As we near the close of Q3 2019, we are taking a look at African startups that raised funding in the month of August. From Digest Africa data, over $80 million in venture funding was recorded in the month of August 2019 compared to the $70 million for the month of July across a total of 17 and 13 funding rounds respectively.
For highlighting purposes, we only pointed out those that raised at least $1 million.
London headquartered BBOXX closed a $50 million Series D round led by Japanese multinational Mitsubishi to accelerate its global expansion. The round, which was recorded as a corporate venture round, was the latest of investment to come from Japanese firms that are looking to invest in the continent. Last year, Sompo Holdings made an investment into Kenya’s BitPesa.
On the other hand, Nigeria’s Kobo360 raised $20 million Series A round led by Goldman Sachs with participation from a couple of its existing investors. It also brought in $10 million in debt financing as working capital from a consortium of Nigerian commercial banks. Upon the announcement of the round, TLcom Capital’s Omobola went ahead and penned down the reasons she thinks were pivotal to the company raising the round.
As the month was coming to an end, South African fintech Nomanini also announced a $4 million funding round led by Standard Bank. Goodwell Investments, an Amsterdam-based investment firm focused on Fintech and financial inclusion, which was also an existing investor also took part in the round,. Per the announcement, this a strategic investment as Standard Bank gained a stake in the company as well as the ability to use Nomanini’s platform to unearth previously ‘invisible’ data on the informal retail economy.
MoneyFellows received over $1 million from a pre-series A round with participation from Dubai Angel Investors and 500 startups, both who had invested in its seed round. The company is digitizing the concept of money circles which allows a group of people to contribute a fixed instalment of money every month to a pool with one member taking the whole pool as a payout every month. The company also intends to raise $3 million in a Series A round by the end of this year.
Nigerian startup, TechAdvance on the 8th of August raised $1 million in funding from Lamar Holding of Bahrain in a Corporate Funding round. In a statement, the firm said that it would use this funding to support its emerging market expansion. This is its first external investment.
Although it did not clock $1 million exactly, Kenya-based diagnostics startup Ilara Health raised $735,000 in seed funding from a group of Angel investors and VC firms. Amongst the various participants were Esther Dyson, Nijhad Jamal, Shaka Ventures, Chandaria Capital and Villgro Kenya.