Tag: seed funding

Egyptian Fintech Connect Secures $8M Seed Funding

In a seed round led by Disruptech Ventures, Algebra Ventures, and Lorax Capital Partners, Egyptian fintech Connect Money raised $8 million. One Stop and MDP also participated, the company said in a statement recently.

Ayman Essawy, Marwan Kenawy, and Momtaz Moussa started the company in 2023. They had already started Dsquares, an Egyptian reward solutions company, in 2012 and Lucky One, a cashback app, in 2019. The CEO of Connect Money is Ayman Essawy. The CEO of Dsquare is Marwan Kenawy, and the CEO of Lucky One is Momtaz Moussa.

Read also: Ghana unveils comprehensive guidelines for investment-based crowdfunding

Lucky One started as a business within Dsquares, but Connect Money is now standalone, with a brand-new cap table. Lucky One/Dsquares has acquired more than $50 million in funds.

What Makes Egyptian Fintech Connect Money Stand Out in the Market?

Connect Money has created a “white-label” card issuing tool that lets companies offer debit and credit cards to customers without having to build their fintech infrastructure or get licences from the government. A company statement says the new business has already given out more than 300,000 cards.

The platform offers end-to-end managed services, including card issuance and distribution, KYC management, customer support, fraud monitoring, and other banking back-office operations. It also offers mobile banking app development and handles instalment operations management for clients wanting to offer its PayLater feature to their customers.

Along with using Connect Money, companies can give their customers rewards, cashback, and discounts from more than 20,000 of its partners. The startup gathered this using its network and knowledge from Lucky One and Dsquares. Supported card types on Connect Money’s site include Visa, Mastercard, and Meeza, which is the local payment method for transactions in Egypt.

Connect Money’s Impact in Africa and the Middle East

Connect Money will develop five African and Middle Eastern business verticals with the cash. With an emphasis on Africa, the company hopes to grow in Egypt, Morocco, and other markets. The monies will support innovation, technology, and service expansion.

Co-founder and CEO of Connect Money Ayman Essawy said, “We are immensely proud to announce the closure of our seed funding round, a testament to the confidence and support extended by our investors. This sizeable early investment highlights our hyper-growth potential as we reduce pain points for financially empowered firms.

Read also: Access Bank acquires majority stake in Tanzania’s ABCT

“We are proud to partner with Connect Money to revolutionise embedded finance in MENA,” said Disruptech Ventures Managing, who joined Mohamed Okasha. Connect Money’s expertise, deep market knowledge, and cutting-edge integrated tech will improve financial services accessibility and efficiency, benefiting the fintech-enabled ecosystem, transforming banking operations, and positioning Egypt as a hub for embedded finance internationalisation.

Algebra Ventures General Partner Omar Khashaba said: “Ayman is an incredible entrepreneur who co-founded some of the most successful startups in MENA, including Dsquares and Lucky. We’ve supported him and are pleased to help him fill the region’s significant fintech infrastructure gap.”

Other well-known Middle Eastern startups in this field are NymCard (which has raised over $35 million in funding) and SimpliFi.

June 27, 2024
Propel secures $2.74m to build talent hiring technology ecosystem

Propel, a firm with offices in Berlin and Lagos that creates talent pipelines for communities, has received a seed investment of €2.5 million ($2.74 million).

Additionally, the business assists multinational corporations in reducing the risk associated with hiring distant workers from developing economies.

The fundraising round was led by Amsterdam-based “No Such Ventures,” with participation from APX, Golden Egg Check, and Future of Learning Fund.

Established in 2020 by Sunkanmi Ola, Seun Owolabi, and Abel Agoi, Propel plans to use the financing to roll out and adopt its community-as-a-service platform and earn €1 million in community revenue by Q4 2020.

Read also: Egypt’s Fintech giant Fawry partners with Infobip

Over the past three years, the pandemic has been blamed for global remote work and international corporations are recruiting local workers to cut costs.

Despite a major reset since mid-2022 that has seen tech companies lay off more than 200,000 employees and a push for partial to full return-to-office requests by employers, the open talent economy will remain important, especially in Europe, where the population is aging, leaving a gaping hole that realistically needs remote talent outside the region.

