In 2021, tech startups operating across Africa have jointly raised over $4 billion in 800 deals, this record increased in fourfold the $1.1 billion that was invested in Africa in 2020 as the global pandemic raged .
Though this is a significant huge improvement for Africa tech industry, it is a measly meal in comparison to the over $650 billion global investment in tech.
While most of the funding for Africa went to fintech startups, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Kenya continued to top the list as the big four — with 80% of the total raised on the continent so far this year (35% for Nigeria alone). This tech start ups are some of the beneficiares of this fundings.
Bamboo
Launched in January 2020, Bamboo is an investment platform that unlocks global markets for Africans by providing real-time access to dollar-denominated assets via its platform. Users can fund with their dollar or local currency balance almost instantly and start investing in stocks.
So far, Bamboo has gained over 300,000 accounts in Nigeria. Meanwhile, an API solution allows asset managers, fintech companies and other consumer-facing platforms and financial institutions to integrate Bamboo’s API and to offer their users global access.
The US$15 million Series A round was led by Greycroft and Tiger Global with participation from Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, Chrysalis Capital and Y-Combinator’s Michael Seibel, amongst others.
With the capital, Bamboo plans to further accelerate its growth, doubling down on unlocking new markets and launching more products. Since Bamboo announced plans to launch in Ghana in April 2021, more than 50,000 Ghanaians have joined the waitlist.
“Our goal is simple: we want to give Africans and their asset managers easy, fast and secure access to global investment options that will allow them to earn real returns. We’re building the technology infrastructure powering financial services in Africa such that if you’re investing in the global capital markets from Africa, you’ll be doing so using Bamboo, directly or indirectly,” said Richmond Bassey, Bamboo’s CEO and co-founder.
Opay
Chinese-backed and Africa-focused fintech company OPay raised $400 million in new financing led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Bloomberg reported Monday, valuing the company at $2 billion.
The round, which marks the fund’s first investment in an African startup, drew participation from existing investors like Sequoia Capital China, Redpoint China, Source Code Capital and Softbank Ventures Asia. Other investors, including DragonBall Capital and 3W Capital, also took part in the new financing round.
This news comes after reports that the company was in talks to raise “up to $400 million at a $1.5 billion valuation” from a group of Chinese investors. The new financing also comes two years after OPay announced two funding rounds in 2019 — $50 million in June and a $120 Millions Series B in November. This Series C round is the largest on record in Africa’s tech scene on par with Jumia’s identical raise in 2016.
Andela
Andela, a fully remote company that helps tech companies build remote engineering teams (initially from Africa but now a global market), is currently valued at $1.5 billion following a $200 million Series E round led by SoftBank’s Softbank Vision Fund 2, the $30 billion venture fund of SoftBank Group.
Joining SoftBank in the investment was new investor Whale Rock and existing investors including Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Spark Capital.
After closing this Series E round, Andela has raised a total of $381 million since being founded in Lagos, Nigeria in 2014, according to Crunchbase data. Its last valuation of $700 million came when the company raised a $100 million Series D in 2019.
Chipper Cash
Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payments company raised $150 million in a Series C extension round led by Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX.
The investment comes barely six months after Chipper Cash closed its first Series C round of $100 million, led by SVB Capital, the corporate venture capital arm of SVB Financial Group.
SVB Capital reinvested in this extension round and other existing investors such as Deciens Capital, Ribbit Capital, Bezos Expeditions, One Way Ventures and Tribe Capital.null
While new investors also participated, they remain unnamed at the moment. The company’s total Series C stands at $250 million but its total funding to date is over $305 million.
Wave
Wave, a U.S. and Senegal-based mobile money provider, has raised $200 million in a Series A round of funding. The investment is the largest-ever Series A round for the region, and it values Wave at $1.7 billion.
Four big-name backers jointly led the round — Sequoia Heritage, an endowment-style fund and a separate entity that operates independently under the Sequoia brand; Founders Fund; payments giant Stripe; and Ribbit Capital. Others in the round include existing investors Partech Africa and Sam Altman, the former CEO of Y Combinator and current CEO of OpenAI.null
The mobile money market in sub-Saharan Africa is growing exponentially. This past year, up to $500 billion has moved through the accounts of 300 million active mobile money users in the region. But despite being one of the largest alternative financial infrastructures known globally, this represents only a fraction of the overall market.
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