From the Seedstars World Competition to concluded funding rounds, September has been quite the month. $14.5M in VC funding raised across a total of 9 deals, compared to $102M raised in 2018 from 41 deals. The E-commerce sector scored the most valuable deals amounting to $6.4M followed closely by the Transport and Logistics sector raising $4.M. This brings the total venture funding raised for Q3 2019 to $164.5M ($70M from July and $80M from August) across a total of 39 deals.
Highlighted below are the deals that realized $1M+:
Mid of the month, Nigerian digital bank Kudabank raised funding to a tune of $1.6M in a Pre-seed round from Startupbootcamp Accelerator, Haresh Aswani and Ragner Meitern among other angel investors. Kuda recently added a new savings plan, Flexible and Fixed Savings plan, for their customers to save even when they aren’t spending.
Related: Here are the Most Venture Funded Startups in Nigeria.
Egypt’s leading e-commerce food and grocery marketplace MaxAB raised $6.2M in a Seed round achieving the status of the highest amount raised in a Seed round in the MENA region. The round was led by BECO Capital with participation from 4DX Ventures, Endure Capital, 500 Startups, Outlierz Ventures and other local investors. In under one year of operations, the company has 9000 retailers with 680 products available and has made 40,000 shipments.
Towards the close of the month, tem tem raised $4M in a Series A round bringing its total VC raised to $5.7M. This investment came in with Tell Venture Automotive as the main investor. The Algerian company launched its first boat service on demand in August adding to its other ride-hailing services ( taxis, cars and motorbikes.)
Snapplify, the South African edtech company also secured $2M expansion capital in a Series B round from VC firm Knife Capital and Hlayisani Capital’s Hlayisani Growth Fund to boost the company’s growth into new markets. The company’s award-winning e-learning solutions are used in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mauritius among other African countries. They also have plans to expand their UK initiatives which will be facilitated by Knife Capital's London presence.
Other distinct deals, although not amounting to $1M+ include:
- Dabchy raised $300K in a Seed round with 500 Startups and Flat6Labs as the notable investors.
- Egypt’s Glamera raised $250K in a seed round to fuel its expansion.
- PrintX raised $150K for its on-demand printing services platform from Saudi-based Angel investor Mohamed Elbazz.