Apps
Jambo Raises $7.5 Million To Create Africa’s Web3 app
![Jambo Raises $7.5 Million To Create Africa’s Web3 app](https://adigitalboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Jambo-congo.jpg)
Jambo, a three-month-old company, building a Web 3 super app for Africa, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding from an array of prominent backers in the crypto industry, including Delphi Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Three Arrows Capital.
Southeast Asia has become one of the best markets for web3; it is home to startups like Axie Infinity and Yield Guild Games, which have raised millions of dollars in venture capital owing to the adoption of crypto and play-to-earn models.
Experts say Africa is poised to be disrupted by web3, similarly to Southeast Asia.
What makes Africa the next ripe ground for web3 is a mix of positives such as a fast-growing population–the youngest globally–solid smartphone penetration, increasing crypto adoption, and negatives like low GDP per capita across the board and unemployment make Africa the next ripe ground for web3.
Jambo wants to onboard millions of users to web3 in Africa through its applications, and a few companies like it are positioning themselves for this next boom.
Jambo is taking a two-sided approach by allowing its users to do so when they partake in web2 and web3 activities; Although users of Axie Infinity and other guilds only earn an income while playing games under a revenue-sharing model, users can save their data spend when they use Jambo.
James Zhang (co-founder and CEO, Jambo) said, “It’s one of our main user acquisition strategies where we want to double every Africans airtime and data,” explaining that Jambo partners with telecom providers to get an almost 70% discount and sell directly to its users at a 50% discount from the original cost.
The company is partnering with social media companies so users can earn tokens (which they can convert to income) while watching their content on its app.
He also said, “The reason we can do that is via partnerships with these companies as we tokenize a part of their advertising budget and directly provide to the end-user,” resume “Many web2 incumbents or even web3 are having a $100-200 user acquisition costs so we can lower that by order of magnitude by directly incentivizing the end-user.”
Zhang said Jambo wants to build that infrastructure. Still, unlike well-known guilds whose business models involve taking percentages of profit from its users, his company doesn’t plan to take a cut from its users’ earnings. Instead, Jambo’s revenues would come from web2 models — charging advertising dollars and commissions from selling airtime and data.
As Africa’s “web3 onboarding portal,” the CEO said Jambo is testing out over ten play-to-earn games to introduce to its users in the next couple of months.
The question is: for a region with little or no understanding of web3 workings, how does Jambo expect its project to take off smoothly?
Zhang answered, “Education is at the core of what we do because I think there is no shortcut in Africa. You have to educate the user base before you can even think about monetizing or start to acquire users at the end of the day. This is why we are launching classes with a full curriculum on web3. We plan to launch that in more than five universities in Africa by the end of Q1,”
Jambo has been supporting students in 15 countries; since the start of this year, Jambo has already signed up over 12,000 students from (Morocco, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda, Kenya, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Madagascar, and South Africa), to take a curated web3 curriculum, both online and offline.
The company said this would enable students to explore opportunities in play-to-earn gaming and decentralized finance (Defi).
The 10-week programs are available at colleges and across 600+ physical partner locations where hundreds of ambassadors sign up students.
Jambo believes that it will achieve financial prosperity in ways Africans could never have accessed before by using its model of educating users about play-to-earn games and Defi.
Nigeria-based Nestcoin, which is (a media outlet that creates bite-sized and informative crypto content for its users) raised $6.4 million to scale its web3 initiatives, which include Breach, indicates that educating Africa’s young population about web3 and decentralization seems to be a correlating theme with recent web3 upstarts in Africa.
Nestcoin and Jambo have different play-to-earn models; Nestcoin runs a gaming guild called Metaverse Magna (MVM). Jambo doesn’t Yet, but they are similar in setting up a new web3 segment in Africa different from more established platforms such as remittance and crypto exchanges.
Zhang sees that the difference is that while customary platforms help Africans save and send money, new upstarts are increasing earning and wealth potentials for users, he commented: “I think in Africa, there is no money to save because there’s 1% super-rich and 99% the same. So for us, we set out with a different methodology, which is to help the everyday person make money,”.
Resume “This is why every component in our super app is actually to help the everyday person make money from play to earn, to making money from watching videos and saving money on data credits. So ideally, in three to six months, once our app comes online, the everyday person can make $50 a month from playing on Axie Infinity, make another $20 a month from watching videos, and they make another $10 bucks a month from the money they save on data credits. That would be the ideal situation our app can accomplish with every person.”.
Jambo intends to release its beta version by Q2 and go live in Q3; the 60-man team spread across sub-Saharan Africa, Santa Clara, and Shenzhen raised a party round from investors who have backed prominent web3 companies such as Avalanche, Dharma, BlockFi, and Polygon.
