Ecosystem Insider

Issue #95: Watu Credit secures $15M, Zeal raises $4M, while Ezdehar invests $10m in Yodawy

January 23, 2024

Continuing the trend from the first two weeks of January, last week saw multiple big-money investments in the African startup ecosystem. The biggest funding activity involved Watu Credit securing $ 15 million from Gateway Partners, Ezdehar invested $10 million in Egyptian health tech giant Yodawy. Elsewhere, Shamba Pride raised $ 3.7 million in a mix of debt and equity, Zeal got $ 4 million, while Canza secured $ 2.3 million to scale its Web 3- 3-focused financial solution.

Funding

Shamba Pride

Funding round: Debt-Equity ($3.7 Million)

Investors: EDFI AgriFI, Seedstars Africa Ventures (SAV)

Founded: 2016, Kenya

Founders: Samuel Munguti

Products: Shamba Pride provides supply chain linkage solutions for farmers, agricultural products retailers, and consumers. Its primary product, Digishop, incorporates a market linkage commerce functionality and BNPL infrastructure to assist farmers and retailers in making purchases and pay flexibly.

What Next? : Since commencing operations in 2016, Shamba Pride has continually worked towards enhancing its last-mile distribution for farm inputs and tackling price exploitation for farmers. The company is set to intensify efforts in this regard, doing more to improve operation and profitability for smallholder farmers.

Watu Credit

Funding round: ($15 Million)

Investors: Gateway Partners

Founded: 2019, Kenya

Founders: Andris Kaneps

Products: Watu Credit provides asset financing services. It specializes in providing loans for mobility and connectivity assets, such as smartphones, two & three-wheelers, electric motorbikes, and cars. Watu Credit’s business model is aimed at the unbanked and financially underprivileged population, providing them with essential financial services and opportunities.

What Next? : The capital infusion will help strengthen Watu Credit’s position and also contribute significantly to advancing financial inclusion in Uganda. Thus, it will foster the company’s growth in the country.

Zeal

Funding round: $4 Million

Investors: Raed Ventures, Cur8 Capital

Founded: 2019, Egypt

Founders: Omar Obaid, Bellal Mohamed

Products: Zeal’s flagship product is the SmartPOS Plugin, designed to improve in-store payments and customer interactions with smart payment solutions. This innovative solution enables credit card readers to identify, classify, and re-target in-store customers,

What Next? : The capital injection is aimed at accelerating Zeal’s journey towards redefining payment intelligence and transforming customer interactions in retail globally.

Yodawy

Funding round: $10 Million

Investors: Ezdehar

Founded: 2018, Egypt

Founders: Karim Khashaba, Yasser Abdel Gawad, Sherief El-Feky

Products: Yodawy operates a consolidated health products and services marketplace where patients can easily purchase prescriptions and place orders for medicines. Additionally, Yodawy’s solution also connects patients with medical labs and insurance companies

What Next? : The company is currently on a large-scale growth trajectory and the fund infusion will be instrumental in supporting its ambitious growth plans, which includes expanding its customer base and enhancing its technology-enabled prescription fulfillment capabilities.

Canza

Funding round: $2.3Million

Investors: Polychain Capital, Protocol Labs, Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund, 99 Capital, Stratified Capital, Hyperithm

Founded: Lagos

Founders: Pascal Ntsama, Oyedeji Oluwoye

Products: Canza is a Neobank operating within the Web3 framework. The company facilitates cross-border payments for African startups while providing financial services access to underserved masses across Africa through Web 3 assets.

What Next? : The newly acquired funds will contribute to the company’s efforts to obtain the necessary licenses from various financial regulatory bodies across the African continent and lay the groundwork for its revolutionary FX DeFi platform named Baki.