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What happens when a leader in an industry is unable to stop the bleeding from a PR disaster weeks after? The search for another shoe begins.
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New allegations of sexual harassment by top executives at Flutterwave have come to light, sounding echoing alarms about the future of the Nigerian tech space writ large.
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Will Silicon Valley investors lose faith in Nigerian tech founders? Flutterwave's next move will be the defining factor.
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Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.
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Summary of the news
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- More allegations of gross workplace improprieties have been brought against Flutterwave top executives in a new report
- Eden Life, in a move to expand into Kenya, has acquired Lynk
- U.S. and more than 55 other countries have pledged to keep an open internet
- Meta, Facebook's parent company's investors are sceptical of Mark Zuckerberg's plans to invest big in the metaverse
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More allegations of sexual harassment by top executives at Flutterwave have come to light. A new report by Rest of World shows that sexual harassment was indeed pervasive at the company.
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Rest of World reports that after a series of interviews with former staff of the company, its reporter discovered that the company encouraged a culture of impunity among senior executives and behaviour that included bullying and inappropriate relationships between managers and staff, that the company underpaid departing employees for their stock options, and that basic administrative errors were made with company documentation, creating serious legal problems for former staff.
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In an emailed statement to Rest of World, a Flutterwave spokesperson said, “Many of the claims that have been recently made are false, recycled, or have been previously addressed.” The spokesperson also said that the company doesn’t comment on employee matters but that it has “robust HR policies and procedures that aim to create a safe and respectful workplace for all employees. We are always reviewing those policies, and we take action as and when appropriate.”
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Iyinoluwa Agboyeji, one of the founders of Flutterwave, who has since exited the company, told Rest of Wold that he wasn't "made aware" of the fact that employees weren't issued stock options. Employees not being paid for their stock in full at the company had been one of the allegations laid against the company.
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“I was made aware afterwards that the founders decided to do things differently, and some of the people on that list weren’t issued stock options after I left, but I don’t know why not,” Agboyeji said.
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Eden Life expands to Kenya, acquires Lynk
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Eden Life, Africa’s first home concierge services scheduling platform, has acquired Lynk, Technext reports. The strategic acquisition, brokered by Enza Capital, sees Eden Life expand into Kenya, and leverage Lynk’s successful platform that connects informal workers with end-users through automated job matching and standardised processes.
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Eden Life, a subscription service that delivers high-quality chef-cooked meals, laundry services, home cleaning, and a new extra beauty and wellness service for consumers in Nairobi, was launched in Nigeria in 2019 with the aim to connect busy professionals with concierge services.
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According to Mike Mompi, General Partner at Enza Capital, Eden Life’s proven track record of delivering quality home services in Nigeria, while now leveraging on what Lynk has built in Kenya, reinforces the positive trend and opportunity that increasingly exists in major urban centres across Africa.
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U.S. and more than 55 other countries pledge to keep an open internet
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The United States and more than 55 other governments have pledged to reinforce democracy online by agreeing not to shut down access to the internet, use algorithms to illegally spy on citizens or run misinformation campaigns to undermine elections, the White House said on Thursday.
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New York Times reports that the American government said they would not block or limit the reach of legal content or illegally gain access to an individual’s personal data. The countries also pledged to promote access to the internet and protect the safety of its users, especially young people and women.
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The pledge is not legally binding, but the countries, including Ukraine, Argentina and New Zealand, said in the document that it should “be used as a reference for public policymakers, as well as citizens, businesses and civil society organizations.”
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Governments that have aggressively regulated American tech giants, like the European Commission, Britain and Australia, endorsed the pledge as well. Brazil and India, two of the most important markets for technology in the world, did not.
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Mark Zuckerberg wants to spend big on the metaverse, but investors are skeptical
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Mark Zuckerberg told the world last October that he was all in on the metaverse, and that the endeavour that would only get more expensive over time. Now that his company’s stock price has been hammered in recent months, he is dialling back that rhetoric, The Verge reports.
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Meta will “slow the pace of some of our investments” due to “our current business growth levels,” Zuckerberg said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call Wednesday. Meta’s profits for the first quarter were $7.5 billion, down 21 per cent from the year-ago period. Revenue rose 7 per cent to $27.9 billion, the slowest growth rate since the company went public a decade ago. Its target expense range for 2022 was lowered by $3 billion.
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Make no mistake: Zuckerberg is still spending billions a year on building devices and software for the metaverse, a concept he thinks will eventually be as big as the mobile internet. The Reality Labs division of Meta, which makes the Quest VR headset and future AR glasses, has about 17,000 employees and lost almost $3 billion last quarter alone. The problem is that Meta’s investors are uncomfortable right now with that level of spending, especially when the payoff is years away.
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Latest in funding
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Other stories we are following
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