After enduring a cold second week in March, the African startup ecosystem is regaining its funding momentum with some remarkable deals recorded over the past seven days. Impressively, all the four startup investment deals involved millions of dollars. Elsewhere, Equator also announced its new $55million fund close, as Silver Box acquires Mobius Motors to kickstart its revival.
Startup Funding
Leta
Funding Round: Seed ($5 million)
Investors: Speedinvest, Google’s Africa Investment Fund, and climate-tech fund Equator
Founded: 2021, Kenya
Founder: Nick Joshi
About the Company:
Leta is a logistics startup that leverages technology to optimize delivery routes, reduce costs, and improve supply chain efficiency. The company operates an AI-powered platform that provides data-driven insights and automated route planning to help businesses streamline logistics operations.
What’s Next:
Leta plans to use the new funding to expand its solution to include embedded finance which will enable it to offer services like fuel cards, asset financing for vehicles and supply chain financing for FMCG Merchants. It also intends to, expand its market presence, and improve delivery infrastructure.
ORA Technologies
Funding Round: Pre-Series A ($1.9 million)
Investors: Witamax and Azur Innovation Management
Founded: 2023, Morocco
Founder: Omar Alami
About the Company:
ORA Technologies originally started as a fintech company but has since enhanced its offering to include several other solutions making its platform a superapp that integrates digital financial, e-commerce, social networking, and on-demand service solutions. Its flagship products include KooulMaroc, an e-commerce and service marketplace, and ORA Cash, a mobile wallet solution designed to improve financial inclusion.
What’s Next:
The newly raised capital will be used to expand KooulMaroc and scale ORA Cash, enhancing accessibility and convenience for users across Morocco.
ToumAI
Funding Round: Pre-Seed ($1 million)
Investors: Launch Africa Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Orange Ventures, Digital Africa, GO Ventures
Founded: 2020, Morocco
Founder: Youcef Rahmani
About the Company:
ToumAI is a AI startup specializing in customer experience (CX) solutions tailored to African languages and cultural nuances. Its flagship product, HolistiCX, utilizes artificial intelligence to help businesses understand and respond to customer needs more effectively.
What’s Next:
The new funding will support further development of HolistiCX, enabling the company to improve its AI-driven customer experience, drive market expansion, and increase its team strength.
SunCulture
Funding Round: $4 million
Investors: British International Investment
Founded: 2012, Kenya
Founders: Samir Ibrahim and Charles Nichols
About the Company:
SunCulture is an Agritech company that provides solar-powered irrigation systems, helping smallholder farmers improve productivity while conserving energy and water. The company’s technology-driven solutions make sustainable farming more accessible and affordable.
What’s Next:
SunCulture will use the new funding to scale its solar-powered irrigation solutions and expand its carbon financing initiative for smallholder farmers. The company also intends to expand its customer base, and brin its climate-smart solutions to even more farmers across Africa..
VC Funding
Equator Raises $55M To Support Early-Stage African Climate Tech Startups
African venture capital firm Equator has announced its completion of a $55 million funding round. It intends to use the capital to address the critical financing gap in the climate-tech sector. Hence it will funnel the funding into supporting early-stage tech startups creating solutions to address climate challenges.
Historically, climate-tech companies have had to depend mostly on support from the government and foundations which limits their options. Equator aims to change this dynamic by providing funding support for scalable solutions aimed at addressing critical sustainability and climate change challenges. Specifically, it intends to distribute the new funding between 15-18 startup companies, helping them strengthen their unit economics and enabling their regional expansion.
Acquisitions
Silver Box Acquires Kenya’s Mobius Motors
Silver Box, a Middle East-based investment firm has announced its acquisition of Kenyan vehicle re-assembler Mobius Motors. This acquisition comes six months after the automaker announced its intention to discontinue operations due to financial troubles. Mobius had initially entered voluntary liquidation in 2024 due to its struggles.
The acquisition signals a fresh start for Mobius, whose financial difficulties have it dealing with unpaid debts and supplier disputes. Silver Box plans to inject much-needed capital into the business, streamline operations, and revive Mobius’ vision of producing affordable vehicles for African markets. The deal is expected to reposition Mobius Motors as a competitive player in the region’s automotive industry.
Expectedly the deal also involves some change in the company’s management. Mobius CEO Nicolas Guibert exits the company while John Kavila takes over as the COO.
What’s Next:
Silver Box aims to utilize Mobius Motors existing infrastructure to restart operations of the Mobius Nairobi service centre and start producing new vehicle models before the end of the year.
