Happy new year, and welcome to 2021!
I want to say “thank you” to every person that has subscribed to this newsletter during 2020 - what started as a personal project has exceeded my expectations in terms of positive feedback and support from players in the African VC ecosystem. I want to continue to add value to this ecosystem as Africa has so much more opportunity to grow!
For the newcomers - welcome to African VC/ Startup news, a weekly newsletter where I highlight transactions in the African startup ecosystem over the past week (or two). Since 15 December 2020, I noticed 13 deals come across my screen.
In addition to sending the weekly newsletter, I maintain a database of deals, investors and portfolio companies in the African startup ecosystem, it is available: here
Since 15 December 2020 I’ve come across the following deals:
Investment (10 deals):
1. Escotel | $35m | Series A | Inspired Evolution, Norfund, Sagemcom
Investee: Escotel – a newly formed company that will provide clean energy services to mobile tower owners and operators in Africa. They will supply, install, operate and maintain decentralised solar and storage hybrid power systems for a portfolio of 900 telecom sites in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Investor/s: Inspired Evolution Investment Management– a specialised investment management business with offices in Cape Town, South Africa, London, Mauritius and Nairobi. They have a proven track record in leading clean energy infrastructure-type development and project finance investments, as well as energy and resource efficiency growth investments across sub-Saharan Africa.
Norfund – The Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries, owned by the Norwegian Government and serves as an instrument in Norwegian development policy. Norfund contributes to poverty reduction and economic development by investing in profitable businesses and transferring knowledge and technology. Invests equity and/or debt capital, as a minority.
Sagemcom – A French group of companies that operate in the broadband (set-top boxes, gateways), smart city and Internet-of-Things markets.
Detail: $35m invested in a Series A funding round; Sector: Renewables, Energy
2. Gozem | Undisclosed amount | Pre-Series A | Asia Africa Investment Consulting (AAIC)
Investee: Gozem – self-proclaimed as Africa’s first “Super App”, they currently operate across Francophone West and Central Africa, providing on-demand transportation, delivery, and cashless payment solutions in one app. Launching health services with this round of investment.
Investor/s: Asia Africa Investment Consulting (AAIC) – AAIC aims to invest in fast growing companies within Africa’s healthcare sector and assist these companies with improving their performance and expansion.
Detail: Undisclosed amount of investment in a Pre-Series A funding round; Sector: Platform, Logistics, Mobility
3. Umba | $2m | Seed | Lachy Groom, Ludlow Ventures, Frontline Ventures, Act Venture Capital
Investee: Umba – an African digital bank, with headquarters in the US, that offers free bank accounts and financial services to their customers. They provide an ecosystem of connected financial services that allows the customer complete control of their finances in one App.
Investor/s: Lachy Groom– an angel investor, previously theHead of Issuing at Stripe.
Ludlow Ventures – based in the US, believes in “VC without ego.” They invest with conviction and back teams when “others think it's too early.
Frontline Ventures – based in the UK, they aim to accelerate exceptional founders. They “back B2B SaaS companies with international ambition.
Act Venture Capital – based in Dublin, Ireland, they partner with starting-out and established entrepreneurs/ teams scaling their businesses across technology sectors. They invest in seed to growth stage businesses.
Detail: $2m invested in a seed funding round of investment; Sector: Financial Services, Fintech
4. Somipem | Undisclosed amount | Undisclosed round | Ekuity Capital, UGFS-NA
Investee: Somipem – Founded in 2013 in Tunisia, Société Moderne d’Industrie Plastique et d’Emballage (SOMIPEM) is a plastics and packaging manufacturer.
Investor/s: Ekuity Capital – Ekuity Capital was established in 1976 as a joint venture between Kuwait Investment Authority, the Tunisian Government and the Tunisian private sector in order to promote the Tunisian hospitality and tourism sector.
UGFS-NA – United Gulf Financial Services-North Africa, established in 2008, is a Tunisian asset management company that offers private equity, asset management, advisory and corporate finance services.
Detail: Undisclosed amount of investment, undisclosed funding round; Sector: Manufacturing
5. Agri Commodities & Finance / ETG| $90m | Debt Facility | FMO
Investee: Agri Commodities & Finance / ETG – Agri Commodities & Finance is wholly owned by ETG, one of the largest and fastest growing integrated agricultural conglomerates in sub-Saharan Africa including operations as an agricultural commodity trader and supply chain manager.
