Tag: Funding round

Fintech startup Ozow raises US$48m Series B funding round for expansion

Editor

SOUTH AFRICA – Ozow, a South African fintech company, has raised a US$48 million Series B funding round to help it further develop its product offering and expand into new markets. Ozow, which rebranded from i-Pay in April 2019 as it zeroed in on assisting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with payments, was launched in November 2014 by Thomas Pays, Mitchan Adams, and Lyle Eckstein, who identified a need for an efficient and secure online payment system in the local market. The company enables millions of merchants and consumers with…

Read More

Logistics startup Errand360 raises pre-seed funding round for its expansion plans

Editor

NIGERIA – Errand360, a logistics startup which was built to serve users with demand for quick and short errands within their communities and on-demand delivery services, has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding to expand across Africa. The funding, which was led by Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe of Tekedia Capital, will be used to acquire infrastructure, expand, and grow its business across the whole of Africa. Launched earlier this year, Errand360 bicycles serve users with a variety of delivery services, with the first phase of rollout beginning in Lagos and…

Read More

HealthTech Bypa-ss raises US$1m funding round to expand its healthcare network

Editor

EGYPT – Bypa-ss, an Egypt-based HealthTech and Health Information Management company, has raised US$1 million in its newest fundraising round from Egyptian and foreign investors. The round also saw participation from Magic Fund, Acuity Ventures, Launch Africa, Plug and Play, and other regional and international VCs and Angel investors. Bypa-ss is currently looking to expand its client base and healthcare network, a process that is now possible thanks to recently obtained money, which coincides with the company’s recent rebranding. “With this investment coming in, we will be able to avail…

Read More

Delivery startup Appetito raises US$2m funding round led by Jedar Capital

Editor

EGYPT – Appetito, a grocery delivery startup, has raised US$2 million in its latest fundraising round to tackle the inefficiencies in the Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) supply chain. Jedar Capital, a US-based early-stage VC focused on MENA and Emerging Asia, led the Pre-Series A round, with participation from Golden Palm Investments, DFS Lab, and a group of prominent angel investors and family offices, Some of the angel investors had previously invested in similar grocery startups such as Jiffy in the United Kingdom and Chaldal in Bangladesh. The startup had previously…

Read More

Delivery startup Breadfast raises US$26m Series A funding round for its expansion plans

Editor

EGYPT – Breadfast, a grocery delivery startup, has raised a US$26 million Series A funding round to expand into new cities, scale its technology, and move into Sub-Saharan African markets. The Series A round was co-led by Vostok New Ventures and Endure Capital and included participation from JAM Fund (led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen), YC Continuity Fund, Shorooq Partners, 4DX Ventures and Flexport. It brings Breadfast’s total investment to date to more than US$33 million. The new capital raised will fuel Breadfast’s rapid expansion into eight new cities across…

Read More

Fintech startup Lemonade Finance raises pre-sees funding round to improve its app

Editor

NIGERIA – Lemonade Finance, a Y Combinator-backed Nigerian fintech startup, has announced a US$725,000 pre-seed funding raise. The funding round had participation from the American startup accelerator, YCombinator, and Venture Capital firms, Microtraction, Ventures Platform, and Acuity Venture Partners. The round was also backed by involvement from several other individual investors. According to the Co-founder, Ridwan Olalere told Technext the new fund will enable the team to improve its bench, strengthen the app’s features as well as increase the countries of coverage. Lemonade was launched last year when former Opay…

Read More

Nigerian digital bank Brass closes US$1.7m funding round

Editor

NIGERIA – Brass, a Nigerian digital bank delivering easy access to affordable premium banking services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), has secured US$1.7 million in funding to address the heavily underserved banking needs of local entrepreneurs, traders and fast-growing businesses. The financing round saw participation from Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola (Co-Founder of Flutterwave), Ezra Olubi (Co-Founder of Paystack, acquired by Stripe), Hustle Fund, Acuity Ventures, Uncovered Fund and Ventures Platform. The new funding will play a key role in accelerating Brass’ expansion into South Africa and Kenya – just a…

Read More

Wicrypt startup US$1.5m funding round to help in expanding to new countries

Editor

NIGERIA – Wicrypt, a blockchain-based Wi-Fi sharing startup, has raised US$1.5 million in a strategic funding round to help it expand into new countries.  The round was led by AU21 Capital, with participation from Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal, Inclusion Capital, Outlier Ventures, Chain Capital, Pluto Digital Assets, Onega Ventures, N7 Labs, Cardano and PolkaFoundary.    “While we have formed substantial business partnerships in Africa, this funding allows us to grow into new countries by increasing our marketing efforts,” said Ugochukwu Aronu, chief executive officer (CEO) of Wicrypt.    “Wicrypt is providing last-mile internet to people of the world who need it,…

Read More

Digital lender Tala raises US$145m Series E Funding to facilitate its geographical expansion

Editor

KENYA – Emerging markets digital lender, Tala, has raised US$145 million in Series E funding led by Upstart which was founded by Dave Girouard, Anna Counselman and Paul Gu who previously worked with Google. Participants in the investment included Stellar Enterprise Foundation, a DeFi network, together with new investors J. Safra Group and Kindred Ventures. IVP, Lowercase Capital, and Revolution Growth which are existing investors also joined the investment, bringing the funding raised to about US$360 million. Tala plans to use the new investment to facilitate geographic expansion and grow its…

Read More

B2B payments startup Verto raises US$10m Series A round to boost its geographical expansion

Editor

NIGERIA – Verto, a B2B payments platform that provides a fast, simple, and reliable way for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make payments to their suppliers in over 200 countries across 39 currencies, has raised a US$10 million Series A round to boost its geographical expansion. The funding round was led by Quona Capital, alongside The Treasury, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), TMT Investments, Unicorn Growth Capital, Zrosk Investments and P1 Ventures. Verto will use the investment to continue building out its platform, and accelerate its geographical expansion into…

Read More