Breaking News Today – Thursday 11 June 2026

African Start-up News Headlines:

• Insure-tech startup Myka has raised an undisclosed pre-seed funding round from investors that include Ventures Platform, TLcom, Shola Akinlade, co-founder of Paystack; Ridwan Olalere, founder of LemFi; and Olumide Soyombo, founder of Voltron Capital. Myka offers coverage across multiple short-term insurance categories, including health, vehicles, mobile phones, homes, and businesses, with a mission to grown low insurance penetration in Nigeria and expand access to financial risk management services at scale.
• The landscape for the African tech and startup ecosystem saw a nice rebound and  recorded a notable rise in investment activity in May 2026, with 37 companies on the continent announcing deals that collectively raised around $135 million in funding from a mix of equity, debt instruments, and grants. This marks an increase compared with April’s $110 million total and a significant uptick in deal count from March, when only 22 companies disclosed funding. May funding was importantly and even split between equity and debt financing, with startups raising approximately $65 million in equity funding and $68 million in debt based capital, alongside around $2 million in non‑dilutive grant funding.
• Yamify, a developer-first AI infrastructure platform has secured pre-seed funding from Launch Africa Ventures as part of an ongoing round of capital raise. The Ai venture was initially launched with a $100,000 investment from Felix Anane, an early backer of Paystack. Yamify is not designed for large enterprise clients but is targeted at freelancers, small agencies, and early-stage startups with a focus on affordability. The new funding will help de-risk early distribution through partnerships with OADC and Cassava AI as Yamify continues raising its pre-seed round.

Business News Today 

South African Rand Under Pressure

The South African rand hovered around 16.5 per USD, near the lowest since mid-May, pressured by falling prices of key precious metals, particularly gold and PGMs. Markets turned cautious as Middle East tensions flared again with US–Iran strikes, while President Trump’s remarks unsettled a fragile ceasefire and clouded hopes for a broader peace deal. Adding pressure to the currency, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) noted in its Financial Stability Review that the oil price shock could prolong inflationary pressures, increasing the likelihood of further tightening. It added that its quarterly projection model now suggests another rate hike in 2026 following the 25-basis-point increase on May 28. The central bank raised the key repo rate by 25 bps to 7.0%, the first hike in three years, in a defensive response to mounting inflationary pressures stemming from the Middle East conflict.

Upgraded AI Siri For iPhone Announced

Apple has announced a major artificial intelligence overhaul for the iPhone. This follows a long period of criticism around the iPhone’s lack of AI ability and marks the company’s biggest move yet into the AI race. The shift comes after Apple’s first AI push stalled, with promised upgrades failing to materialise. Apple has rebranded and significantly upgraded Siri to Siri AI, which will now be a much more intelligent, conversational, and context-aware assistant according to Apple.

Key new capabilities include – Natural back-and-forth conversations, Understands personal context across your apps (emails, messages, photos, calendar, etc.), Siri can perform complex, multi-step tasks across different apps and on-screen awareness (e.g., point camera at something or highlight text and ask Siri to act on it). The new Siri roll-out with iOS 27 later in 2026. It requires newer devices such as iPhone 16 series and select earlier Pro models and has broader compatibility than previous Apple Intelligence features.

SpaceX IPO Listing today – Over-Subscribed 4x Offering

SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) that will take place today (11 June) has seen share demand surge around four times the offered share volume, to around $250 billion (R4 trillion). It continues its trajectory to be the highest initial capital amount raised by a stock going public on an exchange ever. South African born Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, planed to sell 555.6 million shares, at an initial share offering price of $135, aiming for a valuation of $1.75 trillion. The fixed $135 price presented by the company last week hasn’t changed, but investor orders have piled up to nearly four times the $75 billion worth of available shares. Investor demand is still subject to change before the IPO prices, expected on Thursday afternoon.

The space exploration and satellite communication network company is growing revenue rapidly, led by Starlink which is profitable, generates strong EBITDA, but remains heavily loss-making at the net level due to enormous growth investments. This is typical for a company in aggressive expansion mode ahead of its expected IPO. Revenue for the 2025 financial year was $18.7 billion up 33% from 2024. The IPO will allow for further expansion of its satellite network and space rocket fleet development.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:  

• South African Treasury has raised a concern regarding the potential for a return to the international “Grey Listing” if the country does not get its house in order. Multiple revelations at the Madlanga Commission of enquiry are raising the question of how effective are the country’s anti-money laundering safeguards that got the country listed previously. South Africa was removed from the FAFT listing in October 2025 but has a current review process that will determine its compliance.
• Gold prices fell to a more than six-month low yesterday almost falling below $4000, after reports of escalating conflict in Iran. Prices have stabilised just below $4,100 an ounce today, after the US military announced it had completed its latest strikes on Iran, raising hopes that peace negotiations could resume and tempering some concerns over inflationary pressures
• South African retail bank Nedbank has partnered with fintech company JUMO to launch a new digital lending product that offers loan approvals and payouts in as little as five minutes. The collaboration combines Nedbank’s lending capabilities with JUMO’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology. The companies say the service is designed to help South Africans access small, short-term loans more quickly through the Nedbank Money App.
• Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni witnessed the signing of ⁠an aircraft acquisition ​agreement between state-owned Uganda Airlines and U.S. ​planemaker Boeing yesterday, for 10 new aircraft. “The fleet expansion, which ​includes passenger and ​cargo aircraft, will strengthen trade, tourism, ‌and ⁠investment, and position Uganda as a key regional aviation hub,” Uganda’s ​State ​House ⁠wrote in a post on X

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar losing a little momentum today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.15458 while trading against the Pound at 1.33793 The Yen is currently trading at 160.54 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading around the 16.54 mark against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are trending marginally higher this morning, after a drop yesterday and currently trading at around $4082.00 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are around -0.7% lower today, with prices currently around $62.011 per pound
• Silver futures are trending 0.23% higher today, and currently trading at around $63.555 per ounce.
• Platinum futures are down around -1.45% this morning, and currently trading at $1665.40, While Palladium prices have gained around 0.4%, and currently trading around $1242.00 per ounce.
• Brent crude oil prices are trending 0,5% higher today, and currently trading around $93.60, with WTI trading at $90.79 currently
• Cocoa futures are trading 1.54% higher this morning, at around $3744 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are trending around -0.6% lower today, and currently trading at around $2.4460 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices are around 1.8% higher today, and trading at around $62 584 per coin currently 
• Ether prices are up by around 1..98% this morning, and currently trading around $1650.40
• $Trumpcoin are currently trading at around $1.708

(All prices quoted at approximately 08H310 Central African Time) 

African General News Briefs:

• Malawi says it’s planning to repatriate about 3,000 of its nationals, this while many Malawians and other African foreigners have been left with nothing. Foreign nationals in the country have reported intimidation and beatings by mobs of local residents going door-to-door, telling them to leave the country by the end of June. The June 30 cut off has no official backing but for foreigners, the deadline looms large. Despite president Ramaposa’s assurances, that there is no Xenophobia in the country, mass intimidation has continued with foreign nationals being threatened this week.
• South Africa’s national football team Bafana Bafana will face Mexico in the opening match of the Fifa 2026 World Cup today. Mexico is one of the three host nations alongside the United States and Canada. The two nations last played each other in the 2010 World Cup, where Siphiwe Tshabalala score a spectacular opening goal for South Africa against Mexico, and Bafana Bafana went on to the draw the game 1-1.