Ecosystem Insider

Issue #120: Nala raises $40 million, Uncover secures $1.4 million, and more

July 16, 2024

We recorded four deal activities in the African startup ecosystem last week, the most impressive of which was Nala’s $40 million Series A round. This deal will fuel the company’s global growth and expansion plans. Skincare ecommerce company, Uncover, also raised $1.4 million, along with other deals involving Turnstay and BasiGo.

Funding

Uncover

Funding round: Seed ($1.4 Million)

Investors: EQ2 Ventures, IgniteXL Ventures, Chui Ventures, Samata Capital, and Altree Capital.

Founded: 2021, Kenya

Founders: Sneha Mehta and Jade Oyateru,

Products: Uncover operates an ecommerce skincare products marketplace, providing a one stop solution for Africans to find and purchase high quality skincare products from the comfort of their homes. The company also leverages data to create personalized shopping experience for each user, giving them personalized skincare product recomendations.

What Next?: Uncover will utilize the funding to fuel its expansion efforts into the US, Ghana, and Uganda.

Turnstay

Funding round: $300,000

Investors: DFS Lab and DCG

Founded: 2022, South Africa

Founders: Alon Stern, James Hedley

Products: Turnstay is a travel-focused fintech company operating a digital solution that simplifies travel payments for users and helps travel/tourism merchants to minimize costs.

What Next?: The company plans to invest the newly secured funds into expanding its operations across Africa and further improve its traction all over the continent.

BasiGo

Funding round: $225,000

Investors: Rwanda Green Fund

Founded: 2017, Kenya

Founders: Jit Bhattacharya

Products: BasiGo offers multiple categories of e-mobility solutions. The company assembles electric buses, develops charging depots, and also uses an innovative Pay-As-You-Go financing model that allows operators to pay for the battery and charge separately from the bus.

What Next?: BasiGo intends to use the funding to upgrade its EV charging infrastructure to meet the demands of the rapidly growing fleet of public tranport buses in Rwanda. They intend to scale up each charging station to be able to support at least 20 buses at a time.

Nala

Funding round: Series A ($40 Million)

Investors: Acrew Capital, DST Global, Norrsken22, HOF Capital, Amplo, and NYCA Partners

Founded: 2017, Tanzania

Founders: Benjamin Fernandes

Products: The remittance startup operates Rafiki, a payment solutions platform which directly integrates with banks and mobile money providers enabling them to perform seamless cross-border transactions.

What Next?: The new funding will fuel the company’s global growth and expansion plans as it aims to scale its operations into the Asian and Latin America markets.