Africa has the youngest population in the world, and online learning, STEM courses, and communities, which Propel focuses on, will help grow its IT talent pool. After a year of placing local tech talent in retail and automotive companies like Porsche and Mercedes, Propel noticed that these talent were connected to a community like developer groups, talent incubators, and training schools, which changed the startup’s focus (Propel claims that 8 out of 10 people in emerging markets belong to a community). Thus, community-centered.

Speaking on community building in the tech talent space, Propel CEO Ola, said: “we realised communities are the building blocks of any tech ecosystem, particularly emerging market ecosystems, but nobody has been building for communities and the distribution layer for the tech talent pipeline had been missing.”

He added that “most tech communities build their pool and upskill, but the last mile where you convert these talents to jobs is missing and communities struggle in that regard.”

Propel connects tech talent to a network of organisations with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements and open positions. Propel taps into these tech communities’ broad talent pools in software development, design, data science, no-code, and other digital transformation skills in exchange for last-mile infrastructure.

Global companies can use this “community-as-a-service” pipeline. Propel has collaborated with Orange Telecoms, Stepstone, and a variety of European businesses and scaleups on hiring, community hackathons, and DEI activities.

By working with service providers, IT talent from these communities can access healthcare, workstations, and financial services including loans and asset finance.

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Propel’s achievements

The two-year-old talent matching startup delivers this “value stack” as an all-in-one platform to over 100 tech communities in 15 African countries, varied in region, gender, and tech stack. SheCodeAfrica, Ingressive for Good, Niyo Network, Datafest, People In Product, Friends of Figma, and numerous Google Developer Groups have just under 400,000 members. Ola said the company’s objective is to develop to 500 communities with 1 million members across the board in 2024 and create millions in income for these communities through commissions from employment, rewards, and financing on the platform.

Ola said Propel gets a portion of its hiring and placement fees and rebates. “If a community member gets placed, the community gets a bit of that revenue to add to their coffers. So we’re also creating new financial revenue streams for communities that did not exist before, where they always have to depend on just grants or sponsorships. We’re supercharging communities and we’re providing rockets for them to be able to grow to the next level,” the CEO noted.

The 25-person team, distributed across Amsterdam, Berlin, Johannesburg, Lagos, London and Nairobi, has placed more than 550 people into job roles across multiple countries. To date, the company, backed by Google Black Founders in Europe and raised over €3 million, will look to scale its community platform, launch new client offerings and deepen its ecosystem of communities going forward.

Sophie Heijenberg, an investor at No Such Ventures, speaking on the investment, said: “Propel’s unique, community-focused approach to driving the open talent economy sets them apart and is a solid addition to the Future of Work category. We’re bullish about their roadmap and super-excited to partner with them on this growth journey.”

July 12, 2023
Kenya’s peach cars secures $5 million in seed funding

The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners (UTEC) and other angel investors, such as Shintaro Yamada (founder and CEO of Mercari), Peter Kenevan (VP, Head of Japan at PayPal), and Hiroaki Ohta (general partner at Waseda University Ventures), led the $5 million seed round for Kenyan auto marketplace Peach Cars.

According to a statement, the startup, which Kaoru Kaganoi and Zachary Petroni founded in 2020 to increase access to car ownership in sub-Saharan Africa, starting with Kenya, will use the funds to expand the company, hire more employees, and invest more in research and development as it grows its tech solutions.

Read also: Mercedes-Benz, Google partner to improve Digital Technologies for cars

Kenyan used-car markets

Peach Cars’ founders said they saw an opportunity in Kenya’s used automobile market after living in sub-Saharan Africa for over a decade and talking to friends and industry peers. CEO Kaganoi said Kenya lacked reliable used-goods markets. Existing ones featured fraud, insecure payments, a lack of understanding, and poor client experiences.

“It was hard for me to find cheap used furniture and electronics when I moved to Kenya,” the CEO added. “It was also hard for me to find good cars because there aren’t any set of inspection methods or service providers, and you have to know a good mechanic yourself to do your own quality checks.”

