Investor Updates: February 25 2022 - Egyptian logistics startup OneOrder launches with $1m funding

Egyptian logistics startup OneOrder launches with $1m funding

Highlights

• OneOrder, a new logistics company looking to solve Egyptian restaurants’ supply chain inefficiencies, has announced its launch and the successful completion of a $1 million fundraise led by A15, a leading Middle East and North Africa (MENA) venture capital firm.
• Founded by Tamer Amer, OneOrder aims to tackle Egypt’s restaurant industry’s main supply chain issues such as pricing, quality, and timing. The startup’s platform allows restaurants to buy all their needs from one application.
• There are similar restaurant supply chain inefficiencies in other countries in MENA and OneOrder aspires to, over time, expand its proposition geographically across the region.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

Given the challenges Egypt’s growing restaurant industry faces due to a fragmented supply chain, many startups have emerged launching technology-enabled solutions to help restaurants manage sourcing and procurement while they focus on delivering a high-quality experience and service to their customers. For these startups, the market opportunity in Egypt and the MENA region is huge as the economy grows rapidly.

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SA startup Bitvice launches bitcoin investment platform

Highlights

• South African startup Bitvice has launched to allow investors to buy bitcoin securely and immediately receive it to their own wallet.
• Founded last year, Bitvice is a bitcoin-only platform that allows investors to make simple secure orders, with automatic weekly, bi-monthly or monthly orders soon to be possible via an automatic Sats Stacker product.
• Bitvice offers self-custodial solutions for investors and entities and provides experienced consultations on how to set up secure self-custodial wallets, based on investors’ risk appetites and requirements. It also works with financial advisors in allocating bitcoin to their client’s portfolios. 

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

Across Africa, the use of cryptocurrencies has been on the rise over the past few years. For Africans, digital currencies offer a swift, convenient, and direct peer-to-peer channel for remittance payments, international commerce, savings, and investments. Although the region captures only 2% of the global value of all cryptocurrencies received and sent, the potential for bitcoin in Africa is particularly good, with Nigeria being the world’s second-largest bitcoin market after the USA.

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Naspers Foundry invests $1m in SA wage access startup Floatpays

Highlights

• South African fintech startup Floatpays, an on-demand earned wage access platform that helps customers build financial wellness, secured $1 million in funding from Naspers Foundry.
• The investment is part of the $4 million round FloatPays announced last month in an oversubscribed seed funding round to help it expand across Africa.
• Naspers is one of the largest technology investors in the world and launched its $96 million Foundry fund in October 2018.

Source: Venture Burn

Our Takeaway

Naspers Foundry is one of Africa’s most notable corporate venture capital units. The investment in Floatpays marks its third fintech investment and its ninth transaction since its launch, with its portfolio including the likes of SweepSouth, Aerobotics, Food Supply Network, The Student Hub, WhereIsMyTransport, Ctrl, and Naked Insurance.