Ecosystem Insider

Issue #110: Renda secures funding of $1.9m, Chowdeck receives $2.5m, Kubik obtains $5.2m, while Meditect had an undisclosed funding round

May 7, 2024

Last week’s funding scenes featured only seed and pre-seed rounds. Environment-focused startup, Kubik had the highest haul, receiving $5.2 Million seed funding. Nigerian Chowdeck also had a seed funding round and secured $2.5million. Logistics startup, Renda obtained $1.9 million in its pre-seed round while Meditect had an undisclosed funding round.

Funding

Renda

Funding round: Pre-Seed ($1.9 Million)

Investors: Ingressive Capital, Techstars Toronto, Founders Factory Africa, Magic Fund, Golden Palm Investments, Reflect Venture, Vastly Valuable Ventures, SeedFi.

Founded: 2021, Nigeria

Founders: Ope Onaboye and Bimbo Onaboye

Products: Renda’s technology, Renda360 is an end-to-end infrastructure that optimizes order fulfillment through inventory management, storage monitoring, and delivery management for retailers. The infrastructure was designed to improve scalability for businesses.

What Next?: The company will use the pre-seed funding to enhance its technology and solutions while also expanding into other parts of the continent.

Meditect

Funding round: Undisclosed

Investors: Launch Africa Ventures

Founded: 2018

Founders: Arnaud Pourredon

Products: Meditect operates state-of-the-art software designed to digitize the pharmaceutical supply chain. The platform connects pharmacies with suppliers, ensuring that pharmacies get easy access to consistent product supplies.

What Next?: The company aims to provide affordable and quality drugs to communities. Hence, the funding will go into improving its technology to bolster the supply of pharmaceutical products in underserved communities.

Chowdeck

Funding round: Seed ($2.5 Million)

Investors: Ycombinator, Goodwater Capital, FounderX Ventures, Hoaq Fund, Levare Ventures, True Culture Funds and Haleakala Ventures, Simon Borrero, Juan Pablo Ortega, Shola Akinlade, Ezra Olubi, Sudeep Ramani, Ayo Arikawe, Karthik Ramakrishnan

Founded: 2021, Nigeria

Founders: Femi Aluko, Olumide Ojo, Lanre Yusuf

Products: Chowdeck operates a digital marketplace that connects consumers with food vendors and restaurants. Through Chowdeck, users can easily order food from restaurants of their choice and have it delivered to their preferred locations.

What Next?: The company has achieved huge success with its current operations and plans to use the secured funding to replicate the excellent results in new locations within and outside Nigeria.

Kubik

Funding round: Seed ($5.2 Million)

Investors: African Renaissance Partners; Endgame Capital, King Philanthropies

Founded: 2021, Ethiopia

Founders: Kidus Asfaw,

Products: As an environment conservationist, Kubik collects and recycles plastic waste to create low-carbon affordable building structures. The company’s solution promotes environmental conservation and gives people access to affordable housing.

What Next?: The funding will help the company scale its service, build its team, and expand its presence across Ethiopia and other parts of East Africa while promoting and increasing environmental conservation awareness.

Acquisitions

BuuPass Acquires QuickBus

BuuPass, a Kenyan travel company that provides seamless travel experiences through hassle-free booking solutions has acquired one of its competitors, Quickbus. The financial details of the acquisition are yet to be made public however, the deal will see QuickBus’ technical team merge with BuuPass to ease the integration of QuickBus’ solutions into BuuPass.

BuuPass acquired QuickBus to expand its partnerships with telcos and banks that offer multiple services. BuuPass was founded by Sonia Kabra and Wycliffe Omondi in 2017. The startup currently operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa. However, the new acquisition will aid its expansion into Nigeria and other parts of Africa.