Tech Bahari

Global medical technologies company Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies (Terumo BCT) has opened its Africa headquarters and regional training centre in Nairobi, marking a significant boost for the continent’s efforts to modernise blood management and expand technical capacity.

South African agritech startup SwiftVEE has secured R173m ($10.1m) in a Series A funding round to support its expansion into financial services, alongside its core marketplace.

The round was led by African venture capital firm HAVAÍC and private equity firm Exeo Capital. Notably, Iain Williamson, the former CEO of insurance giant Old Mutual, joined the round, bringing valuable experience from the traditional financial services sector.
Other existing investors, such as fund managers Mike Kirsten and Carlo Dickson, as well as private investment vehicle Zire Africa, also participated in the funding round.

This funding comes at a time when vertical marketplaces across Africa are increasingly integrating embedded finance to enhance margins and customer retention. Initially focused on digitising livestock auctions, SwiftVEE now intends to leverage the new funds to expand into fintech, insurance, and data products, all of which will be added to its trading platform.

Black Swan, a Mauritius-based FinTech startup, emerged as the winner of the MEST Africa Challenge (MAC) 2025.

ChatGPT May Soon Start Showing You Ads:

OpenAI appears to be preparing an advertising system for ChatGPT, based on new details discovered in the latest ChatGPT Android beta. As spotted by Tibor Blaho on X, the beta version 1.2025.329 includes references to an “ads feature,” with strings like “bazaar content,” “search ad,” and “search ads carousel.”

While these code references don’t guarantee a public rollout, they strongly suggest that OpenAI is internally testing ad formats and placements within the app.