Hello everyone, I am writing to inform you that we are retracting the article titled "Ghana’s mPharma secures $9.7M of the $12M it sought for its Series B" that we published on January 15, 2019. The basis for the retraction is that there are some elements of it that are not true according to Gregory Rockson, mPharma Co-founder and CEO.
We have, therefore, put it down (for now) and will only put it back up after mPharma has clarified on the deal or issued a public statement about it.
One of the things that we pride in at Digest Africa is speed and accuracy. Yet, the latter wasn't given a critical consideration in the publication of the article, something that I - in particular - and the Digest Africa team regret tremendously.
Our overall vision is to organize all the data and information about Africa's technology ecosystem and disseminate it in ways that are easy to understand and consume. In the process of doing that, we are trying to as much as possible automate the processes.
One of the things we are automating is the fact-checking of data in real-time - without having to require human intervention - as well as writing articles that are repetitive in nature like raising funding. This, in the end, will make it faster and cost-efficient to report on such topics. Yet, our technology is in the early-stages hence prone to running away with articles or flagging data accurate that should instead be flagged red for further human intervention.
Nonetheless, this is something we should have considered seeking clarification from the mPharma team.
We therefore deeply apologize to the mPharma team - especially Gregory who I have in the past interacted with on a story about mPharma - as well as publications like Techpoint, Ventureburn and others that trusted us and quoted the publication.
This is a significant lesson for Digest Africa as the publication and me as the leader of the team and we shall use it to further tighten our processes of fact-checking the accuracy of the data and information that we publish.
Going forward, we have resolved to contact the companies involved in the deals beyond $1 million especially those that are discovered through our automated processes from public archives like SEC for those incorporated in the USA and Companies House for those incorporated in the UK.