Here’s a wrap up of the African tech startup funding landscape
1. Africa’s Talking’s US $8.6 Million Series A
Nairobi headquartered mobile technology company, Africa’s Talking, announced that it had raised US $8.6 Million Series A round of funding. IFC Venture Capital led the in which Orange Digital Ventures and Social Capital also participated.
Africa’s Talking plans to use the funds to build a studio where they will “take in brilliant engineers and support them as they build tech products.” Additionally, they plan to expand as well as continue with product development. Read more on Africa's Talking blog.
2. TradeDepot’s US $3 Million
Mobile B2B trade platform, TradeDepot, raised it’s series A in a round led by Partech Ventures’ Africa fund. The startup, founded in 2015, according to its CrunchBase profile, is planning to use the funds to support their growth strategy. Onyekachi Izukanne, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of TradeDepot said. Read more on Disrupt Africa.
Also read: Wala announces launch in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda
3. Egypt’s SWVL’s US $8 Million
Egyptian bus transportation network, SWVL, announced that it had raised US $8 Million from a group of investors led by regional venture fund BECO Capital, Africa-based investor DiGAME and global VC fund Silicon Badia. The startup had earlier raised US $500,000 from Careem, a ride-hailing company that operates in MENA. Read more on Magnitt.
4. Jumo’s US $3 Million
Mobile credit platform that operates in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia, JUMO, raised US $3 Million from Proparco, a French development finance institution with operations across Africa according to TechMoran.
5. Harmonica’s $150,000
Cairo-based matchmaking startup Harmonica has raised $150,000 from 500 Startups, according to Menabytes. The startup was launched last year in April was part of the 500 Startups 23rd batch.
6. Undisclosed
Capetown-based SkillUp Tutors raised an undisclosed amount from Knife Capital to scale internationally according to TechMoran. While Disrupt Africa reported that Kenya’s UTU raised funding from Hong-Kong based accelerator program, Zeroth.