May recorded yet another positive increment in funding with a total of $208.5M across 65 rounds, $130.5M more than April 2021 and $69.5M more than May 2019. Venture Capital made up $207.3M of this figure which is over 99% with the largest deal from financial service Chipper Cash in a $100M Series C round led by SVB Capital. The African tech ecosystem is regaining its footing with a total of $840M raised before the close of H1, showing promise to fulfill AfricArena’s projected $2.25 billion increase in funding by the end of 2021.
13 startups raised $1M+ in the month, with deal sizes ranging from $2K to the hefty $100M from Chipper Cash, and together raised $203.2M (97% of the total) . Early stage investment is still much pronounced with majority raising Seed (23 deals) and Grants (30 deals). In deal value however, the largest amount came in a Series C worth $100M. The Financial Services sector maintained its position as the most funded in the month with a total of $113.4M with the highest number of deals (23 deals). This was followed by the Healthcare sector with $47.3M from 9 deals.
Listed below are the 13 $1M+ deals of the month:
Media and Entertainment startup Carry1st raised yet another lump sum investment in a $6M Series A led by VC firm Konvoy Ventures with participation from game developer Riot Games, Akatsuki Entertainment Technology Fund, Raine Ventures and TTV Capital. This is after their $2.5M Seed investment raised in 2020. The company’s total disclosed funding to date is $10M across 3 rounds. With a similar mission to last year’s investment, the company intends to continue expansion across Africa by increasing their team, securing new partnerships with global gaming studios while also launching and scaling its existing games.
Lami eases the process of integrating insurance by providing tailored and affordable insurance products to the average African consumer and leverages a B2B2C model to sell directly to them. The company raised $1.8M in Seed funding from investors Accion Venture Lab, Asia Africa Investment & Consulting, Consonance Investment Managers, P1 Ventures, Acuity Ventures, The Continent Venture Partners and Future Africa to grow their team, technology and presence on the continent. Since it was started in 2018, the company claims to have sold more than 5,000 policies and partnered with more than 25 active underwriters that have helped distribute more than 30 products including medical, employee benefits and motor insurance.
E-logistics startup Flextock has raised their first disclosed round to the tune of $3.25M. This Pre-Seed investment came in from a number of investors including Foundation Ventures, MSA Capital, CRE Venture Capital, Alter Global, Jameel Investment Management Company, B&Y Venture Partners among others. Flextock was founded in 2020 and helps their users manage their inventory, pick, pack and ship their orders while giving them real time visibility every step of the way. The company boasts of 300,000+ in monthly orders, 28+ cities covered, with a 99% accuracy rate of fulfilled orders.
South-African based Kalon Venture Partners and Caleo Private Equity backed edtech platform IXperience in a $2.5M Series A round to scale the business by expanding its team, developing its innovative tech platform, launching programmes across different markets, and building its global strategic partnerships division. Since 2013. IXperience has endeavored to provide relevant, up-to-date skills aligned with booming industries for its users to guarantee them real-world work experience and personalized career guidance all while developing individualized connections with their teachers and classmates.
Cameroon-based Maviance received a $3M Seed investment from pan-African startup MFS Africa. Maviance is a digital financial service provider and technology consulting company that offers value added services as well as industry specific web and mobile solutions for financial institutions, businesses and governments. The fresh funds will be used by the company to expand into the Cameroon and Central African markets.
In the middle of the month, Egyptian startup Telda announced a $5M Pre-Seed round led by early-stage VC firm Sequoia Capital with participation from Global Founders Capital and Class 5 Global. This comes only a month after it was launched to provide a platform for users to send and receive money. The company already boasts of 30,000 people that have signed up for their service and will use the funds raised to boost card manufacturing and sales. This investment is the highest yet Pre-Seed round recorded in the MENA region.
Another Egypt-based company Bosta made its sixth raise yet (second disclosed) in a $6.7M Series A round that has brought its total disclosed funding to $7M across two (2) rounds. The round has participation from a number of investors including Silicon Badia, 4DX Ventures, Plug and Play, Wealthwell VC and Khwarizmi Ventures. This new investment is separate from the Series A round the company announced in 2020 and will be used to fuel expansion into the Saudi market. The company partners with large corporations including Amazon, Fawry and Vezeeta among others and claims over 3000 businesses to have used its platform with an average monthly delivery of 300,000 parcels.
Homzmart is an online marketplace that connects furniture manufacturers and vendors to customers and features over 55,000 products from thousands of brands and merchants. The company was founded in 2018 and has since raised a total of $16.3M across two (2) funding rounds in disclosed funding, with the latest being a $15M Series A investment led by Beijing-based MSA Capital and Dubai-based Nuwa Capital. The hefty amount, which is the company’s largest investment received yet, will be used by the company for further expansion.
After joining the Y Combinator accelerator in February and receiving a $125K Seed, financial service Mono has raised another $2M Seed from Entrée Capital, Lateral Capital, Kudabank founder and CEO Babs Ogundeyi, Gbenga Oyebode and Eric Idiahi. This brings the company’s total funding yet to $2.63M across three (3) rounds. The company was founded last year and has already partnered with more than 16 financial institutions in Nigeria that it has connected through its platform to over 100,000 financial accounts and analyzed over 66 million financial transactions.
Agritech Mozare3 received its first disclosed amount of funding in a $1M Pre-Seed round. The round was led by Algebra Ventures and Disruptech with participation from EFG-EV and some angel investors. Mozare3 aims to enable and support local farming communities in Egypt to serve local and global demand with the highest quality standards through our digital platform and services. The company aims to roll out multiple fintech offerings for the farmers, starting off with providing them with working capital in form of down payments for offtake agreements. The startup also intends to launch credit solutions to finance purchases of different products like appliances, motorbikes etc for farmers and their families.
Home solar systems vendor D.light has made another fundraise of $10M from Agence Française de Développement (AFD) subsidiary Proparco to develop its activities worldwide, particularly in Africa. D.light, which ranks among the most funded startups on the continent, has over the years raised over $200M in funding since its inception in 2007, with the last round announced in 2019 (a $5M Debt Finance round). The company has in the past 12 years impacted the lives of 100 million people across 70 different countries by providing them with quality and affordable solar products.
LifeQ secured the second largest deal of the month in a $47M Series A from a number of investors including Invenfin, 4Di Capital, Allectus Capital, Mogul Capital, Tenhong Holdings, Analog Devices, Hannover Re, Convergence Partners among others. The company provides biometrics and health information derived from wearable devices including smart watches, fitness tracker etc, to help people live healthier lives. The company has partnered with a number of big brands such as Samsung, Tag Heuer, Mont Blanc, Motorola, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Owlytics Healthcare, MMI Holdings and many more. Co-founder and CEO of LifeQ Laurence Olivier said this investment round has significantly expanded their working capacity and will drive higher reach, growth and profitability.
The last yet largest round of this list is from renown fintech Chipper Cash in a Series C round of $100M. In the startup’s 3 years of existence, it has raised a total of $152M across 5 rounds. US-based Silicon Valley Bank’s investment arm SVB Capital led this latest round, and additional investment came in from Deciens Capital, Ribbit Capital, Bezos Expeditions, One Way Ventures, 500 Startups, Tribe Capital and Brue2 Ventures. The money will be used to grow the company team and product range. The company platform has grown users by 33% from last year to 4 million and averaged 80,000 transactions daily in November 2020 and $100M in payments value in June 2020.
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