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Issue #30: Turaco raises $10M in Series A funding, Kippa raises $8.4M in seed funding, and more

September 16, 2022

Welcome to AU-Startups’ weekly roundup of all funding rounds in Africa’s startup ecosystem.

We saw three seed fundraises, one Series A fundraise, and one grant this week in Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya. Source Beauty, HealthPlus, and HotelOnline were acquired, and Jangoo Capital, a pan-African ‘gender equal investor,’ completed the first close of its €60 million fund.

Let’s get right into the details.

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Funding

Grant

HelpMum, a Nigerian healthtech company, has received a $250,000 grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.

Founded by Dr Abiodun Adereni in 2017, HelpMum offers subscription-based pregnancy tracking, enabling mothers to save for their child’s delivery, and connects them with doctors and therapists. It also allows mothers to purchase all they require in one marketplace.

The fund will allow HelpMum to implement and integrate an AI-based framework called ADVISER, into its existing HelpMum vaccination tracking system in order to improve immunisation rates in Nigeria.

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Seed

5 Quarters, an Egyptian healthcare education startup, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round from a Saudi angel investor.

The startup, founded in 2016 by Mohamed Salah and Noha Emad, provides healthcare professionals with online courses taught by the best trainers in their field using cutting-edge technology and materials, with ADA-accredited certificates issued via its web and mobile platforms. It also offers practical training and on-site courses for students to put what they’ve learnt to practice and demonstrate their work.

5 Quarters intends to use the investment to develop its practical practice in Saudi Arabia and to introduce additional services for medical professionals, clinics, and hospitals.

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Kippa, a Nigerian financial management and payments platform for small businesses, has raised $8.4M in an oversubscribed seed round led by Goodwater Capital, TEN13 VC, Rocketship VC, Saison Capital , Crestone VC , VentureSouq, Horizon Partners and Vibe Capital.

Founded in June 2021, the startup offers a suite of financial services that enable small-business owners to legally incorporate their businesses, open bank accounts, receive and send payments, build online web stores, and manage their entire operations from a single platform. It plans to use the funds raised to develop products that would help SMEs in growing their businesses.

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Touch and Pay, a Nigerian fintech startup has raised $3M in seed funding from an unnamed investor.

The startup which was founded in 2019, provides a range of near field communication (NFC) based payment solutions for micro-transactions, such as the Cowry card, which allows Lagosians to seamlessly make contactless public transport fare payments. The company will use the capital raised to fund its growth into Ghana and Senegal.

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Series A

Turaco, a Kenyan insurtech has secured a $10M in a Series A funding round led by AfricInvest’s Cathay Africinvest Innovation Fund, and Novastar Ventures, an existing investor. Enza Capital, Global Partnerships, Zephyr Acorn, Operator Stack, Asi Ventures Limited, and Push Ventures also participated in the round.

Since being founded in 2019, the insurtech has built and provided a suite of bespoke medical, life, asset, and vehicle insurance packages, covering over 500,000 people in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda.

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In the words of the Investor

“In our interactions with Ted and his team, we could see a great vision and flawless execution coming together. The company’s innovative distribution model responds to the unmet demand in the African insurance sector, and we look forward to working with Turaco as they continue to build on their early success.” – Patricia Rinke, Investment Officer at AfricInvest.

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In the words of the Founder

“We are proud to help drive insurance adoption, especially among low-income earners. 90% of our customers have never had insurance before, but the surprising thing is that people really want to buy insurance! They just don’t have easy access to products that really work for them. This investment enables us to scale our business to serve millions of insurance customers across our current markets and beyond. We are thrilled to have these great new investors join our team for this next season of growth.” – Turaco CEO and co-founder Ted Pantone.

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Acquisitions

Leading Egyptian-based beauty platform, Source Beauty, has received an investment from ECC in exchange for a majority stake in the company. Van Campen Liem advised Source Beauty on the deal, while Al-Tamimi and HVK Stevens acted as ECC Group’s local and international counsel, respectively.

Launched in 2018, Source Beauty offers customers an affordable and available solution to beauty products in the country, as well as exposure to products sourced from the best raw materials by female-led start-ups.

ECC is one of Egypt’s leading beauty and personal care manufacturers, providing 360-degree services in the manufacturing and distribution of scientifically proven innovative cosmetic products. This provides a significant opportunity to offer an enhanced service to Source Beauty’s clients, including new product innovation, and manufacturing know-how, among others.

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HealthPlus, a top drugstore chain in Nigeria, has been acquired by Ghanian healthtech company, mPharma. A contract between mPharma and the previous investor, Alta Semper, paves the way for the acquisition of the majority of the HealthPlus Group’s shares.

