Investor Insights: Instabug Raises $46m | Nile Receives $5m | Zuri Health Expands

Egypt’s Instabug raises $46m Series B

Highlights

• Egypt-founded and US-based bug reporting platform Instabug has raised a $46 million Series B funding round, led by Insight Partners with participation from existing and new investors.
• Founded in 2016 in Cairo, Instabug is a mobile monitoring, crash, and bug reporting solution for mobile teams. It aims to help developers better understand the performance of their mobile applications and their impact on user experience.
• Instabug counts DoorDash, Porsche, and Gojek among its clients, and the investment will be used to develop partnerships with even more enterprises.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

As mobile-first solutions uptake by individuals and enterprises in Africa keeps growing, Instabug is strongly positioned to lead the nascent mobile app observability and monitoring space. The capital raise follows record growth in 2021, in which Instabug reached more than 2.7 billion mobile devices, and processed 110 billion mobile sessions and 4.2 billion issues.

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Naspers backs fresh produce startup Nile in $5m round

Highlights

• South Africa-based Naspers, through its early-stage tech investment vehicle Naspers Foundry, has announced a $2.5 million investment in Nile, an agritech company that connects farmers to buyers of fresh produce.
• The investment is part of a $5 million equity round that involved other investors Platform Investment Partners, Raba Capital, and Base Capital.
• Nile was founded in 2020 to provide farmers with digital solutions that can address various pain points inherent to food trading – including price transparency, quality verification, speed of payments, the traceability of the produce and food waste.

Source: Ventureburn

Our Takeaway

Naspers Foundry is one of Africa’s most notable corporate venture capital units. The investment in Nile marks its tenth investment since its launch in 2019 and forms part of Naspers’s $90 million commitment to grow South Africa’s tech ecosystem. Its portfolio includes the likes of SweepSouth, Aerobotics, Food Supply Network, The Student Hub, WhereIsMyTransport, Ctrl, and Naked Insurance. 

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Zuri Health gets $1.3m to expand across Africa

Highlights

• Kenyan-based health tech startup offering mobile-based healthcare has received $1.3 million in pre-seed funding from DOB Equity, Launch Africa, and Founders Factory Africa to expand across Africa.
• Zuri Health connects mass-market patients with healthcare services via SMS, WhatsApp, and a dedicated app. The company initially launched in Kenya in January 2021 but is now present in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia. 
• The startup plans to use this recent investment to further build out its digital platform, grow its product offerings and launch operations in new markets. 

Source: Company statement

Our Takeaway
Efforts to scale quality healthcare services affordably remain a challenge across Africa. The World Economic Forum reports that the continent bears 25% of the world’s disease burden but only has 2% of the world’s doctors. This highlights why innovation, led by startups like Zuri, is needed in Africa’s healthcare space. The company claims to have so far partnered with 16+ major mobile network operators in seven countries with over 400,000 SMS subscribers, over 300 doctors, 27 lab and diagnostic centers, and 15 pharmacies across its markets.