Author: Kaluka wanjala

Vertiv has agreed to acquire Utility Innovation Holdings. This is the parent company of UtilityInnovation Group (UIG) in a deal valued at approximately $1.45 billion in cash at closing. There is also additional earnout of up to $1.15 billion tied to performance targets. UIG specialises in microgrid solutions, advanced power controls and behind-the-meter power architecture for data centres. The deal will extend Vertiv’s capabilities upstream from traditional data centre infrastructure to include utility interconnects, onsite power generation, energy storage orchestration and microgrid controls. “For AI data centre operators, competitive advantage increasingly depends on how quickly they can move from site…

Westcon-Comstor has announced a multi-region distribution agreement with Sonar to help organisations securely adopt AI across their software development workflows. The partnership covers channel partners across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC). With this partnership, Sonar’s core SonarQube platform will be available through Westcon-Comstor’s partner network. SonarQube provides automated code verification designed to help development and security teams identify and remediate vulnerabilities, exposed secrets and other code issues before software reaches production. According to Sonar research, users of SonarQube are 44% less likely to report production outages linked to AI-generated code. Sonar also says maintaining code…

Global health insurance and prevention company Alan has completed its acquisition of Tanel, a Dakar-based digital health company operating in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. Tanel was founded in 2021 by Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop to provide digital tools that help businesses manage employee health coverage while giving employees easier access to healthcare services. The company currently serves around 70,000 members across more than 400 companies, with a network of over 1,200 pharmacies and healthcare providers. If you have a startup you want featured on TechArena, let us know through this contact form here. Speaking on the acquisition, Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, CEO and co-founder…

NTT DATA is set to launch an AI Factory Lab in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in September 2026. This new facility will bring together NTT DATA’s AI, digital business and technology services expertise with technologies from ecosystem partners such as Cisco and NVIDIA. The AI Factory Lab will offer executive briefings, AI strategy workshops and hands-on demonstrations. All these are designed to help organizations identify high-impact use cases, assess potential business outcomes and move AI projects from experimentation into production. “While interest in AI continues to grow, many organizations are looking for a practical path from experimentation to business outcomes,” said…

WIOCC Group has secured a combined US$300 million investment from Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Vision International Investment Company (Vision Invest). The investment will help support WIOCC’s plans to expand critical digital infrastructure across Africa. The company currently operates in more than 30 African countries providing open-access connectivity infrastructure supporting businesses and digital service providers across the continent. WIOCC said the new funding will accelerate data centre deployment and consolidation. It will also be used to expand its terrestrial fibre network and investment in new subsea cable assets. Samaila Zubairu, President and CEO of AFC, said the investment would help…

Epson has invested KES 19.4 million to expand its Nairobi office by 50%, strengthening its regional operations and customer support across East Africa.

Westcon-Comstor has announced the appointment of Dorio Bowes as Director, Comstor Southern Africa and MEA Alliance Lead. This appointment expands his responsibilities as he will now cover strategic alliance engagement across the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Bowes will still retain his leadership of the Comstor business in Southern Africa while taking on the additional regional role. His expanded role will be key in streghtening vendor relationships, improving alignment across MEA markets and identifying new opportunities for partners and customers. At his role at Comstor Southern Africa, Bowes he has developed relationships across the vendor and partner ecosystem, built the…

Old Mutual has reported a profit after tax of KES 882 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026. This is an impressive recovery from the KES 5 million the company reported during the same period in 2025. The Group’s insurance service result moved into positive territory at KES 287 million. This is a positive result compared with a KES 303 million loss in the first half of 2025. Net investment results also increased to KES 1.9 billion, up from KES 1.7 billion a year earlier. The growth was supported by higher-yielding investments, asset-liability matching and liquidity management. Old…

Visa has partnered with Kenya Airways and Absa to launch the Asante Global Card. This is a premium travel-lifestyle credit card targeting professionals, frequent travellers and premium banking customers. Customers earn Asante Rewards Points on their purchases, redeemable across the Kenya Airways network. “We are seeing strong demand from Kenyan consumers for products that reward how they already spend and travel, and that demand is being driven by a generation that is earning more, travelling more and expecting more from the cards in their wallets,” said John Njoroge, Country Manager for Kenya, Visa. Card holders can accrue points on all…

Nutanix has announced the general availability of Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) 2.8 and Service Provider Central. The company announced this alongside the upcoming release of Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) 2.19. Nutanix says the new capabilities are designed to help enterprises deploy and manage AI, containerised applications and virtual machines through a more unified infrastructure environment. This can be achieved without having to rebuild existing systems. A key focus of NAI 2.8 is agentic AI, with the new generally available MCP Gateway providing a secure entry point for AI agents to access enterprise tools and data. The platform also introduces enhanced…