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Amen Rahh, widely known as “Principal Rahh,” is a nationally recognized educator and best-selling author from Compton, CA, who first gained attention after leading a South Los Angeles high school to a 100% graduation rate. However, his mission took an unexpected turn. One of his students, Keon — an unhoused teen in foster care — had been accepted to Tuskegee University but couldn’t afford the final $480 he needed to attend. “He thought, ‘If I can get this $400, I can get out,'” Rahh told AFROTECH™. “Tragically, he lost his life before he could.” Rahh learned the news while working on his doctorate at UCLA and says the loss changed everything. “At [age] 34, I left my job and started a tech company to transform education,” Rahh said. The company — Knowlej — is using fintech innovation to reimagine what’s possible for underserved students nationwide. The Classroom To Real Life Since its 2023 launch, the fintech app Knowlej has reached more than 30,000 students, according to Rahh. He...
Goldman Sachs is turning to AI to level up its developer workforce — and its latest team member isn’t even human. The global investment bank is testing an AI-powered software engineer from startup Cognition that can handle everything from writing code to fixing bugs and building full applications, with minimal human support, CNBC reports. Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti said the bank sees this as the beginning of a new kind of collaboration between people and machines. “We’re going to start augmenting our workforce with… our new employee who’s going to start doing stuff on behalf of our developers,” Argenti told CNBC. Goldman Sachs is the first major bank to use the tool and believes this tech has the potential to significantly boost productivity across its 12,000-person developer team. And if it proves successful, the firm may roll out thousands of AI engineers across the organization. What Makes The Goldman Sachs AI Engineer Different This isn’t your average AI assistant...
Tech investor Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, warned that universities will “pay the price” for promoting diversity and allegedly discriminating against supporters of President Donald Trump , according to screenshots of chat messages reviewed by The Washington Post. During a May 3, 2025, WhatsApp chat with White House officials and tech leaders, Andreessen reportedly criticized DEI and immigration policies after being invited by moderator Sriram Krishnan, a White House senior policy adviser on AI, to counter a comment about their impact on economic growth . The outlet also noted that Krishnan had created the group chat at the time he was working at Andreessen’s firm. The group chat, formed in 2023 before Trump’s current term, connects investors and experts with diverse political views interested in open AI development. In addition to Andreessen and Krishnan, members include White House AI adviser Dean Ball, Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann...
A woman-owned trading finance platform is now positioned to scale its footprint in Africa. Liquify Established in 2023 by Nadya Yaremenko and Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, the Ghanaian company is the “f irst fully digital trade finance platform on the continent,” its website mentions. It exists to connect small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa with capital markets across the globe. The Condia reports that the platform allows exporters to turn unpaid invoices into cash in the same day while investors can tap into a high-yielding asset class with the added perks of short maturities and low market correlation. What’s more, Liquify has integrated AI into its due diligence process to create more competitive rates for exporters selling to investment-grade buyers along with lower operational costs. “We built Liquify to unlock the $120 billion trade-finance gap holding back Africa’s most dynamic SMEs,” Yaremenko (CEO) said, according to The Condia. $1.5M Raise Liquify has already financed $4...
What do sports and fintech have in common? For Kyle Rowley, it’s all about endurance, focus, and flawless execution. Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, the former basketball player once played for Northwestern University and St. Mary’s Gaels before going professional with Spain and Sweden. Now retired, Rowley is the founder of Ankor, a Sweden-based startup that, according to his recent post on LinkedIn, raised $1.3 million to solve one of e-commerce’s biggest pain points: manual reconciliation. In the post, Rowley reflected on the journey. “Today, I’m incredibly proud to say we’re launching something we built for an ecosystem I’ve genuinely come to love,” he shared. “For the past year, our team has been heads-down, rebuilding our entire platform, Ankor, from scratch.” What Is Ankor? Ankor automates the manual, time-consuming process of financial reconciliation by handling tasks such as matching purchase orders to invoices, flagging payment discrepancies, and syncing data across...
