Toughgray

OPay, an Africa focused mobile payments startup founded by Norwegian browser company  Opera , has raised $50 million in funding. Lead investors include Sequoia China, IDG Capital, and Source Code Capital. Opera also joined the round in the payments venture it created. OPay  will use the capital (which wasn’t given a stage designation) primarily to grow its digital finance business in Nigeria—Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy. OPay will also support Opera’s growing commercial network in Nigeria, which includes a motorcycle ride-hail app ORide and OFood delivery service. Opera founded Opay in 2018 on the popularity of its internet search engine. Opera’s web-browser has ranked  number two in usage in Africa , after Chrome, the last four years. On the payments side, OPay in Nigeria has scaled to 40,000 active agents and $5 million in transaction volume in 10 months. The $50 million investment in OPay is more than just another big round in Africa...

Aston Martin  has announced new details on its upcoming coachbuilt super-grand tourer: the DBS GT Zagato. It's the latest collaboration between the British manufacturer and famed Italian design firm Zagato, adding to a tradition stretching back over 50 years. The DBS Superleggera—Aston's  most powerful production car  to date—provides the basis for the DBS GT Zagato. It receives a full reskin, with all-new body panels which distinguish and somehow make it even more striking than the standard car. Design elements like the double-bubble roof, turbine-esque taillights, and prominently creased rear haunches tie it in with earlier Aston-Zagato special projects  based on the Vanquish  and V12 Vantage. The Beautiful and Powerful DBS GT Zagato pushes the envelope further with a "dynamic" grille comprised of multiple carbon-fiber elements that transforms based on the vehicle's status. When parked, its 108 diamond-shaped pieces fold flat and interlock, giving the tra...

FCA's future has had an air of uncertainty about it as executives past and present have pursued mergers with other automakers. The company's latest thwarted effort was with Renault, and although those talks fell apart, they might not be dead yet. And whereas the future of the  Chrysler  portion of FCA could be in doubt, the automaker continues to operate as if it's business as usual. Before his death, former CEO  Sergio Marchionne  finalized a five-year business and product plan that plotted a future for all eight brands, but in that plan four brands were elevated to yeoman's service while the other four were relegated to regional, almost niche status.  Jeep ,  Ram ,  Alfa Romeo , and  Maserati  are supposed to do the heavy lifting. Chrysler,  Dodge , Fiat, and SRT are the more boutique brands. And their biggest champion, Tim Kuniskis, is back in charge of the lower-tier passenger car brands. Kuniskis is the one who injected his p...

This time last month,  Google   took the surprise (and anticlimactic) move of tweeting out  images of the Pixel 4  well ahead of its October launch. Of course, that glimpse just focused on the rear of the device. Not only was the company looking to nip leaks in the bud, they were almost certainly attempting to show off their camera array before Apple got the jump on them. New 3D  renders from OnLeaks  may reveal why Google wasn’t in a rush to show off the front of the phone. The 6.25-inch phone appears to maintain the company’s staunch indifference to the war of notch attrition, forgoing the hole-punch camera from what appears to be a sizable top bezel (forehead). Perhaps there’s something to be said for the company sitting this out while the competition battles things out with all sorts of solutions, from pop-up cameras to jamming them into displays. Besides, the Pixel XL got dinged for its giant notch, so you’re damned if you do, etc. As alway...

On Thursday, the White House’s social media summit will reportedly  host a who’s who  of conservative media pundits. PragerU and Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk have apparently received invites to the event. There will, however, be some key names missing from the invite list — including, notably, the social media companies themselves. Trump’s White House is this week hosting what it calls “a robust conversation on the opportunities and challenges of today’s online environment.” But according to  a new report from CNN , neither Facebook nor Twitter qualify as “digital leaders,” as neither platform has received an invite. The White House hasn’t released an invite list for the event — nor is it commenting on this latest report. Those sites will almost certainly be in the crosshairs, however, as Trump and fellow conservatives discuss their perceived biases. The president recently accused some of “fighting” him in a recent interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, stating...

NASA   is in final preparation stages for its Artemis 1 Moon mission, which will be the first in its Artemis series of missions that intend to return an American man to the Moon, and bring an American woman to the surface of Earth’s natural satellite for the first time. The 335-ft tall mobile launch tower that will send Artemis 1’s Orion capsule to lunar orbit atop a Space Launch System rocket is now on the pad for its last round of testing before the real thing. NASA’s Artemis 1 mission will fly the Orion crew capsule to space, where it’ll spend three weeks, including a six-day lunar orbit. The capsule will be fully equipped with all life-support systems it would need to actually support a crew on board, but there won’t be anyone actually on it for this one, as the intent is to prove the safety and effective operation of the system prior to Artemis 2, an intended crewed launch to follow Artemis 1 a few years down the road. Artemis 1 will take off from Launch Pad 39A at K...

Google is offering a new coding resource for educators via  ‘Code with Google,’  which collects Google’s own free course curriculum on teaching computer science, and a variety of programs to help students learn to code or build on their existing skills, with stuff for people at all levels of ability. The ‘Code with Google’ resources extend beyond just learning, however, and include potential scholarships, for instance, was well as summer programs, internships and residencies. In a  blog post , Google VP of Education and University Relations Maggie Johnson noted that while recognition of the importance of computer science across all levels of education is relatively high, the actual availability of courses that include hands-on programming for students is surprisingly low, and generally only accessible to students in more affluent districts with access to more resources. All of Google’s ‘Code with Google’ resources are free, in keeping with may of its other educatio...