Hi and welcome to African VC/ Startup news, a weekly newsletter where I highlight transactions in the African startup ecosystem over the past week (or two). Since 19 February 2021, I noticed 8 deals come across my screen.
In addition to sending the weekly newsletter, I maintain a database of deals, investors and portfolio companies in the African startup ecosystem, it is available: here. Please note that for the next few weeks I will not be updating the database as it is going through an upgrade!
Recently, I started a podcast with Kamo Motaung called The UpStartVC Podcast. It is available on Substack, Apple Podcast and Spotify, check it out and leave us a review!
Since 19 February 2021 I noticed the following deals:
Investments (7 deals)
1: Deya | Undisclosed amount (>$50k) | Pre-Seed | Undisclosed Angel Investors | Fintech
Investee:
Deya – an Angolan, tech startup that is the first Angolan crowdfunding platform that also aims to increase access to financing for social impact causes and entrepreneurs.
Investor(s):
Undisclosed Angolan Angel Investors
Detail: Angolan tech-startup Deya has received pre-seed funding of over $50k from a group of Angolan angel investors. The funds will be utilised to make improvements on the company’s digital platform, to scale up the business model and generally boost income and revenue.
2: Raise | $25k | Undisclosed round | Microtraction | Fintech
Investee:
Raise – a Kenyan fintech platform that provides end-to-end fundraising and equity management facilitation where startups can manage electronic cap tables, automate financing contracts like SAFEs and share private deal rooms.
Investor(s):
Microtraction – a Nigerian investment platform that provides seed capital to technology entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of their venture.
Detail: Kenyan fintech firm Raise has received $25k from Microtraction for its capital raising platform. The funds will be used to build out Raise’s platform and scale the business.
3: Stitch | $4m | Seed | Various investors | Fintech
Investee:
Stitch – a South African fintech startup that provides full Application Programming Interface (API) access to financial accounts. Stitch allows users to share their transaction history and balances, confirm their identities, and initiate payments.
Investor(s):
Firstminute Capital: a $225m seed fund backed by 81 unicorn founders investing across Europe and the US. Founded in 2017 by Brent Hoberman and Spencer Crawley.
The Raba Partnership: an investment partnership focused on partnering with entrepreneurs in emerging technology ecosystems.
CRE Venture Capital: partners with visionary entrepreneurs building category-defining tech companies in Africa.
Village Global: an early stage venture capital firm backed by some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs.
Norrsken VC: a non-profit foundation that invests in both for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations, whatever we believe makes most sense to have a positive impact on society.
Various angel investors
Detail: Stitch Money, a South African fintech startup with API infrastructure technology, has raised $4m in seed funding. The funds will be used for new hires, consolidation of growth in South Africa and the launch of its product in West and East Africa.
4: Diool | $3.5m | Undisclosed round | Lundin Group | Fintech
Investee:
Diool – a company based in Cameroon which provides payments fintech that helps small merchants sell consumer goods, collect payments from their customers and pay their suppliers easily. Through usage, they gain access to other financial services such as savings, credit and insurance products.
Investor(s):
Lundin Group – an investment group led by the Lundin Family and focused on mining and the resources sector.
Detail: Cameroonian payments fintech startup Diool has raised $3.5m in an undisclosed financing round, from the Lundin Group. The funds are to assist Diool expand in its local markets.
5: BancX | Undisclosed amount | Undisclosed round | Imvelo Ventures | Fintech
Investee:
BancX – a South African fintech company that offers cloud based banking facilities for digital banking and other financial services (e.g. using API’s available in a single, integrated, cloud-native, transactional, saving and lending core).
Investor(s):
Imvelo Ventures – a South African venture capital and growth firm funded by Capitec Bank.
Detail: South African cloud based banking platform BancX has received an undisclosed amount of funding in an undisclosed round from Imvelo Ventures, the Capitec led venture capital firm. The funds will be used for product and service expansion.
6: Termii | Undisclosed amount | Undisclosed round | Future Africa | Communication Platform as a Service
Investee:
Termii – a Nigerian telecoms business that provides an online platform that helps teams secure repeat customers by sending personalized emails and SMS through multiple channels.
Investor(s):
Future Africa – an early stage investment fund with an aim to grant as much as $50,000 to 20 startups yearly. Future Africa also aims to be a training ground for African founders and their startups.
Detail: Nigerian telecoms start-up Termii has received an undisclosed amount in an early funding stage from Future Africa. The use of the funds has not been explicitly detailed.
7: TymeBank | $110m | Undisclosed round | Apis Growth Fund II; JG Summit Holdings | Fintech
Investee:
TymeBank – a fully black-owned and controlled investment company based in South Africa. It is an exclusively digital retail bank that aims to provide every South African accessible and affordable banking so that they can take part in, grow and benefit from the country’s economy.
Investor(s):
Apis Growth Fund II – a $550m private equity investment fund that makes equity investments of between $30m and $50m into financial services and financial technology companies across growth markets in Africa, South Asia and South East Asia.
JG Summit Holdings - one of the largest and most diversified Filipino conglomerates, engaged primarily in businesses that serve a growing middle class with rising disposable incomes in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Australasia.
Detail: South African digital bank TymeBank has raised ~$110m in funding from two major global investors - Apis Growth Fund II and JG Summit Holdings - which funds will be used to bolster the bank’s digital growth.
Fundraises (1 deal)
1: Hlayisani Capital | $23m | Standard Bank; Family offices | SME Funding
Investor: Hlayisani Capital – a South African private equity investment firm focusing on the SME ecosystems.
Capital raised: $23m (ZAR 350m) from Standard Bank and Family offices.
Sector / Stage focus: South African SMEs; mid-market, high growth businesses, agriculture, education, IT, medical and manufacturing.
Portfolio / fund size: $13m currently invested.
Cheque size: undisclosed
No database screenshot this week due to the database upgrade.
Enjoy your Monday!
Daryn
Share this post