Peach Cars’ creators considered many factors before releasing it. Build markets by examining market potential and unit economics. Plan activities. Peach Cars had to pursue Kenya’s commission-based high-value asset categories. Both owners were SafeBoda drivers, which helped.

Kaganoi also noted in the interview that Africans live in a “satchetized” economy and buy small goods without thinking about the process or impacts, but spending a minute in a mall in Africa indicates that people care about the experience. “The idea is, why can’t we give everyone who buys a car, whether it costs $4,000 or $40,000, the same pleasant experience?” stated the CEO.

Kaganoi also claimed that Africa’s young population and increasing middle class don’t have close relationships with car technicians and want safe, easy-to-use services. Peach Cars makes Kenyan car ownership easier and more exciting.

A smart engine check device and Peach’s software automate car inspections. Because 80% of automobiles in Kenya are Japanese, the 225-point inspection approach provides a complete and accurate report on all vehicle systems.

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Peach Cars imitate Autochek and Moove

Autochek and Moove, two larger African mobility businesses, sell and repair automobiles like Peach Automobiles. Peach is a C2C marketplace like Jiji, whereas Autochek and Moove handle and finance assets. Petroni prefers Peach over Jiji because it teaches people about auto ownership, offers faster ways to find items, handles transactions and payments better, and, most significantly, maintains and fixes cars.

The COO said Peach’s car care service matches clients’ needs because they desire honest and open treatment. “Peach can improve vehicle diagnosis and repair using inspection methods and data.”

The vehicle marketplace receives service fees and commissions after a transaction. Agreements, checks, ownership transitions, secured payments, and handovers generate revenue. Peach’s proprietors say they’ve sold “hundreds of cars” and will create a virtually fully automated inspection centre in 2024. Peach generates over $200,000 in gross merchandise volume (GMV) each month, 10 times more than two years ago.

Kiran Mysore, Principal at UTEC, said, “Peach is creating the most customer-centric, trustworthy, and advanced used-car platform in Sub-Saharan Africa by combining their operational excellence with smart IoT devices and data analysis.” “UTEC is proud to work with Peach and encourage collaboration between Japan and Africa by adding the automotive expertise and network of Japan.”

June 19, 2023
Moroccan Foodtech Terraa Raises $1.5 Million Pre-seed

A foodtech firm based in Morocco, Terraa, has secured a pre-seed round of approximately $1.5 million. This funding round was led by Foodlabs and joined by DFS Lab, Musha Ventures, Outlierz Ventures, and UM6P Ventures.

Currently based in Morocco, the one-year-old startup plans to concentrate its operations there, develop its logistics network, and only expand when it thinks its model can be replicated in other regions, according to CEO Youssef Benkirane.

“Morocco is our priority at the moment, and we are building the playbook in terms of operations, building our tech, and expanding in cities. When we feel confident that we can replicate this model elsewhere, we will start with a big country in Africa where there’s a huge market to kick off our expansion in the continent.”

In 2022, with experience from foodtech and eCommerce businesses in Europe and Africa, Benkirane and Benoit De Vigne created Terraa. The start-up makes it easier for retailers to buy farm products directly from farmers. In this approach, the farmers have ready access to the market while the merchants receive steady and fair prices.

The business intends to construct storage facilities for agricultural products spread out among Morocco’s agricultural cities. From obtaining the farm products to internally distributing them to users, Terraa manages the entire process. However, users can place orders through the app or website.

Read also: Vendease, Nigerian Food Procurement Platform, Lays Off 9% Employees

Food loss and waste in the Near East and North Africa region are estimated to be worth more than $60 billion, according to the regional office of the Food and Agricultural Organization for the region. According to Benkirane, 40% of fruits and vegetables in North Africa are discarded or lost. He says that Terraa plans to change this and blames it on a lack of information about what to create.

“In the future, we will have strong capabilities around demand forecasting, and we will share this with farmers for them to know what they need to be producing, and the right quantities, to optimize their production to make sure that they will sell 100% of their production to us.”