One of Africa’s most prominent tech founders is stepping back into the spotlight with a new artificial intelligence (AI) venture. Karim Jouini and Jihed Othmani, his co-founder of Tunisian fintech startup Expensya, have launched Thunder Code, a generative AI-powered software testing platform. TechCrunch reports that the France- and Tunisia-based startup has already raised $9 million in seed funding. The return to startup life comes nearly two years after the duo sold Expensya to Swedish software firm Medius in 2023, according to the outlet. Although the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that they estimated it to be more than $120 million, marking one of the biggest African tech exits to date. From Promising Exit To New Beginnings Following the acquisition, Jouini assumed the role of chief product and technology officer at Medius. Neither he nor Othmani intended to return to entrepreneurship. However, Jouini’s exposure to the...
Carrot Credit, a Nigerian fintech company, recently announced via LinkedIn that it has raised $4.2 million in seed funding to expand its lending platform, which enables users to borrow against digital investment assets. The funding round was led by MaC Venture Capital, a firm that’s known for investing in diverse founders, as AFROTECH™ previously reported, with additional participation from Partech Africa and Authentic Ventures. When making the announcement, Carrot Credit stated that the funding will be used to support the company’s efforts to grow its team, enhance its credit infrastructure, and strengthen integration with digital investment platforms across Africa. Borrowing Without Selling: A New Credit Framework According to its website, Carrot Credit offers a unique approach to lending by allowing individuals to use their financial assets, such as stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), government bonds, or cryptocurrencies, as collateral. Users can access up to 40% of the value...
Klarna’s plans to go public may need to be on standby. The Sweden-based fintech company has reportedly had a loss of $99 million in Q1 2025, according to Tip Ranks. In comparison, it saw a loss of $47 million in Q1 2024. There are several reasons for this decline. For one, customer credit losses increased by 17%, totaling $136 million, according to its Q1 report. However a spokesperson told The Tab this statistic was to be expected. “Bear in mind that we made 13% more loans than a year ago so, all else being equal, you’d expect credit losses to increase by at least 13%,” the spokesperson mentioned. Klarna And Artificial Intelligence While Klarna replaced human roles with artificial intelligence (AI), as AFROTECH™ previously reported, this decision was driven by a desire to increase operational efficiency and reduce overhead. As a result, 700 customer service representatives were replaced with tools that leveraged OpenAI. Tip Ranks notes that this move did help the company meet its...
UX designer Roderick Wilkins strives to make the tech industry more inclusive. Tech Journey The Quincy, FL, native has always had a deep interest in technology and began fixing computers at a young age, which guided his educational pursuits at Florida A&M University (FAMU). He earned a bachelor’s degree in information technology in 2019 and went on to Louisiana State University, where he earned a master’s in digital media art and engineering with a focus on UX in 2021. “When you open that app and you see the first screen, you’re scrolling and you’re interacting with it, I always say someone had to design that,” Wilkins told AFROTECH™. “So I would say, within UX, there are designers, which is what I am, and someone designed that whole page that you’re seeing and you’re interacting with.” While UX includes various verticals one can explore — such as research and accessibility — Wilkins’ interest in graphic design aligned with his goal of becoming a UX designer, which was affirmed...
Symphonic Capital has launched its inaugural fund targeting overlooked founders in fintech and health care. Symphonic Capital’s Inception Sydney Thomas, who always displayed an “entrepreneurial spirit,” founded the venture capital (VC) firm in 2022. Having already dedicated years to being a serial investor, her work in venture capital began in 2016. It was during that time that she observed a common pattern: Many firms placed broad bets on numerous founders, accepting that most would fail in hopes that a few would yield outsized returns. However, she believed it was possible to have a more refined approach that would put more early-staged founders in a better position. “While it is still incredibly risky to work in early stage, a way to actually de-risk your investment is to have a much more structured and focused support strategy with those companies that increases the likelihood that they graduate from pre-seed to seed, and increases the likelihood that they graduate from seed to...