Investor/s: FMO – the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank (the Netherlands Development Finance Company). Founded in 1970, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing and emerging markets by investing in ambitious entrepreneurs.
Detail: $90m as a syndicated debt facility; Sector: Agriculture & Food, Logistics, Infrastructure
6. Kioo Limited | $10m | Working capital loan | IFC
Investee: Kioo Limited – a Tanzanian glass container manufacturer, wholly owned by African Developments Limited.
Investor/s: IFC – a member of the World Bank Group, the IFC is the largest global development finance institution and is focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries.
Detail: $10m as a working capital debt facility; Sector: Manufacturing, Packaging
7. Zeepay | $940k | Seed | GOODsoil VC
Investee: Zeepay – a Ghanaian, Mobile Financial Services company focused on providing integrated mobile payments services with mobile wallets targeting the unbanked and banked population.
Investor/s: GOODsoil VC – a UK based venture capital firm that partners with founders to build global, market-defying companies. Focused on funding pre-seed and seed stage companies founded in Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.
Detail: $940k invested in a seed funding round; Sector: Financial Services, Fintech
8. PremierCredit | $650k | Seed | Enygma Ventures
Investee: PremierCredit – a Zambian registered and licensed financial institution which offers paperless financial solutions that are hassle free, simple, convenient and very affordable.
Investor/s: Enygma Ventures – a unique purpose driven investment fund, led by award winning entrepreneurs with 40 years of combined experience growing and scaling businesses in Africa, US & Europe. Based in South Africa.
Detail: $650k invested in an undisclosed funding round; Sector: Financial Services, Fintech
9. InspiraFarms | $500k | Working capital loan | SunFunder
Investee: InspiraFarms – A UK based company that supplies a highly adaptable energy-efficient refrigerated storage and food processing solutions for agribusinesses that face problems of loss reduction, energy reliability and market access in emerging markets.
Investor/s: SunFunder – a mission-driven solar finance business based in Nairobi unlocking debt capital for solar energy in emerging markets.
Detail: $500k as a working capital loan; Sector: Agriculture & Food, Infrastructure, Logistics
10. Damu-Sasa | $20k | Grant| Villgro Africa
Investee: Damu-Sasa – an innovative end-to-end blood services information management system that supports blood sourcing, inventory management, transfusion management and even haemovigilance. Based in Kenya.
Investor/s: Villgro Africa – an early stage incubator that provides technical and business expertise to address deep rooted global health challenges in Africa. They provide seed funding, technical assistance and business development support.
Detail: $20k as a grant; Sector: Healthcare, HealthTech
Capital raise (3 deals):
1. Berkeley Energy – AREF2 | $25m | AfDB’s SEFA and CTF
Investor: Berkeley Energy – AREF2 – Berkeley Energy, founded in 2007, has deep renewable energy and power engineering, construction, and investment experience in developing markets, where it is a focused investor, developer, and delivers renewable power assets. Africa Renewable Energy Fund 2 (AREF2) will focus on increasing low-carbon energy generation in sub-Saharan Africa.
Capital raised: $25m from African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF)
Sector/ stage focus: Renewable energy
Cheque size: Undisclosed
2. Development Partners International – ADP3 | $10m | Swedfund
Investor: Development Partners International – ADP3 – an Africa-focused private equity firm that invests in companies benefiting from the fast-growing emerging middle class in Africa, invests in profitable or cash-flow positive companies.
Capital raised: $10m from Swedfund
Sector/ stage focus: Consumer-focused companies
Cheque size: $40m – $120m
3. Lendable Inc | $4.5m | FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi)
Investor: Lendable Inc – Lendable bridges the gap between institutional debt investors and high growth alternative lenders in Africa. “We exist to help alternative lenders grow their loan book.”
Capital raised: $4.5m from FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi)
Sector/ stage focus: Alternative credit providers to micro, small and medium enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa.
Cheque size: Undisclosed
Screenshot of deals since 15 December:
Have a great week and hoping 2021 goes well!
Daryn
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