Looking into the Future

The firm is bringing about change in Morocco’s fresh food supply chain, which Benkirane described as being highly fragmented, still traditional, and controlled by intermediaries who buy goods from farmers at reduced costs to sell for enormous profits.

It aims to give farmers a reliable and competitively priced market for the food, reducing the post-harvest losses frequently brought on by a lack of markets, particularly during periods of overproduction. Retailers who use Terraa will profit from reliable product supplies and prices.

“In the next few months, we will build some collection centers in all the major agricultural cities of Morocco. We will use them to store the produce we have collected from the farmers for distribution to the end customers,” Benkirane told reporters.

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How Terraa works

To fulfil online orders placed by shops, restaurants, and other resellers, the business purchases fresh food straight from farmers. Orders can be placed on its website or through WhatsApp. The majority of the procedures are carried out internally for quality control, but they intend to increasingly support certain of their operations by working with vetted external providers when this is practical.

“We handle everything, from sourcing from the farmers to the delivery to the end consumer. We took this decision because farmers are not that tech-savvy and would require a lot of training for them to know how to best utilize the tech platforms. How we operate ensures that farmers have all the time they need to concentrate on farming,” he said.

According to Benkirane, their business strategy guarantees that the cost of the products they sell is not inflated, that hygiene is upheld throughout the entire manufacturing, packaging, and delivery processes, and that there is less food waste due to a ready market.

“In terms of wastage, what we see is for example, in North Africa 40% of fruits and vegetables produced by farmers are lost or wasted. And this is because farmers don’t know what to produce. They lack good data to optimize production, so they farm based on habits…We want to empower this community when it comes to best practices,” he said.

“In the future, we will have strong capabilities around demand forecasting, and we will share this with farmers for them to know what they need to be producing, and the right quantities, to optimize their production to make sure that they will sell 100% of their production to us,” he said.

If you’re the type that is concerned about the introduction of technology into businesses and markets, then you should watch out for the Terraa brand. This is because the firm is bringing about change in Morocco’s conventional, highly fragmented fresh food supply chain, which is dominated by middlemen who buy from farmers at low rates and then resell for enormous profits.

February 21, 2023
Kenyan Fintech Power Secures $3 Million In Seed Funding

Power, a fintech firm based in Kenya has just raised $3 million in a seed round. This fund was raised to increase the delivery of its services, which it offered to Kenya, Zambia and other South African countries.

Employees who work for Power have access to financial resources like short- and long-term loans, chances for investing, and insurance policies. A $3 million seed fundraising round headed by DOB Equity with participation from QED Investors, Quona Capital, Zephyr Acorn, and Norrsken Impact Accelerator has enabled the fintech to scale in Kenya and enter Zambia.

The operation in Zambia will differ slightly from the one in Kenya. Co-founder and CEO Brian Dempsey told reporters that Power intends to be a technology partner rather than an active lender in South Africa and that it has reached an agreement with First Capital Bank to launch its most recent strategy.

“In southern Africa, we have a bank partnership in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. We’re starting in Zambia. And what we are trying to look for in our partners is a typical bank that is banking a lot of companies, corporates, or SMEs but not banking a lot of retail consumers but has the strategic intent to expand their offering and grow their loan book and deposit-based savings,” he said.

Read also: Nigeria leads African fintech with $976m in startup funding

Power’s New Focus

The business intends to keep working with banks and uses technology to enable them to provide a wider range of services to employees. Over the next three years, Power plans to expand to at least ten African markets.

In addition, Gbenga Ajayi, Africa Head and Partner at QED Investors, expressed anticipation for working with Power in Kenya to provide targeted financial services to a group of people whom current providers have neglected or underserved. He is eager to impart knowledge garnered from similar businesses throughout the world to aid Power’s expansion in Kenya and throughout Africa.

Via Power, people can also buy different insurance products, pay for them over a long period with the same interest, and gain access to partner company packages that need lump-sum payments.

A portion of an employee’s salary can be accessed in advance due to power. Additionally, it offers long-term loans with monthly interest rates of 2 to 3 percent based on the wages of its employees.