Coinbase Ventures, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Alameda Research, Tiger Global, Delphi Ventures, AllianceDAO, DeFiance Capital, Yield Guild Games, and Polygon Studios. And a couple of angel investors from the web3 ecosystem like Polygon co-founder and CEO Sandeep Nailwal; ex-ParaFi partner Santiago R Santos; Terraform Labs co-founder and CEO Do Kwon; and partner at Delphi Digital Piers Kicks, are included.
Santiago R Santos, a web3 investor, and ex-ParaFi partner said in a statement, “What WeChat did in China, Jambo will do in Africa. Excited to back this A+ team in becoming the Web3 super app of the continent,”.
It’s known that James Zhang founded the company Jambo with his sister in November 2021 after noticing the opportunity to duplicate the success of web3 projects in Southeast Asia across Africa.
Apps
5 Best URL Shortener Services in 2024 [Free & Paid]
![The 5 Best URL Shorteners 2020](https://adigitalboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/url-shortener-1.jpg)
A URL Shortener is a technique in which a URL may be made shorter and still redirect to the original long page.
Most URL Shorteners are free and easy to use but come with limitations.
Google shut down its Google URL Shortener in 2018 with continued support until March 30, 2019. However, all existing links will continue to redirect to the intended destination.
Top URL Shortener Services on the Internet
1. Bitly.com
Bitly offers a free and enterprise version of its URL shortening service. No signup necessary, but creating an account allows you to manage links quickly and change the short link characters if you wish.
According to this Quora answer, the enterprise version of Bitly costs around $995/month.
Pro Tip: add + after the short link to access analytics of any bitly link. bitly.com/link+
2. TinyURL
A simple shortener that requires no sign-up and allows users to customize the keyword. The service is free to use, but there is no analytics.
3. Short.io
The best shorten link provider so far, it has so many useful features such as google analytics integration, bulk import, broken links detection, built-in analytics with so many details, link cloaking, and more.
Cost: affordable compared to similar solutions.
4. Rebrandly
Rebrandly is one of the popular URL shortener services in the market. It’s the most complete and reliable link management platform. Their solution provides the easiest way to create, measure, and manage short URLs with a custom domain name.
You can buy your domain name using Rebrandly, tag your URLs using UTM tagging, allow social media pixels to optimize for conversions, and more.
It’s expensive compared to other solutions.
5. eg.gd
eg.gd is a new URL shortener service that offers the same as rebrandly but for free. It was launched last year when bit.ly service was blocked in Egypt.
Apps
Saudi Fintech ‘Lendo’ Raises $28M in Series B Funding
![Lendo Secures $28M in Series B Funding Led by Sanabil Investments, Eyes IPO](https://adigitalboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Untitled-3-1.webp)
Lendo, a Saudi Arabia-based shariah-compliant debt crowdfunding marketplace, has raised SAR 105 million ($28 million) in Series B funding led by Sanabil Investments, a wholly-owned company by the Public Investment Fund (“PIF”). The round saw participation from Shorooq Partners, AB Ventures and other investors.
Lendo is a Shariah-compliant, debt crowdfunding marketplace that helps pre-finance outstanding invoices for businesses in Saudi Arabia. The platform is a community of creditworthy borrowers and sophisticated investors looking for alternative investments. The platform is licensed by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). Lendo will use the funds to support its fast-growing customer base in Saudi Arabia which has grown 3X year-on-year, introduce more innovative financing products, and accelerate market expansion plans.
“With this funding round, we are going to expand into new markets, support new and current customers, and launch new Shariah-compliant products, all the while continuing to innovate the marketplace for digital lending. We are going to make financial services more accessible, affordable, and inclusive for everyone. I am excited to see what the future holds for our company,” said Osama Alraee, CEO, and co-founder of Lendo, who also disclosed its plans for an IPO within the next few years.
Alraee has also expressed his gratitude to SAMA (Saudi Central Bank), Fintech Saudi, MCIT, Misk, and Monshaat for their unwavering support, emphasizing the pivotal role they have played in advancing financial inclusivity and fostering innovation in partnership with Lendo to reshape the financial landscape. Their dedicated efforts in advancing financial inclusivity and fostering innovation have been invaluable to us. We greatly appreciate their partnership in our mission to transform the financial landscape
Commenting on the announcement, Sanabil Investments said: “Lendo is a leading fintech company that is transforming the financial services industry in their specialist area of Shariah-compliant digital lending for SMEs. The Lendo team, especially the founders, Osama and Mohamed, have achieved a significant amount in a relatively short period, and we are eager to join their journey of increasing access to flexible financial solutions in Saudi Arabia and the region at large.”
