A recent investigation by TechCrunch has revealed that Y Combinator's nearly 5,000 portfolio companies have been plagued by instances of idea duplication, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence and code editors. One such example is PearAI, which admitted to cloning another AI startup's technology in October 2024 and vowed to start from scratch.

However, the issue extends beyond artificial intelligence. Y Combinator has been enthusiastic about backing startups in crypto trading, e-commerce platforms, payroll solutions, and corporate expense management, following the successes of Coinbase, Shopify, Gusto, and Brex. Many startups have taken advantage of this trend, duplicating what has worked in the past.

In other news, Marc Jury, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa, has announced his resignation, effective March 2025. Byron du Plessis, the current group chief financial officer (Deputy CFO), will take charge on April 1, 2025. Jury has been with the company for over ten years, previously serving as CEO of SuperSport, where he expanded the broadcasting rights for SuperSport to include the local South African sports league and the CAF Champions League on DStv.

During his tenure as Showmax's CEO, Jury prioritized local content production, which put Showmax on the map. In H1 2024, MultiChoice Group invested R1.6 billion ($88 million) into Showmax. By the end of 2023, Showmax was trailing behind only Netflix in the South African streaming market with 937,000 subscribers. However, Showmax has since relinquished that position to third and is now in close competition with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video for the number one spot.

Jury will leave Showmax and MultiChoice South Africa to pursue other interests in sports business. The handover period for du Plessis will begin on December 1, 2024, where Jury will closely mentor his successor in his new role before resigning in March 2025.

In other news, Nigeria has saved $20 billion by removing fuel subsidies, according to the country's finance minister, Wale Edun. The decision, made by President Bola Tinubu, has been vindicated, despite the initial backlash from Nigerians who had to deal with the steep hike in petrol prices.

The country has also championed initiatives to subsidize drivers to convert their petrol vehicles into compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles and built CNG filling stations across the country. Additionally, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has vowed to pay uninsured Heritage depositors, commencing the process of recovering debts from debtors to repay uninsured depositors of the bank.

Furthermore, a new report by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics states that almost two out of three Nigerian households are unable to afford healthy meals due to food inflation, which has led to wide malnutrition amongst Nigerians, resulting in stunted growth.

The situation is grim, with the number of households that reported not having enough food to eat because of lack of money doubling to 62.4% in 2023 from 37% in 2019. The price of rice, a staple in the country, has more than doubled since March, leaving households with no room to escape higher prices.

The increases in food prices have been attributed to insecurity in the food-producing northern areas of the country, as well as the deviation of the naira. Flooding in key food-producing areas means that food inflation, currently at 39.16%, might not be coming down anytime soon.