A collection of news across the African private equity and venture capital industry |
Esusu becomes unicorn with SoftBank Vision Fund 2-led US$130mn funding
Esusu, a fintech that targets immigrant and minority groups and provides rent reporting and data solutions for credit building, said Thursday it has raised $130 million in a Series B fundraising round. The investment gives four-year-old Esusu a valuation of $1 billion, placing it as one of the very few black-owned unicorns in the U.S. and globally.
Source: Tech Crunch
Asaak raises US$30m in funding; partners with Standard Bank
Asaak, an African asset financing startup, has secured US$30 million of debt and equity capital in part by a successful pre-series A raise. Asaak is the first investment in Africa for many of its US-based VC backers, underscoring the opportunity for a platform like Asaak to address the continent’s asset financing gap.
Source: African Private Equity News
Tiger Global and Greycroft back Nigerian investment app Bamboo in US$15M round
Bamboo, launched in January 2020, is one such platform in Nigeria. Following two years of significant growth and raising $2.4 million to facilitate it, the investment firm is announcing that it has raised $15 million in a new financing round. U.S.-based Greycroft and Tiger Global co-led the Series A round (it’s the second Tiger Global-led investment announced this month after Ghanaian fintech Float).
Source: Tech Crunch
Growth-stage startups in Africa to get huge boost as Flutterwave CEO, others set up US$200m fund
The Norrsken Foundation has partnered with Flutterwave CEO, Olugbenga Agboola as well as thirty unicorn entrepreneurs and a few seasoned venture capital and private equity investors to create a $200 million fund aimed at African growth-stage startups.
Source: Tech Next
NBK Capital provides $10m to Uber’s African vehicle supply partner
NBK Capital Partners Mezzanine Fund II closed a $10 million financing facility with Uber’s exclusive vehicle supply partner in Africa, the mobility fintech Moove. The growth facility from the fund will support Moove’s expansion in West Africa initially, executives said. Moove is the first investment in Africa by NBK Capital Partners funds, underscoring the opportunity for a platform like Moove to address the continent’s vehicle financing gap.
Source: African Private Equity News
Tanzanian fintech NALA raises US$10M seed to build Revolut for Africa
NALA, a Tanzanian cross-border payments company that recently pivoted from local to international money transfers, said Thursday it has raised $10 million in a new fundraising round. The seed round is coming almost three years after NALA secured a seven-figure pre-seed round led by Accel in 2019.
Source: Tech Crunch
Nestcoin raises $6.45M pre-seed to accelerate crypto and web3 adoption in Africa and frontier markets
New technologies such as crypto and web3 provide hope to Africans to play a massive role in defining what it looks like in the years to come. Nestcoin, a company founded last November that builds, operates and invests in web3 applications, wants to be pivotal in this transition and has raised a $6.45 million pre-seed round to that end.
Source: Tech Crunch