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: Ivorian Startup, Yelen, is Building an All-in-One Social Commerce Platform for Sellers in Francophone Africa
Ivorian startup, Yelen, is betting on messaging-driven trade, offering payments, storefronts and logistics in a single ecosystem platform for sellers across Africa.
Across much of Africa, the centre of commerce has shifted away from traditional websites to more informal, conversation-driven channels. From WhatsApp to Instagram direct messages, thousands of small businesses now sell products through chat, manually managing orders, payments, and customer relationships.
For Ibrahima Sylla and Christian Okoth, this fragmented process presented a clear opportunity. Their startup, Yelen, launched in June 2025 and headquartered in Côte d’Ivoire, is building an integrated platform designed to streamline social selling.
By combining storefront creation, payments, and customer management into a single system, the company aims to simplify how merchants operate in Africa’s fast-evolving digital economy.
“The long-term vision is to build a full ecosystem where sellers can manage their entire business lifecycle, from conversations to transactions, within one platform,” Sylla says. “Even for products such as tools for sourcing goods from China and upcoming logistics features.”
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Memories AI Partners Nvidia to Build ‘Visual Memory’ for AI Wearables and Robotics. Read now.
CcHUB Launches Five-Year ‘GATEWAY’ Programme to Train 340,000 Nigerians for Global Gig Economy. Read now.
Cloaked Raises $375 Million to Help Users Take Control of Personal Data Across Platforms. Read now.
On Startup Spotlight:
Deccan AI Raises $25m to Power the Engine, Data and Evaluation Behind AI Systems
Deccan AI, a startup specialising in post-training data and evaluation for artificial intelligence models, has secured $25 million in its first major funding round, underscoring growing investor confidence in a critical but often overlooked segment of the AI value chain.
The all-equity Series A round was led by A91 Partners, with backing from Susquehanna International Group and Prosus Ventures.
According to founder and chief executive Rukesh Reddy, the company currently serves around 10 clients and manages several dozen active projects at any given time.
“Many of our competitors go to 100-plus countries to find the experts,” he said. “If you have operations in just one country, it becomes far easier to maintain quality,” said Rukesh Reddy.
Quadri Adejumo brings you all the details. Read here.
Also Read:
Shell Foundation, SDS Launch WAASP to Transform Women Farmers’ Incomes Across West 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
