa tells us more... Our solution for the mining industry is driven by our proprietary software called G4S XTime. G4S XTime was first developed by G4S over 15 years ago and forged within the mining and heavy industry sector, it has since become a mainstay of security at large mining and industrial sites across South Africa enabling our clients to secure their time and resources. G4S XTime has subsequently been uti...

21Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business

SITA acquires Safety Line to support sustainable aviation

SITA takes the lead in deploying predictive data analytics for co-innovating with customer airlines and airports to reduce CO2 emissions and improve fuel savings. SITA, the global IT provider for the air transport industry, recently announced the acquisition of Safety Line S.A.S., the Paris based start-up specializing in digital solutions for aviation safety and efficiency. This acquisition will strengthen SITA’s Digital Day of Operations portfolio, helping airlines drive more efficiencies and fuel savings around the aircraft while taking immediate and sustainable steps to reduce their carbon footprint. With air transport accounting for about 3% of the worldwide carbon emissions, there is growing pressure on airlines to reduce their overall emissions. At the same time the COVID-19 pandemic...