This week, Egyptian startups led the funding rounds for the third week in a row, with 5 raises out of a total of 9. A total of $37.9 million was raised in disclosed rounds, with fintech Telda leading the pack with a whopping $20 million in seed funding.
Let’s dive into the details.
Funding
Pre-Seed
i’SUPPLY, an Egypt-based B2B pharma platform, has raised a $1.5 million pre-seed round led by Disruptech Ventures and other investors.
Founded in 2021 by Ibrahim Emam, Malek Sultan, and Moustafa Zaki, i’SUPPLY aims to digitise the pharmaceutical industry by offering a one-stop shop solution for quickly predicting and overcoming supply chain disruptions. The company intends to use the new proceedings to expand across the country and into other Middle Eastern and African countries.
Seed
FlapKap, an Egypt-based e-commerce financing platform, has raised $3.6 million in seed funding from Bolt by QED, Nclude, Outliers, and A15.
Founded in 2022 by Ahmad Coucha, Khaled Nassef, Sherif Bichara, and Adel Hodroj, FlapKap aims to revolutionize e-commerce growth by assisting online stores to maximize their growth potential by using AI-based insights and financial data analytics to assess the business and provide inventory funding. The startup intends to use the new funds to expand its capacity in the Mena region, as well as to strengthen its presence in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.
Roboost, an Egyptian delivery management solution provider has received a six-figure seed round from Falak Startups and AUC Angels, as well as follow-on funding from Flat6Labs.
Founded in 2020 by Hassan Kamel, Mohamed Gessraha and Mohamed Hassan, Roboost (formerly Tayar) is an AI-powered automated delivery management solution. The new funding round will help Roboost’s growth by improving its AI delivery management solution and expanding its product offering.
Telda, an Egyptian fintech, has raised $20 million in seed funding, led by Global Founders Capital with participation from Sequoia Capital and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc.
Founded in 2021 by Ahmed Sabbah and Youssef Sholqamy, Telda is a peer-to-peer payment app that allows unbanked users to send, spend, and save money without the need for a bank account. It received final approval from The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to launch its card earlier this year. The funds will be used to expand into new markets and expand its product offering.
Stears, a Nigerian data and intelligence firm, has raised $3.3 million in a seed round led by MaC Venture Capital, with participation from Serena Ventures, Melo 7 Tech Partners, Omidyar Group’s Luminate Fund, Cascador, and Hoaq Club.
Preston Ideh, Abdul Abdulrahim, Foluso Ogunlana, and Michael Famoroti founded Stears in 2017 as a financial data and intelligence company that provides subscription-based data and insight to global businesses and professionals. This investment will be used to improve data collection and analytics capabilities, as well as talent acquisition and expansion into East and Southern Africa.
Pre-Series A
Lifestores Healthcare, a Nigerian health technology company, has raised $3 million in a pre-Series A round led by Health54 and Aruwa Capital Management, with participation from existing investors such as Lionbear Conduit Capital.
Lifestore was founded in 2017 by Andrew Garza and Bryan Mezue as a chain of about six retail pharmacies that provided Nigerians with access to verified medications. The company plans to use the funds raised to expand its nationwide reach and increase its pharmacy client base from 750 to around 2000 of Nigeria’s 7,000 registered pharmacies.
Series B
MoKo Home, a Kenyan furniture startup, has raised $6.5 million in Series B debt-equity funding led by Talanton and AlphaMundi Group, with participation from Blink CV, Novastar Ventures, and Victoria Commercial Bank in Kenya.
MoKo was founded in 2014 by Eric Kouskalis and Fiorenzo Conte with the goal of ensuring and providing high-quality furniture and convenience to its customers. The company intends to use the funds to expand its growth and presence in Kenya through online channels and new collaborations with merchants and outlets to increase offline sales.
Growth Funding
Vezeeta, an Egyptian healthtech company, has raised an undisclosed amount of growth capital from Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Capital and Sweden-based VNV Global.
Founded in 2012 by Ahmed Badr and Amir Barsoum, Vezeeta allows patients to book doctor appointments, order medications online, and request at-home lab sample collection. Vezeeta received a $40 million Series D funding round in February 2020. Vezeeta’s growing profitability and this latest round of funding will enable the company to accelerate the rollout of its product roadmap and target new areas of growth, including MENA expansion via M&A.
Strove, a South African health-tech start-up, is preparing to scale its services following the completion of its latest funding round led by Lifetime Ventures, a Japanese venture capital (VC) fund.
Chris Bruchhausen founded the start-up in 2020 to empower organizations to inspire their employees to live a healthy and active lifestyle, combating inactivity, burnout, and chronic stress. The undisclosed capital raise will aid in the team’s continued development of its holistic wellness platform.
Venture Fund
Nclude, an Egypt-based venture capital firm, has received an undisclosed investment from Mastercard to help accelerate Egypt’s fintech ecosystem.
Founded in March 2022 in partnership with Egypt’s national banks such as Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt and Banque Du Caire, Nclude is a fintech-focused VC investment platform. The investments will benefit early- and growth-stage fintech companies tackling financial inclusion in Egypt, as well as the Central Bank of Egypt’s vision of transforming Egypt into an innovation hub for fintech across the Middle East and Africa region.
Feature Launch
NALA, a fintech startup that enables quick remittances from the UK and US to Africa, has introduced a new feature that allows Kenyan diaspora members to pay local bills in their home country.
This feature combines traditionally separate mobile payments and international remittances into a single solution, thereby opening up a new perspective on the interplay of financial technology services in Africa.
Partnerships
Nguvu Health, a Nigerian health tech startup specializing in mental health, has partnered with AXA Mansard to provide Africans with affordable mental health care.
The two-year partnership brings together Nguvu Health’s connections to teletherapy services and AXA Mansard’s connections to thousands of users seeking proper mental health coverage.
AU-Startups Highlights
6 African start-ups shine in Ecobank fintech challenge
Fintech, edtech investment dominate South African venture capital
Nigeria’s oil city wants to tax ride-hailing drivers
Mobile money is surging in Africa as more disruption occur
Nigerian banks are taking the fight to the disruptors
Interesting Finds
How Western investors can remove bias they never knew they had (Venture Burn)
How African fintechs can achieve regulatory compliance (TechCabal)
How Bitcoin communities in Africa are fostering Bitcoin adoption (TechCabal)
How Nigerian companies are using extended reality to develop solutions (TechCabal)
Events, Opportunities and Jobs
Women techpreneurs can now apply to attend Kenya summit
And that’s a wrap on this week’s AU-Startups African funding review. Remember to share with your friends and colleagues if you received any value at all.
