Week in Review
Influx of seed rounds for African Founders, MTN & Aritel granted banking licences and Eden Life acquires Lynk
The Week in Review is designed to inform curious minds interested in the latest activity in the African innovation ecosystem.
Funding Rounds 🚀
GoMetroo raised $1m - Mobility management platform that enables public transport and logistics operators to boost operational efficiency, futureproof their services, and tighten their competitiveness.
Norebase raises $1m - which is building a single platform for businesses to start, scale and operate in any African country,
Kwaba secures pre-seed funding - helps low and middle income earners to split their annual rent into convenient monthly instalments.
Hello Tractor raises $1m - tracking device and software that allows farmers and tractor owners to book connected tractors from their phones.
🔦 Startup Spotlight: Norebase
What❓: Providing a framework where people can operate and scale their solutions to several markets at once is incredibly important. Norebase allows founders and businesses to start and scale across several African countries at once or periodically.
Traction📈 : 100% month-on-month growth in transaction volumes and 40% month-on-month growth in revenue for the last six months.
Market opportunity 🌍 : Africa is a fragmented $3 trillion market. Trade between African countries has been difficult for years. Traditional methods of incorporating African entities involve instructing multiple lawyers, accountants and other service providers. There’s also a trust and accountability factor between clients and firms hired to complete incorporation in another country.
Competition⚡️: 🤔 the current model of incorporating in Africa is currently dominated by service providers.
Investors: PSamurai Incubate, Consonance Investment led Norebase’s pre-seed round. Other VCs include Sahil Lavingia of Gumroad, Kinfolk VC, Future Africa, Ventures Platform, Microtraction, Boleh Venture, Voltron Capital, Wuri Ventures and Afropeneur.
🗞 Other News
Draper Startup House launches in Zambia - Draper Startup House (DSH) has established its first location in Southern Africa in Lusaka, Zambia through a partnership with BongoHive, the country’s first technology and innovation hub.
SA's VC firm HAVIAÍC completes final close of $20m fund - The Cape Town-headquartered HAVAÍC is an investment and advisory firm that invests in and supports early-stage, high-growth African technology businesses
The #baobabnetwork invests in 5 new African startups - The Baobab Network (TBN), a Nairobi-based accelerator that invests in early-stage technology companies across Africa, has announced its latest cohort of investee companies.
Sidebrief; Nigeria-based start-up helping African companies build across borders by streamlining legals, incorporation, company admin, banking and regulation through their APIs.
Opus Analytics; Egypt based technology company building HR and people analytics software for SMEs and corporates in the MENA region and beyond.
Lendha; Full-stack, tech-led lending platform, disrupting Nigeria’s multi-billion-dollar SME credit space.
GoodTalent; A Nigeria and UK based talent marketplace for companies to crowdsource, screen, hire and pay engineering talents globally, for full-time, remote, and contract roles.
Mighty Finance; Fintech and lending platform for SMEs in Zambia, helping businesses access trade finance to unlock new growth.
Pangea wants to connect African startups to diaspora funding - Pangea Trust, through its equity crowdfunding platform Connect, is unlocking diaspora remittance inflows as funding source for early and growth-stage startups in Africa.
Khazna gets approval from Central Bank to launch its cards 3 - Egyptian financial App, Khazna, has announced that it has obtained the final approval from The Central Bank of Egypt to launch ‘Khazna Card’ in partnership with ADIB Egypt.
MTN & Aritel get mobile money banking licenses - MTN & Aritel two of Nigerias largest telecom players have been granted banking licences.
M&A
Eden Life acquires Kenyan Lynk - Nigerian home concierge startup Eden Life expands to Kenya, acquires Lynk. Launched in Nigeria in 2019 Eden connectsbusy professionals with concierge services, Eden Life offers its users a subscription service that delivers high quality chef-cooked meals, laundry services, and home cleaning. Lynk was launched in 2015 and during its time in operation facilitated over 150,000 jobs, transferring US$4.5 million to more than 2,000 workers.
📢 Tell a friend to tell a friend 📩
The Week in Review is designed to inform curious minds interested in the latest activity in the African innovation ecosystem.