Now powered by mPharma’s exclusive Bloom software, HealthPlus will provide patients with access to affordable primary care services, in addition to the affordable and high-quality drugs it now sells throughout 12 states in Nigeria.

By integrating HealthPlus pharmacies into its growing network of partner multi pharmacies, mPharma’s network of healthcare facilities in Nigeria will grow from 224 to over 320, allowing it to treat more than 100,000 Nigerians each month.

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Kenyan hospitality software provider, HotelPlus has been acquired by HotelOnline, an e-commerce and digital marketing enabler in the hospitality industry.

HotelOnline assists hotels in establishing and increasing their visibility online in order to reach a larger audience, as well as in deploying booking engines and gaining prominence on distribution channels such as Booking.com. It also offers its customers cloud-based digital tools, such as property management systems.

The deal has helped HotelOnline increase its customers by over 2,200 and enabled additional customers and unique offerings like payment solutions, AI-driven pricing and revenue management. HotelOnline plans to expand aggressively across Africa, where it currently has over 6,000 clients distributed across 27 countries, by the use of HotelPlus’ reseller network and the growing hospitality industry.

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Venture Capital

Janngo Capital, a pan-African ‘gender equal investor,’ has completed the first close of its €60M fund, with investments from the European Investment Bank (EIB), African Development Bank Group (AfDB), and Boost Africa. Proparco, Burda Principal Investments (BPI), Muller Medien, and an ex-KKR partner are among the fund’s limited partners.

The firm intends to invest 50% of its Janngo Capital Startup Fund in women-founded, co-founded, or benefited businesses.

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Interesting Finds

The Nigerian Startup Ecosystem Report 2022 & Full Startup List | DisruptAfrica report

Online forex trading in Nigeria | OctaFX report

How to write the perfect follow-up email, after sending over an email and pitch deck to a VC you want to work with and you hear nothing back from them. | Sifted article

Looking into the lessons to be learnt from the collapse of Capiter, an Egyptian startup that raised $33M in Series A funding just last year | Wamda article

Understanding The Nigerian Payment Gateway Space Using Porter’s Five Forces |Tekedia article

Technology is changing the face of farming in Egypt | Quartz Africa article

YC’s latest batch cuts African startup presence by more than half | TechCrunch article

Here are the 7 worst-performing African currencies in 2022 | BusinessInsider Africa article

Why Africa should stop using the term ‘brain drain’ in tech |Quartz Africa article

Ethereum Merge Explained: Experts break down the risks of the long-awaited crypto update |BusinessInsider Africa explainer

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AU-Startups Highlights

Africa’s payments startups are about to face competition from a Brazilian unicorn

Google’s second fund for Black African founders achieved gender parity

The Tanzanian Government has eased its strict regulations on Bolt and Uber services

5 Startups to pitch at ARM Labs Innovation Demo Day

Nigeria’s Biola Alabi joins Egypt VC CASF

Meet the 6 Winners of the Pitch AgriHack 2022

SOSV Orbit Startup Program selects 2 Nigerian Startups ($180k)

Top Nigerian Fintech Carbon marks a Decade Anniversary

Flutterwave Onboards eNaira for Merchants in Nigeria

Adobe snaps up Figma for $20B, taking out one of its biggest rivals in digital design

Kippa secures Super-Agent banking licence as it extends ambition to help Nigerian SMEs

Bank of Ghana is expected to further hike monetary policy rate before year end

Cellulant, Orange Money to Enable Card-To-Wallet Transfers for 8 Banks in Botswana

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Opportunities

Apply for the African Youth Adaptation Solutions #YouthADAPT Challenge

The competition invites young entrepreneurs and Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa to submit innovative solutions and business ideas that can drive climate change adaptation and resilience across Africa. Selected innovators will receive access to $100,000 each in grants, capacity-building training, and mentorship to support their climate change adaptation innovation across their community and Africa.

Apply here on or before 4th October, 2022.

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Apply for Digital Square Software Global Goods Programme 2022 ($25k)

The Digital Square Software Global Goods Programme 2022 is now accepting applications. Qualified candidates will be given a fixed payment of up to $25,000 to assist in the release of statistics on the impact and/or scale of the candidate’s global good, membership in the global goods network, and receive funding to attend the 2023 Global Good Innovators Meeting and other benefits.

Apply here.

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Apply for Growth4Her Accelerator Programme

Growth4Her is a 6-month Investor Readiness Accelerator Program, open to women in West and Central Africa. They are currently running cohorts in Cameroon and Nigeria.

Application closes on the 7th of October 2022.

Apply here.

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