Author: Kaluka wanjala

Kenyan fintech startup WayaWaya has appointed former Chase Bank Kenya executive Raj Singh as a non-executive director and board adviser. He joins at a time when WayaWaya is seeking to deepen its partnerships with banks and merchants and scale its AI-powered financial services platform across Africa and beyond. “Raj joins us at an important point in WayaWaya’s growth journey. His banking, fintech and international experience will be invaluable as we move from innovation to scale,” said WayaWaya founder and CEO Teddy Ogallo. He added that Singh will play a key role in expanding the company’s network of banking partners, strengthening…

Vertiv has announced plans to expand its chiller manufacturing and testing capabilities at its Tognana campus near Padua, Italy. The aim is to meet the growing demand for AI-ready data centre cooling infrastructure. By the end of 2026, the company aims to double the site’s chiller production capacity and complete a new large-scale testing laboratory by early 2027. The investment will help support the growing thermal needs of high-density AI workloads, as well as create new jobs across the campus. The new testing facility will allow Vertiv to validate the performance of large-scale chillers integrated with liquid cooling systems under…

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday life for most people. From mobile banking and fraud detection to healthcare and government services, AI is increasingly shaping how businesses operate and how people interact with digital services. But according to Alan Turnley-Jones, Chief Executive Officer for Middle East and Africa at NTT DATA, many organisations are making a fundamental mistake in their AI journey by focusing on the technology itself rather than the business problems it is meant to solve. Speaking to TechArena during an interview in Nairobi, Turnley-Jones said successful AI adoption starts with identifying clear business outcomes before selecting…

PawaPay has been named one of the World’s Top Fintech Companies 2026 by CNBC and Statista. The recognition comes after a strong year for the company, during which it processed more than three billion mobile money transactions while enabling businesses to access mobile money services across 20 African markets through a single integration. Now in its fourth year, the World’s Top Fintech Companies ranking is compiled by CNBC in partnership with research firm Statista. For the 2026 edition, more than 3,500 fintech companies from around the world were evaluated, with only 500 making the final list based on innovation, scalability…

Zoho says Kenya has become one of its fastest-growing markets after recording 55% year-on-year revenue growth, prompting the company to deepen its investment in the country through a strategic partnership with the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI). The announcement was made during Zoholics Kenya 2026, Zoho’s annual customer and partner conference held in Nairobi. As part of the partnership, eligible KNCCI members will receive KES 65,000 in Zoho Wallet Credits that can be used across Zoho’s portfolio of more than 60 cloud-based business applications, allowing small and medium-sized businesses to adopt digital tools with little upfront investment.…

By Larry Cooke, Binance Africa Every few years, a technology the world considered finished gets reinvented somewhere unexpected, and the place that reinvents it stops being a follower and becomes the source. For digital infrastructure, that place is Africa. The only people who have not yet absorbed this are the ones still describing the continent as a market to be reached rather than a workshop where the next standard is being built. This is not optimism. It is a pattern with a track record. Africa skipped fixed-line telephony and went straight to mobile, then skipped traditional banking and went straight…

Westcon-Comstor has cut its combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42% since 2022, ahead of schedule on its goal of a 50% reduction by 2030, the global technology distributor announced. The company disclosed the progress in its latest Responsible Business Report for the financial year ending 28 February 2026 (FY26). Renewable electricity now accounts for 54% of the company’s global electricity consumption, up from 50% a year earlier, bringing Westcon-Comstor closer to its ambition of sourcing all electricity from renewable sources by the end of the decade. The report is aligned to the Science Based Targets…

Safaricom’s Chief Financial Services Officer, Esther Waititu, will leave the company at the end of July, marking another high-profile leadership change within the telecommunications giant’s financial services business. In an internal communication to staff, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa confirmed that Waititu’s last working day will be July 31, 2026, saying she had chosen to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. “I wish to announce that Esther Waititu, our Chief Financial Services Officer, will be leaving Safaricom to pursue other opportunities. At her request, the company has agreed that her last working day will be 31st July, 2026,” Ndegwa said.…

Cassava Technologies has strengthened Africa’s cloud infrastructure after its subsidiary, Africa Data Centres (ADC), was designated a Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Metro peering location in Johannesburg, making it the first such location on the continent. The milestone enables organisations to access more resilient and secure private connectivity to Microsoft Azure, with built-in redundancy for mission-critical workloads. Through Liquid C2, Cassava’s cloud and cybersecurity business, customers will also gain access to Secure CloudConnect, a managed service that combines private cloud connectivity with integrated cybersecurity. Cassava says the development reinforces its “One Cassava” strategy by combining ADC’s data centre infrastructure with Liquid C2’s…

SeamlessHR rebrands to Seamless Technologies, a strategic pivot from human resource management to artificial intelligence, embedded financial services and enterprise software. The company said the new corporate structure reflects its ambition to build a broader technology platform serving businesses and workers across Africa, with a focus on improving productivity and expanding access to financial services. If you have a startup you want featured on TechArena, let us know through this contact form here. Seamless Technologies will now operate through three business verticals. These include SeamlessHR, its workforce management platform; Breeze, an embedded financial services platform offering payroll financing, earned wage access, employee self-service,…