“The growing demand for alternative, agile, and accessible lending solutions presents a significant opportunity. At Lendo, we are well-positioned to lead the charge in promoting financial inclusion not only in Saudi Arabia but also beyond. By fueling SME growth, we aim to contribute to the realization of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic goals and to create a ripple effect of opportunity throughout the MENA region,” said Mohamed Jawabri, COO, and co-Founder of Lendo.
Lendo previously raised a SAR 27 million Series A funding round ($7.2 million) in 2021 led by Derayah Ventures with participation from Seedra Ventures and other investors, bringing the fintech’s total funding to SAR 132 million ($35.2 million).
Since the inception of Dec 2019, Saudi fintech Lendo has processed more than 2,500 financing transactions on its platform, providing over SAR 1 billion ($300 million) in financing to SMEs and generating SAR 140 million ($37 million) returns for investors.
The Small and Medium Enterprise financing landscape in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) presents a substantial market opportunity as limited financial access continues to restrict the growth of the region’s businesses, with commercial banks hesitant to issue loans to SMEs at scale, resulting in a high percentage of declined financing requests annually. According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the SME financing gap is estimated at SAR 19.5 trillion ($5.2 trillion) every year in developing countries.
Lendo’s debt crowdfunding platform aims to bridge the financing gap for SMEs, which aligns with the Saudi Vision 2030 to significantly expand SME lending from 4% in 2018 to 20% by 2030.
The total value of debt crowdfunding in Saudi Arabia surged from 1.4 million SAR in 2019 to SAR 771 million in 2022, marking a remarkable 430% growth, according to SAMA’s annual fintech report 2022.
Apps
Have you ever downloaded these malicious 400 apps?
![Have you ever downloaded these malicious 400 apps?](https://adigitalboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Featured-Image2.jpg)
Meta has identified over 400 malicious Android and iOS apps designed to steal Facebook login information and compromise people’s accounts.
These apps are disguised as photo editors, games, VPN services, business apps, and other utilities to trick people into downloading them. Some examples include:
- Photo editors, including those that claim to allow you to “turn yourself into a cartoon”
- VPNs claiming to boost browsing speed or grant access to blocked content or websites
- Phone utilities such as flashlight apps that claim to brighten your phone’s flashlight
- Mobile games falsely promise high-quality 3D graphics
- Health and lifestyle apps such as horoscopes and fitness trackers
- Business or ad management apps claim to provide hidden or unauthorized features not found in official apps by tech platforms.
How do these apps work?
Malicious developers create malware apps disguised as apps with fun or useful functionality — like cartoon image editors or music players — and publish them on mobile app stores.
To cover up negative reviews by people who have spotted the defunct or malicious nature of the apps, developers may publish fake reviews to trick others into downloading the malware.
![Have you ever downloaded these malicious 400 apps?](https://adigitalboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/malicious-app.jpg)
Malicious apps- Image Credit: Meta
When a person installs the malicious app, it may ask them to “Login With Facebook” before they can use its promised features. If they enter their credentials, the malware steals their username and password.
If the login information is stolen, attackers could gain full access to a person’s account and do things like message their friends or access private information.
How to protect Facebook accounts from malicious mobile apps?
Malware apps often have telltale signs that differentiate them from legitimate apps. Here are a few things to consider before logging into a mobile app with your Facebook account:
- Requiring social media credentials to use the app: Is the app unusable if you don’t provide your Facebook information? For example, be suspicious of a photo-editing app that needs your Facebook login and password before allowing you to use it.
- The app’s reputation: Is the app reputable? Look at its download count, ratings, and reviews, including negative ones.
- Promised features: Does the app provide the functionality it says it will, before or after logging in?
What to do if your Facebook account is compromised?
Suppose you believe you’ve downloaded a malicious app and have logged in with your social media or other online credentials. In that case, we recommend that you delete the app from your device immediately and follow the following instructions to secure your accounts:
- Reset and create new strong passwords. Never reuse your password across multiple websites.
- Enable two-factor authentication, preferably an Authenticator app, to add an extra security layer to your account.
- Turn on log-in alerts so you’ll be notified if someone is trying to access your account. Review your previous sessions to ensure you recognize which devices have access to your account.
![Have you ever downloaded these malicious 400 apps?](https://adigitalboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Malware-Apps1.jpg)
Malicious apps- Image Credit: Meta
- It’s also recommended to report malicious applications that compromise Meta accounts through the Data Abuse Bounty program.
What are the 400 malicious apps?
Meta provided a list of more than 400 malicious apps in a blog post so users can check to see if they have downloaded any of them. Some apps include Beauty Camera, Kangaroo VPN, Magic Horoscope, and QR Barcode Scanner.
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