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Y Combinator hires black partner Michael Seibel

Y Combinator has hired its first black partner to aid in the drive to recruit more minority entrepreneurs.  Prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneur Michael Seibel is joining as a  full-time partner to coach high-tech hopefuls, according to a report in USA Today. A key part of his mission will be reaching out to black and Hispanics who are underrepresented in Y Combinator and more broadly in Silicion Valley. Y Combinator is Silicon Valley’s most famous – and most influential – incubator, graduating companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox that have grown into household names. Entrepreneurs who go through the start-up boot camp gain access to money and advice from some of the industry’s most powerful players and get coverage from technology blogs, a major advantage in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

 

 

 

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Jay Z addresses critics of Tidal music service

Jay Z fired back at critics of his Tidal music service on Sunday, claiming the site is “doing just fine” and that its subscriber base is growing. The rapper, who relaunched Tidal after purchasing its parent company Aspiro Group earlier this year for $56 million, urged critics to hold off on dismissing the service too soon. “The iTunes Store wasn’t built in a day,” he said. “It took Spotify nine years to be successful.” Jay Z added that 770,000 subscribers have already signed up for Tidal, which he relaunche to compete with platforms such as Pandora and Spotify.

 

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Report says 12 percent of Africans use phones for non-bank transactions

 

Twelve percent of all adults in sub-Saharan Africa use their phones for non-bank financial transactions, by far the highest rate of any region in the world, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Bank. These figures come from the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion database, known as the Findex.  The mobile revolution there is part of a broader trend of democratization of finance around the globe that’s giving far more people a first step into the financial world. The number of adults worldwide with a bank account grew by 700 million between 2011 and 2014, according to the World Bank, an 11 percentage point rise to 62 percent of all adults.

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Former Microsoft manager seeks to build Ghanaian university

 

 

Former Microsoft program manager, Patrick Awuah decided to leave one influential job to maybe begin something to have broader impact. Awuah has moved back to Ghana to start Asheshi University.  “Africa needs to have a renaissance,” said Awuah, as he explains his decision.  He said he wants to contribute towards the development in Africa  so he would build a university.  The University would be a state-of-the-art education hub that would help educate the country’s next generation of leaders.

 

 

 

 

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Nigerian entrepreneurs sell products online

Chris and Tope Folayan are two brothers from Nigeria who have created a business which is getting desirable goods into the hands of their countrymen in a very unique way.  Founded in 2013, MallforAfrica is making it easier for Nigerians to place online orders for American and British products.  Typically these goods are difficult to find in the Nigerian retail market. Furthermore many online retailers don’t offer may products to African consumers because of burdensome customs duties and paperwork, shipping costs and fear of fraud. As Nigeria’s middle and upper classes have grown, so has the appetite for foreign goods. The company now sells products from more than 120 online retailers, including Amazon, Barneys, Bloomingdale’s and J. Crew. Among the most popular vendors are Children’s Place, Macy’s and an online retailer called Perfume Junkie, according to Mr. Folayan.