Tech

US firm acquires SA payroll startup PaySpace

Published

2 months ago

March 6, 2024

United States-based HR platform, Deel, has announced the acquisition of South African payroll and HR startup, PaySpace, in its bid to expand into the African continent.

PaySpace is one Africa’s largest human resource platforms that provides multi-country payroll and HR functionalities with built-in compliance for organisations of all sizes and industry sectors, operating in 44 countries across the world, and catering to more than 14,000 customers, including multinationals such as Heineken, Coca-Cola Beverages and Puma Sports SA.

On the other hand, Deel is a payroll and compliance provider based in San Francisco, which helps companies simplify every aspect of managing an international workforce, from culture and onboarding, to local payroll, compliance and now, people management.

It owns more than 130 country entities and manages in-house, in-country payroll teams.

These, according to Deel’s co-founder and CEO, Alex Bouaziz, informed the decision for the acquisition of PaySpace which will make “Deel become the first global payroll and Employer of Record (EOR) with its own full-stack payroll engine localised in 50 countries and integrated into its offering.”

“Global payroll is hard to do and critical to get right. As a company, you want assurances you can pay your teams on time, compliantly, anywhere in the world,” said Bouaziz.

“PaySpace’s single-platform payroll expertise and breadth of coverage, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, combined with PayGroup’s presence in APAC, will give Deel customers the reach they need to grow their businesses globally.

“Our long-term vision is to be the most comprehensive payroll system in the world,” Bouaziz added.

Also speaking on the deal, PaySpace Director, Clyde van Wyk, said Deel, like PaySpace, strives to evolve its offering through disruption.

“We set out to modernise the payroll industry, which was burdened by manual processes and stringent legislative and compliance requirements, much like Deel revolutionised global hiring.

“This acquisition brings together leading employment services and payroll technology expertise, delivering a unique and powerful customer offering with unrivaled automation, flexibility and scalability,” he said.

Related Topics:Acquisition Deel Featured HR Payroll PaySpace

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Tech

Cut to undersea cable causes internet disruptions across East, Southern Africa

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

Internet services across East and Southern Africa have suffered outages following undersea submarine cable cuts on Sunday.

According to the Group CTIO at Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Ben Roberts, in a post on X on Monday, the faults have been reported in the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and the Seacom cables.

Though details of the fibre cut are still unclear, Roberts said three crucial submarine cables in the Red Sea, the Seacom, EIG, and AAE1, suffered cuts and remain unrepaired, leading to the widespread outage.

“We have experienced an outage on one of the undersea cables that deliver internet traffic in and out of the country,” Roberts said.

“We have since activated redundancy measures to minimise service interruption and keep you connected as we await the full restoration of the cable. You may, however, experience reduced internet speeds,” he added.

Four of the nine subsea cables that connect countries like South Africa to the rest of the world were reported as damaged due to incidents on either side of the continent.

In Kenya, this latest outage seems to have affected service providers like Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya. Safaricom said has since activated redundancy measures to minimise service interruption and keep users connected, according to reports.

Other East African countries affected by the cut are Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, and Rwanda.

This is the second time Africa has experienced a major fibre cut this year. In March, a suspected underwater rock slid off the coast of Cote d’Ivoire resulting in several submarine cables being offline which affected over 13 West African countries with greater impacts felt in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.

The affected cables included Africa Coast to Europe (ACE),
SAT-3 – Submarine Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable, WACS – West Africa Cable System and MainOne.

Tech

Oracle to increase research, development investments in Morocco

Published

3 days ago

May 11, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

Global IT vendor, Oracle, has announced plans to expand its research and development (R&D) capabilities in Morocco by growing its local workforce to 1,000 information technology (IT) professionals.

Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, who made the announcement on Friday, said the investment in the North African country will accelerate the development of Oracle’s cutting-edge technologies that help solve customer challenges worldwide.

“Oracle’s R&D center in Casablanca has already played a critical role in creating technical breakthroughs, enhancing cybersecurity, and delivering impactful new AI capabilities,” said Catz.

“By expanding our R&D presence in Morocco, we can further tap its deep talent pool to accelerate development of solutions that help our global customers grow their businesses and win in their industries,” he added.

Ms. Ghita Mezzour, Morocco’s Minister of Digital Transition and Administration Reform who signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of the government, said:

“This ambitious project falls within the strategic and comprehensive Royal Vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI who called on encouraging Moroccan youth innovation and creativity.

“At this cutting-edge center, young Moroccans will be at the forefront of designing and developing innovative solutions, covering the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and cybersecurity.

“These solutions will be deployed on a global scale, thus strengthening Morocco’s positioning as a regional digital hub.”

Oracle’s expansion follows the opening of its Morocco Development Center facility at Casanearshore Park in Casablanca, where researchers use Oracle’s cloud, AI, and machine learning technologies to tackle the most pressing challenges facing business, science, and the public sector.