Additionally, clients enrolling in the investment service are introduced to money-market and pension funds, in which a set percentage of their salaries is invested.

The majority of lenders base their lending choices on credit reference agencies. However, Power exclusively lends to staff members and independent contractors of businesses that have joined its platform. Employee loan requests can be seen, approved, and rejected by the HR staff of those onboarded organizations. By doing so, fintech can lower the risk of default and guarantee that borrowers can only borrow money that they can afford to repay.

How Mobile Apps are changing African finance sector

What Is Being Done

The startup has signed up 75 businesses in Kenya thus far, giving it access to more than 40,000 employees, of whom it has been able to serve 15%. Since its founding, the organization has disbursed loans totalling more than $1.5 million.

“We integrate into their payment or payroll system, allowing their workforce to download the Power app. We then conduct digital identity checks and open up our four key services to them,” said Dempsey, who co-founded Power with Chandra Singh in 2020.

“Once we connect into a company, we already know how much the individuals are earning, how long they’ve worked there. We know whether they’re full-time, part-time contractors, or gig workers.”

We connect with the credit bureau in real time to pull information on other facilities they might have in the market. And we use all that information to provide a unique amount, interest rate, and loan tenure for workers,” he said.

Power claims it reduces the risk of default and ensures borrowers have access to funds they can repay by exclusively lending to employees and contractors (gig workers) of businesses on its platform.

Power employees have access to long-term loans based on their income, which are accessible for 2-3% interest per month and can be used in part in advance. Using the application, HR may view, accept, or reject employee loan requests.

According to the business, it establishes a real-time connection with the credit bureau to retrieve data on any other facilities it might have on the market. Additionally, it claims to use all of that data to produce a loan amount, interest rate, and term.

Also available are a variety of insurance products that may be purchased, paid for over a lengthy period with the same interest, and access to partner company packages that require lump-sum payments.

Furthermore, Power claims to have expanded to Zambia, where it intends to work as a technology partner as opposed to acting as a lender. Additionally, it launched its most recent plan in collaboration with First Capital Bank.

With the new expansion in Zambia now a reality, one can only imagine what would be done there. Power would be a force to reckon with in the Zambian fintech industry.

February 17, 2023
Nigerian fintech startup Pivo raises $2 million in seed funding round

Precursor Ventures, Vested World, Y Combinator, FoundersX, and Mercy Corp Ventures backed Pivo Africa in a $2 million seed round.

Suppliers involved in complex supply chains, wholesale distributors, and SMEs can take advantage of Pivo’s all-in-one financial services platform.

Founded in 2021, the company helps clients manage their cash flow with credit, transactions, and spending management. Pivo makes it easy for SMEs to make, collect, and monitor payments.

Read also: SecondSTAX Partners with Ghana Stock Exchange, Nairobi Securities Exchange

Pivo Africa raises capital to expand product offerings

To enhance transaction management and payment reconciliation for supply chains, Pivo will utilize the funding to develop new products and modify current ones. For their client group’s normal recurring payments, the anticipated update will offer improved payment possibilities. Along with expanding operations to East Africa and expanding its personnel, the firm also wants to increase its footprint outside of its Lagos headquarters.

“After our pre-seed round of $550,000 in Q1 of this year, we launched Pivo Business,” says CEO and co-founder Nkiru Amadi-Emina. Between April and September, Pivo Business transaction volume rose by 400%. We want to create supply chain anchor solutions with this money.

Daniel Block, Investment Principal at Mercy Corps Ventures said, “When we first invested last year, we believed that the founders’ deep logistics industry expertise and commitment to unattended supply chain SMEs would enable Pivo to quickly carve out a deep moat in the competitive fintech lending space.”

In North and Central Africa, Amadi-Emina introduced an on-demand delivery platform in 2017. Kobo360, one of the most well-known e-commerce players in Africa, purchased the platform.

“As Pivo introduces new products to move from a pure fintech lender to a full-fledged financial services platform, we’re pleased to see the firm provide a comprehensive array of financial services,” Daniel Block says.

