Tag: Startup

Retail-tech startup Alerzo acquires payments platform Shago to boost growth

Frank

NIGERIA – Retail-tech startup Alerzo has acquired fintech company Shago Payments as it looks to build on already impressive growth that saw its annualized September transaction volume exceed US$155 million. Founded in 2019, the Ibadan-based Alerzo is an all-in-one technology and services platform that transforms how Nigeria’s informal retail stores operate. Retailers can order stock, have it delivered quickly, receive and make cashless payments, and track store profitability better. Alerzo currently works with more than 150,000 informal retail stores. The startup announced a US$10.5 million Series A round, led by London-based Nosara…

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Nigeria’s Eden Life closes US$1.4m Seed Funding Round

Frank

NIGERIA – Africa’s first home services app for scheduling food, laundry and cleaning services, has completed a US$1.4 million Seed round, led by UK-based LocalGlobe, along with participation from Samurai Incubate, Future Africa, Village Global, Rising Tide Africa and Enza Capital. The funding round brings Eden Life’s total investment to date to US$2 million following pre-seed backing from all of Andela’s original co-founders, and additional accelerator support over the last 18 months. The new capital raised will be deployed to build out Eden Life’s in-house technology and develop its own…

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Kenyan tech startup MarketForce enters Nigerian market

Frank

NIGERIA – MarketForce, a Kenyan B2B platform for retail distribution of consumer goods and digital financial services, has entered the Nigerian market. For merchants, the B2B webshop can serve as a platform for planning procurement, ordering periodically scheduled deliveries, overseeing the execution of contracts, and such. Co-founded in 2018 by Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, MarketForce is a B2B retail marketplace that empowers informal merchants in Africa to source, order and pays for inventory digitally and conveniently, access financing, collect digital payments. One can also make extra money by reselling…

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Tech startup Sanergy secures US$2.5m funding from Japanese investor JICA

Frank

KENYA – Sanergy, a tech-enabled startup and the owner of the Fresh Life toilets franchise, has received US$2.5 million funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). This is in an effort to address the city’s growing sanitation needs while also helping farmers across Kenya produce more crops with fertilizer produced as a byproduct. Sanergy plans to expand its reach into additional African and Southeast Asian cities, on the wings of the investment. “We are thrilled to expand Sanergy’s pioneering circular economy model which solves multiple social problems, such as…

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Fintech startup Mono raises US$15m Series A funding to accelerate its expansion plans

Frank

NIGERIA – Mono, a fintech startup, has announced a US$15 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global to accelerate its continental expansion plans. The round was led by Tiger Global, the VC firm’s third major investment in Africa this year after Flutterwave and FairMoney, and also had participation from new investors Target Global (an investor in neobank Kuda), General Catalyst and SBI Investment. New investors were joined by existing ones, including Entree Capital, Lateral Capital, Golden Palm Investments, Acuity VC and Ingressive Capital, bringing Mono’s total raise to…

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Orange Ventures invests in mobility startup Lamma

Frank

TUNISIA – Orange Ventures, the Venture Capital Fund of the Orange Group, has announced an investment in Tunisian mobility startup Lamma that specializes in last-mile mobility This comes just after Lamma has launched its new Quick Commerce (Q-Commerce) application, which aims to revolutionize customer experience in Tunisia by delivering all everyday orders in less than 45 minutes. “We look forward to the support of Orange Ventures at this stage of the development of our project,” said Yassir El Ismaili El Idrissi, CEO of Lamma. “We wish with this investment continue…

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Digital Africa commits US$150m for next 3 years to support entrepreneurship in Africa

Frank

AFRICA – France President Emmanuel Macron has announced at the New Africa-France Summit a renewed financial commitment of €130 million (US$150.53m) for the next three years and defined Digital Africa’s new ambitions to support entrepreneurship and technological innovation on the continent. In terms of financing, Digital Africa announced the Fuzé project, that focuses on Francophone Africa and aims to support at least 200 tech start-ups as of early 2022 by launching a new small ticket fund taking the form of repayable loans. In terms of skills, Digital Africa joins forces…

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Logistic startup Kamtar secures equity investment from Sendy and Toyota

Frank

WEST AFRICA – Kamtar, a Francophone logistics platform, has secured an equity investment form Kenyan tech-logistics startup Sendy and Toyota Tsusho Corporation Other investors in the round include Mobility 54 Investment SAS and CFAO’s corporate venture capital arm. Kamtar currently operates in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, and targets to expand to other French-speaking West African countries by the end of 2022. The strategic investment will enable Sendy to expand its footprint beyond its current operations in Eastern Africa. Kamtar is a digital logistics startup with 5,000 drivers on its network…

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Fintech startup Chari.ma raises US$5m for its expansion plan

Frank

MOROCCO – Chari.ma, a fintech and e-commerce startup, has raised US$5 million in the largest venture funding round in the country this year and among the biggest-ever seed funding rounds in the North African nation. The funding round was jointly led by Rocket Internet, Global Founders Capital and P1 Ventures with participations from Plug and Play, Y Combinator, Village Capital, MetLife Foundation, Orange Digital Ventures, Air Angels, SPE Capital, Pincus Private Equity and Reflect Ventures. The Chandaria family, Propertyfinder CEO and founder Michael Lahyani, and the management company of an…

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Female led startup Bitmama raises US$350,000 pre-seed funding for its expansion plan

Frank

NIGERIA – Bitmama, a female-led African blockchain startup, has announced a pre-seed raise of US$350,000 to will enable it to grow its operational presence, expand its team as well as penetrate new markets across the continent. The round was led by San Francisco-based VC, Flori Ventures, with participation from Nigeria-based investment fund Emergence Capital, Fedha Capital, and a host of VCs and angel investors. Founded in 2019 by Ruth Iselema, Bitmama provides a secured blockchain infrastructure that allows users across Africa to perform cryptocurrency transactions. The startup currently operates in…

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