This April on Tech54, the bi-monthly newsletter from the African Business magazine and Briter Bridges, which covers all the major startup stories and giving unparalleled industry insight on Africa’s budding tech scene, we bring you the Tech54 selection of the latest stories on the VC4A blog. Let’s take a look at the most exciting deals from April.
In our Q1 investment report we can reveal that African startups have raised a total of $571M since January 2021 (see infographics by Briter Bridges below). As expected, deal volumes between February and April have easily surpassed 2020 equivalents when the pandemic first hit Africa.
Fintech is the most funded sector by far, raising more than $400M of the total. Among these deals Terrapay raised $200M, Flutterwave raised $170M, TymeBank raised $109M and Kuda raised $25M. Considering that the total is $571M these figures really put the dominance of fintech into perspective.
Other leading sectors were e-commerce and cleantech. South African online retailer Yuppie Chef was acquired for $30M by retail giant Mr Price and Daystar Power raised $38M in a Series B in February.
– Tom Collins, Tech54 editor
Fintech startup Paymob has raised $18.5M in a Series Around, in the largest equity round seen in Egypt yet. The round was led by Dubai-based VC firm Global Ventures with participation from Egyptian investment fund A15 and Dutch development bank FMO. The startup, founded in 2015, helps facilitate online and offline payments between merchants and customers. It claims to process 85% of mobile wallet transactions in Egypt.
Uganda-based fintech Numida has raised $2.3M in a seed funding round led by MFS Africa to develop new products and fuel its expansion. The startup provides unsecured loans of up to $3,500 to MSMEs within just two hours. Launched in 2017, Numida claims to have lent more than $2M to 3,000 small businesses in Uganda.
Tunisia-based B2B expenses management startup Expensya, has raised a $20M round from MAIF Avenir and Silicon Badia, with participation from French investors ISAI and Seventure Partners. Founded in 2014, Expensya offers a software-as-a-solution (SaaS) platform that helps businesses of all sizes manage their expenses. The startup has serviced over 5000 companies in approximately 100 countries since it began. The money will be used for expansion and to scale R&D.
Kidato, a Kenya-based school for students in Africa, has closed $1.4M in seed investment. Backed by Y Combinator, the round was led by Learn Start Capital, Launch Africa Ventures Fund, Graph Ventures and Century Oak Capital. The startup, which offers lessons for as little as $5, has more than 50 students based in Kenya, Switzerland, Tanzania, UK, US and UAE.
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