Technology giant MTN's revenue saw double-digit growth to reach $2.8 billion in Q1 2022

In this week's edition of The Draft, Techloy covered the most important technology news and top venture deals across emerging markets, with charts that illustrate the stories. This week's series was curated by Juwon, who joined Techloy earlier this month, so please show him some love on Twitter.

• South African technology giant MTN Group delivered a solid Q1 2022 performance, with double-digit service revenue growth of 15.9% across its entire markets, as Nigeria maintained its position as the company's largest market in the world, based on subscribers and revenue.
• Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission released a new regulatory framework for the country’s crypto sector, which lays what appears to be the guidelines for the adoption of cryptocurrency both for individuals and businesses in Nigeria.
• Japan, ranked as the second-largest mobile games market in the world by revenues, saw its revenue decline year-on-year for the third consecutive quarter in Q1 2022, by 18 percent to $4.2 billion, according to data from Sensor Tower.
• China is reportedly building a platform that aims to facilitate the deployment of blockchain technology for companies to be called Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN).
• Naspers-owned venture backer @Prosusgroup, which holds 100% shares in Avito, a Russian classifieds business, has announced that it will exit the Russian business, and “search for an appropriate buyer for our shares in Avito,” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Techloy tracked dozens of deals worth over $1.5 billion across the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
• Asian startups attracted more funding deals, as usual, worth over $1 billion, while two unicorns emerged in Latin America and the Middle East, and startups in Africa raised around $60 million.
• We also covered a $600 million funding by a Singapore-based VC firm to spur its expansion in Southeast Asia and India, and the launching of a $250 million global investment fund in India to improve healthcare and life sciences.

If you want to gain access to our most comprehensive data on startups, venture deals, and technology insights, even to the granular details, you can subscribe for less than $1 per week.