Last week was a busy one for the African startup ecosystem. We had eight fundraises, an acquisition, and the launch of two startup funds.
Let’s get into the details.
Pre-Seed
Conservio, a travel booking platform focused on Southern and Eastern Africa, has announced a $500K pre-Seed funding round led by Volce Capital.
Founded in 2021 by Justin Rijnberg and Lara Dendy Young, Conservio is a direct booking platform for sustainable travel in Southern and Eastern Africa, offering travelers access to curated accommodation and conservation experiences.
Seed
Shape, an edtech startup based in Tunisia, has received $50,000 from The Oman Technology Fund (OTF).
Founded in 2021 by Rahma Abid, Shape has created a digital platform through which professionals can access continuous learning training. Users of the platform can also create a personalized training plan that aligns with their career goals.
Two Moroccan startups, VotreChauffeur and VotreColis, have raised $240,000 (MAD 2.5 million) from Afrimobility, Akwa Group’s Venture Capital fund.
VotreColis is an on-demand last mile delivery startup, while VotreChauffeur is an online ride booking platform. Afrimobility will take a stake in the holding company that houses the two startups.
The funds will be used to expand the two companies’ presence in Morocco by expanding their fleet and upgrading internal digital tools. The funding will also help the two businesses continue to provide tailored services that meet the unique needs of their clients.
Palm, a Moroccan talent management startup, has raised a $1.9 million seed round led by CDG Invest, KIMA Ventures, and Bpifrance.
Founded in 2021 by Hela Atmani and Chloé Barnoin, Palm specializes in enterprise talent management through the use of AI and deep learning. Companies can use Palm to map each employee’s talents, predict training needs, and engage them in personalized career paths based on their skills, goals, and performance.
Konta, a Moroccan spend management platform, has received $1.1 million in funding from the Azur Innovation Fund.
Founded in 2019 by Issam Dahman, Mehdi Zirari, and Elarbi Aboussouror, Konta is a SaaS platform that manages supplier invoices, capture, audit, approval, accounting, and payment. The startup also addresses issues such as regulatory compliance, error, omission, and fraud by ensuring an automatic audit and real-time approval of each supplier invoice, resulting in a much shorter and less complex approval process for financial functions.
According to a press release from the company, this funding will help the company continue its expansion in Europe and solidify its technical expertise and artificial intelligence center in Morocco.
ITOT Africa, a Congolese edtech startup, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from DRC Impact Angels.
Founded in 2018 by Samy Mwamba, Serge Kishiko, Kileshe Kasoma, and Henrique Mukanda, ITOT Africa provides training, digital educational tools, and consulting services to companies, SMEs, NGOs, and individual entrepreneurs primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The company also operates the first on-demand training platform in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa, www.okademy.africa.
Pre-Series C
Almentor, an Egyptian edtech platform, has raised $10 million in a pre-series C funding round led by e& capital. Existing investors such as Partech, Sawari Ventures, Egypt Ventures, Sango Capital, and Endure Capital joined the round as well.
Founded in 2016 by Ihab Fikry and Ibrahim Kamel, Almentor aims to serve a market of over 400 million Arabic speakers who have unmet educational needs. The platform equips Arab learners with the skills they need to advance in their professional and personal lives.
The funds will be used to help the company reach its goal of serving 10 million learners in the MENA region.
Debt financing
OnePipe, a Nigerian embedded finance startup, has secured $4.8 million in debt financing from TLG Capital.
Founded in 2018 by Ope Adeoye, OnePipe builds and maintains APIs that enable banks to partner with modern digital services and fintech.
The funding will allow OnePipe to expand its operations and work toward its goal of becoming Nigeria’s leading provider of financial services to small businesses.
Acquisitions
FairMoney, a Nigerian credit-led digital banking platform, has acquired PayForce, a merchant payment service for small businesses.
Through this acquisition, Fairmoney hopes to broaden its financial services offering to merchants.
Venture Capital
Flat6Labs, an Egypt-based seed investor and accelerator, has launched a new $95 million Africa Seed Fund (ASF) to foster the growth and development of African early-stage tech startups, with the support of the GIZ and as part of the Egyptian Agricultural Innovation Project (AIP) and Scaling Digital Agricultural Innovations through Startups project (SAIS).
The fund, led by Ramez El-Serafy and Dina el-Shenoufy, will invest up to $500,000 in 160 companies in the healthtech, fintech, edtech, greentech, agritech, climatetech, and other sectors. Its primary goal is to expand the accelerator’s reach into new markets such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Senegal.
Nigeria has established a $672 million startup fund as part of the Digital and Creative Enterprises Programme (DCEP). The fund aims to assist young investors in Nigeria who are having difficulty raising capital.
The African Development Bank will contribute $170 million to the fund, while the Agence Française de Développement and the Islamic Development Bank will contribute $116 million and $70 million, respectively. In addition, the Nigerian government will contribute $45 million through the Bank of Industry, and the private sector has pledged $271 million.
The Nigerian government recognizes the fundraising challenges that young startups face, as they rely heavily on foreign investments. The government hopes that by launching the fund, it will encourage entrepreneurship and thus increase employment in the country.