Amadi-Emina and Ijeoma Akwiwu are Y Combinator’s first all-female team in Nigeria. “We smashed a barrier as a female-led startup.” “YC acknowledged us as entrepreneurs and demonstrated women can lead in tech,” said Amadi-Emina.

Tech is male-dominated, and man-made hurdles prevent women from entering. Getting into YC means more people will see strong female representation from Nigeria. We hope a female entrepreneur somewhere sees us and realizes that if she works hard, applies herself, and has the data to back it up, she can accomplish her goals.

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More about Pivo

Pivo, which was founded in 2021 by Nkiru Amadi-Emina and Ijeoma Akwiwu, has supported the expansion of SMEs via secured working capital loans, asset financing, and trade finance solutions. Customers may also have transactional banking in the form of current smart accounts, payments, and basic accounting tools.

It is intended for any company involved in the import, export, manufacturing, distribution, and retail of FMCG, logistics and haulage, and clearing and forwarding.

The company’s three major products are as follows: Pivot Capital, the company’s core product, provides SMEs with loans up to $50,000. Meanwhile, Pivo Finance provides consumers with a digital-only banking solution, and Pivo Plus provides insurance, business compliance, and tax regulatory help.

November 27, 2022
Roboost Secures $60,000 in seed funding

Flat6Labs has provided follow-on funding for Roboost, an Egyptian delivery management system. This is on top of a six-figure seed round investment from Falak Startups and AUC Angels.

As a result of the new fundraising round, Roboost will improve its AI delivery management system and add more products to its line. This will speed up the company’s growth.

Tayar is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered automated delivery management solution that was established in 2020 by Hassan Kamel, Mohamed Gessraha, and Mohamed Hassan. It simulates real-life operations digitally and handles day-to-day situations. It can also learn on its own to improve every part of the delivery process.

Read also: Egyptian startup Seqoon Secures $500,000 in pre-seed funding

Roboost aims to gives businesses more control over their delivery operations

The goal of the solution is to provide businesses who provide delivery services, such as retail, e-commerce, cloud kitchens, and delivery services, more control over their delivery operations by streamlining the process and providing real-time data. The client’s sales channels are the first thing that the system interacts with, giving it the ability to automate order management, group optimization, route optimization, automated dispatching, and delivery agent performance management while monitoring all of these elements in real time.

Hassan Kamel, co-founder and chief operating officer, stated that “with Roboost, we are helping businesses reach their full operational potential,” and that “we’ve seen this as our clients reached the ultimate desired time of 20 minutes for customer satisfaction, and reduced their costs drastically by 30%.” Roboost was developed by Hassan Kamel. We are continually looking for new methods to improve our clients’ delivery operations and introduce new services, and we have collected data from more than 2,200 delivery agents who have traveled more than 9 million kilometers. We became the best option for local and international businesses because of the drastic and revolutionary changes we made to our delivery operations. We are proud to serve these businesses and have a 100% retention rate for them.

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Roboost will start using AI delivery marketplace to increase quality of service to customers

According to Mohamed Hassan, co-founder and CEO of Roboost, “Our next goal is to empower SMEs by automating their deliveries through Roboost’s AI delivery marketplace.” This would help the SME give the best service to their customers and grow their business.

“We are very happy to further support Roboost’s team in adding value to their customers through their cutting-edge AI-powered solution.” Roboost is a company that we admire and respect. We feel that Roboost’s growth will be sped up as a result of this fundraising round because it will allow the company to extend its product offering and improve its AI delivery management system. According to Mohamed El Ghannam, Principal at Flat6Labs, “We’re excited to see what’s next for Roboost and how their technology will further empower their customers’ growth in Egypt and beyond.”

“Roboost is a company we are lucky to stumble upon,” said Ahmed Hazem, Managing Director of Falak. “Not only is Roboost an incredible team with the grit and persistence to build a great solution, but Roboost comes in to offset the environmental impact caused by the quick commerce race while offering a boost to their operations—a win-win situation,” he added. “Roboost is a company we are lucky to stumble upon.”

November 2, 2022