Author: GT

Djamo is one of several digital banking startups targeting Africa’s underbanked. But unlike many that focus on large markets like Nigeria, Egypt, or South Africa, Djamo has carved out a niche in Francophone West Africa, specifically the Ivory Coast and, more recently, Senegal. It now serves over 1 million customers across both countries. The Y Combinator-backed fintech just raised $17 million to expand its product suite for these retail customers and the thousands of small businesses it has onboarded in the last two years. The equity round, the largest ever for an Ivorian startup, surpasses Djamo’s $14 million Series A…

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The $1 million March Madness wager between a pro gambler and an artificial-intelligence site will be decided by the winner of the Duke-Houston game in the Final Four.The Vegas bookies project the gambler, who picked 5 1/2-point favorite Duke, should win.The AI platform 4C Predictions, which picked Houston, says that’s why its smarter than them.The bottom line: both pro gambler Sean Perry and the 4C’s AI program have done very well over the first 60 games of the tournament. Perry has missed only 13 picks. AI has missed only 10. They both picked all the Final…

XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) are proven cryptocurrencies that aren’t going to go to zero. In the long term, they’re more likely to be more valuable than they are today. And they might even be better bets than some assets that people widely consider fairly safe. So even conservative investors should consider buying and holding them, at least in a modest proportion like a total allocation of about $3,000 between both. Here’s the argument for why these coins can be right at home in a lower-risk portfolio. Bitcoin and XRP are valuable for different reasons, and the differences…

Plaid, which connects bank accounts to financial applications, has sold about $575 million worth of common stock at a $6.1 billion post-money valuation, the fintech company confirmed to TechCrunch. The valuation is about less than half of the $13.4 billion that San Francisco-based Plaid was valued at when it raised a $425 million Series D in April 2021 in a round led by Altimeter Capital. A spokesperson acknowledged the decrease, saying it was “simply a reflection of the contraction of multiples across the market.”  Indeed, higher interest rates have led to lower valuations for many startups that last raised at…

As a Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) investor, it can be confusing to make sense of all the information out there. And that’s especially the case when it comes to the weekly influx of new macroeconomic data. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to separate the signal from the noise. So, to help make sense of it all, here are three numbers that can help to ground your thinking about where Bitcoin is headed next. Let’s get this number out of the way first. A lot of very smart people on Wall Street think that Bitcoin is going to hit a price of $1…

The caller identity app Truecaller said that it crossed the 450 million user mark earlier this week. The company said that it added 50 million users in the past 10 months and 15.5 million users since the beginning of 2025. India is the company’s biggest user base. So it wasn’t surprising when Truecaller promoted chief product officer and MD of India operations, Rishit Jhunjhunwala, to the CEO position after the company’s co-founders decided to step back from day-to-day operations last year. Image Credits:Truecaller Jhunjhunwala said that while India remains a critical market for Truecaller, it also saw growth in other…

As the biggest and most popular cryptocurrency, it’s a surprise to nobody that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is subjected to all sorts of different trends, pressures, risks, and influences. It’s easy to assume that all of the biggest factors that determine its price are already common knowledge. But what might be surprising is that some of the coin’s least-discussed risks are getting less scary instead of looming larger, particularly in one key area. In short, the future is looking even brighter for the coin, and, interestingly, it will probably also be easier on the conscience of some holders and future buyers.…

Expanding into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains a costly and complex challenge for global businesses, thanks to fragmented regulations and banking systems. Dubai-based fintech Fuse aims to simplify that with a cross-border payments API and has raised $6.6 million in seed funding to make it happen. Founded in 2023 by CEO George Davis (pictured above, right), former co-founder of BVNK, and CTO James Smith (pictured above, left), Fuse says it’s the first infrastructure-grade payments platform offering virtual International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) in the region. This is a product Davis says is commonplace in Europe but nearly…

It’s no secret that cryptocurrencies come and go, often after experiencing 15 minutes of fame that cause many to call for their ongoing dominance as part of a new paradigm of financial technology. But some coins, like XRP, (CRYPTO: XRP) have demonstrated staying power that lasts for years rather than months or weeks. And that means they stand nearly alone as some of the only cryptos worth buying and holding through 2030 — and perhaps even beyond that. Here’s a quick rundown of what makes this coin one of the survivors, and why that’s likely to continue for the foreseeable…

The Phillips 66 Company’s Los Angeles Refinery in California.Bing Guan | ReutersThe oil price outlook is being hit with more bearish forecasts on the back of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping and market-hammering tariff announcements. Businesses and investors worry that a trade war and lower global growth lies ahead.Goldman Sachs on Thursday reduced its December 2025 forecasts for global and U.S. benchmarks Brent crude and WTI by $5 to $66 and $62 a barrel, respectively, “because the two key downside risks we have flagged are realizing, namely tariff escalation and somewhat higher OPEC+ supply.”The bank also cut its forecasts for…