Investor Updates: June 14 2022 - MFS Africa raises $100m Series C extension

MFS Africa raises $100m Series C extension

Highlight

• Pan-African digital payments network, MFS Africa, has raised $100 million in equity and debt, additional funding that takes its Series C round to $200 million. It raised the first tranche last November.
• Investors from its first Series C round doubled down while the fintech also received capital from new investors. Debt financing came from Stanbic IBTC Bank and Symbiotic.
• The new investment will allow MFS Africa to continue its expansion plans across Africa; further integrate into the global digital payment ecosystem; expand into Asia and create cross-border payments synergies with Africa, and carry out its growth plans for Baxi.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

MFS Africa is one of the continent’s largest and fastest-growing fintech startups, having raised hundreds of millions in VC funding. Known for its acquisition-led expansions, it recently bought US-based GTP, a deal that came after the purchase of Baxi, an agent banking platform in Nigeria. Buying GTP—a very rare deal that sees an African tech company buy up a US-based one—was its first acquisition beyond the continent. The acquisition marked a further evolution of Africa’s rapidly growing fintech scene and its Series C extension sets the company on a path to further growth.

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Launch Africa Ventures closes first fund at $36.3m

Highlights

• Pan-African venture capital fund Launch Africa Ventures today is announcing the close of its $36.3 million fund, which it has primarily used to invest in B2B and B2B2C startups across Africa. 
• Following the successful closure, Fund 1 announced its 100th investment at the end of May, with $24 million so far invested in early-stage tech and tech-enabled companies. 
• Launch Africa claims to have backed 108 startups across 21 African countries, including the likes of Nigerian neobank Kuda, Kenyan B2B e-commerce retail platform MarketForce and Tunisian ed-tech startup GOMYCODE.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

Launch Africa’s fund close only further signals a strong investor appetite for opportunities in emerging markets, especially Africa. An increasing number of small- to medium-sized funds with $10 million to $50 million of capital to deploy are targeting opportunities in the continent. Uncovered Fund, LoftyInc Capital, Savannah Fund, and Ventures Platform are some of such Africa-focused firms that have launched in the past year. 

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Nigeria’s VeendHQ raises $330k in pre-seed funding round

Highlights

• VeendHQ, an embedded finance technology company that enables micro-lenders, banks, and merchants to embed credit into various ecosystems, has raised a $330,000 pre-seed fund.
• The funding round saw participation from Magic Fund, The Oak Capital, Future Africa, Berrywood Capital, and other angel investors.
• With the fund, the startup plans to expand its operation and scale significantly in line with its goal of building an embedded finance infrastructure for Africa. It plans to integrate with more ecosystems and financial institutions and build products.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

Access to credit remains out of reach of many Africans and is a major barrier to the growth of many small businesses. There’s an estimated trade finance gap of $81 billion on the continent. It’s also a problem investors are particularly keen to address as they get attractive returns as evident in VeendHQ’s fundraising. It is address this problem by providing easy and fast access to credit, leveraging a credit infrastructure platform that automates lending processes for lenders and connects them to borrowers through various origination channels.