Hi, welcome to Tech This Evening, an After-Work Tech Newsletter from Techparley Africa. Sure, there is a lot to unpack right now. Sit back, while I walk you through.
Top Story: Ciridae Raises $20 Million to Solve AI Adoption Challenges for Industrial and Mid-Sized Companies
Across industries, many mid-market companies still rely heavily on spreadsheets, outdated ERP systems, phone calls, and institutional knowledge passed informally between employees to manage critical operations. That operational gap is where Ciridae believes its opportunity lies.
The AI startup announced that it has raised $20 million in seed funding led by Accel, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Sunflower Capital, and Backcountry Ventures.
The company aims to build what it describes as AI operating systems for traditional businesses that have struggled to adopt advanced automation technologies despite mounting pressure to modernise operations.
Founded by Jack Soslow, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former data scientist at Meta, alongside Jack Weissenberger, the company is taking a more operationally embedded approach to AI deployment.
“We built Ciridae to solve one of the quieter failures of the AI boom: the companies that stand to benefit most from AI have no way of actually adopting it,” said Jack Soslow, CEO and Co-Founder of Ciridae. “We believe the biggest AI opportunity is not adding another layer of enterprise software, but building the operating infrastructure for the businesses the industry has largely passed by.”
Other Tech News Stories You Should Read:
Business Corner: How to start a profitable e-commerce business in Africa’s growing digital market. Read now.
Misti AI Raises £250,000 to Transform Industrial Cameras Into AI-Powered Sensors. Read now.
General Analysis Raises $10 Million to Tackle Security Risks in Autonomous AI Systems. Read now.
On Startup Spotlight:
Circle Internet Group Raises $222 Million to Build Arc Blockchain and Power AI-Driven Financial Systems
Circle Internet Group has secured $222 million in a presale of Arc, the native token tied to its new blockchain network. The raise reportedly values the project at a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion.
The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with a $75 million investment, while other backers include BlackRock, Apollo Global Management, Intercontinental Exchange, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst, ARK Invest, Haun Ventures, and crypto exchange Bullish.
The investment marks one of Circle’s most ambitious strategic expansions yet, signalling the company’s intention to evolve beyond stablecoin issuance into broader blockchain infrastructure, institutional finance, and AI-driven economic systems.
“[Blockchain] infrastructure is becoming as important as mobile operating systems or cloud platforms,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, told CNBC. “We want to build an operating system that has many, many stakeholders in it, major companies who are running the infrastructure with us and who ultimately help to govern it.”
“We’re becoming a broader internet platform company,” Allaire said. “We’re entering the operating system business, and we’re doing it by building this multi-stakeholder distributed model with a token, with a distributed network. But it is an operating system business. And we’re also getting into the apps business.”
Quadri Adejumo brings you all the details. Read here.
Also Read:
Bosta Scores Major Investor Exit as Egypt’s Logistics Star Delivers 75% Return, Signals Investors Confidence in Africa. Yakub Abdulrasheed brings us the details, here.
Quote of the Day:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke.
Thank you for joining me yet again this evening. Stay safe, and see you tomorrow for the next tech newsletter.
Best, Quadri