The crypto market is surging following a major regulatory shift. According to CNBC, XRP jumped 10% to $2.49 after Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped its case against the company. This decision marks the end of a four-year legal battle that has shaped the industry’s regulatory landscape and fueled speculation about a broader shift in the SEC’s approach. Ripple’s Long-Awaited Victory Speaking at the Digital Assets Summit in New York, Garlinghouse reflected on the drawn-out legal fight, calling it a painful yet necessary battle for the industry. “It’s been almost four years and about three months since the SEC originally sued us, certainly a painful journey in lots of ways,” Garlinghouse said. “I really deeply believed that we were going to be on the right side of the law and on the right side of history.” The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, alleging that the company sold XRP as an unregistered security. Ripple scored a...
African fintech platform Mansa has secured new funding. Mansa, founded in 2023 by Mouloukou Sanoh (CEO) and Nkiru Uwaje (COO), enables seamless cross-border payments and instant transactions for its customers. Its offerings include competitive exchange rates, virtual card processing to support cash flow management, and automated matching of financial transactions to bank statements. This is made possible by leveraging a stablecoin infrastructure, its website mentions. “We’re starting by being the primary liquidity provider to the biggest payment companies across emerging markets,” Sanoh explained to TechCrunch. “From there, we can handle payouts and also offer additional services like foreign exchange. The goal is to create a one-stop payment platform where they can finance their payments, settle transactions instantly, and access foreign currency seamlessly — all in one place.” The inception of Mansa, based in Dubai, UAE, originated from Sanoh experiencing issues receiving money...
Fintech platform Raenest has raised new funding to support African businesses. The company, founded in 2022 by Victor Alade, Sodruldeen Mustapha, and Richard Oyome, offers a range of services, including virtual and physical dollar cards, international transfers, invoicing for global payments, the ability to create USD, GBP, and EUR bank accounts, and currency conversion, among other features listed on its website. Raenest’s original platform was structured as an Employer of Record (EOR), helping foreign companies pay employees on the continent while remaining compliant, TechCrunch reports. The founders recognized a deeper-rooted issue, leading them to update Raenest to assist the continent’s gig economy and businesses directly. “A U.S. company might not care if a payment is delayed by five days, but for someone in Nigeria or Kenya, that’s a big deal — especially when converting to local currency becomes another hurdle,” Alade told TechCrunch. Looking ahead, Raenest intends to secure...
Ohio’s only Black-owned bank — and the first established and approved in the U.S. since 2000 — has tripled its assets since inception. Columbus Business Journal reports Adelphi Bank was founded in January 2023 and is led by Chairman and CEO Jordan Miller, who had spent over three decades in business and initially retired in 2019 as Central Ohio president for Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Bank. He returned to the industry to get Adelphi up and running with a mission of dismantling financial inequities and helping customers create streams of income without bias. He is joined by Kevin Boyce, co-founder and vice chairman. Upon its launch, Adelphi received local support from large corporations in central Ohio. “It feels like family,” Miller expressed, according to the outlet. “Banks can be intimidating places.” Columbus-based Adelphi Bank currently offers certificates of deposit, checking and savings accounts, and loans for personal use. It plans to provide home mortgages in 2025. For...
Saquon Barkley has expanded his portfolio ahead of Super Bowl LIX, set for Feb. 9, 2025. The running back, wearing a No. 26 Philadelphia Eagles jersey, is heading to New Orleans, LA, to face the Kansas City Chiefs — a rematch of the 2022 Super Bowl matchup, ESNP reports. Barkley has combined his passion for sports and business and will be featured in a Super Bowl ad for Ramp, a financial operations platform that provides exclusive perks to over 30,000 customers. These perks include smart accounts payable, which processes bills in seconds, corporate cards, vendor management, procurement, travel booking, and automated bookkeeping. Customers have saved upwards of $2 billion through Ramp, CEO and Co-Founder Eric Glyman mentioned in a press release. For these reasons, Barkley is not only endorsing the company through the commercial but is now an investor in the platform, the press release reported. “I’ve always believed a winning mindset applies to every part of life. If you want to...