Insyte Weekly: A Review of The Latest Entrepreneurship News

Tech Startup News

Tech is rapidly growing and the demand for the best talent is accelerating. TechCrunch reported that German-based MVP Match, a tech talent marketplace, raised $5 million from Stage 2 Capital in its latest seed round. MVP Match will use the funds to establish new hubs in Africa and Europe, hire employees, and relaunch its proprietary platform. MVP Match's value proposition is to "connect the world's best tech talent with the most ambitious companies". Since 2020, the start-up has facilitated the completion of over 300 projects by connecting more than 100 clients with 2000 freelancers. Speaking to TechCrunch, CEO Levin Wense said "“We see entering Egypt as the first step in our exciting journey to bring the entire continent into the global talent pool. By setting up a local presence and working closely with the local talent, we will be able to really open up this market to our clients [Sources: TechCrunch & MVP Match]

Research reveals that Insurance penetration is below 3% in Africa due to lack of innovation within the sector. Turaco is on a mission to turn the tide within the industry by using innovation to insure 1 Billion people in the next 25 years. According to TechCrunch, the Kenyan startup raised $10 million in its latest Series A funding round. [Source: TechCrunch]

Adobe Acquires Figma for $20 Billion

Adobe announced it has a "definitive merger agreement to acquire Figma, a leading web-first collaborative design platform, for approximately $20 billion in cash and stock." Figma is very popular among designers due to its intuitive & collaborative platform and some people believe Adobe's move is purely to quash a direct competitor. However, some experts believe it is a mutually beneficial deal as Figma will gain access to Adobe's large userbase.

What is the impact?

Honestly, I was very surprised by the Adobe/Figma news because I thought Figma was on the path to disrupting Adobe: a lot of creators saw Figma as a low cost/high quality alternative to Adobe's design suite. Nonetheless I still think it is a positive & inspiring story for entrepreneurs and it accelerates Figma's growth.

The freelance/gig economy continues to boom, and I believe this is very beneficial for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs. Non-technical founders will be able to outsource product development at a lower cost thus lowering the barriers to entry. Given the rise in layoffs, I think platforms such as MVP Match will thrive in Africa.