Investor Updates: Nigerian e-commerce platform raises $15m pre-Series A

Nigerian e-commerce platform Omnibiz raises $15m pre-Series A

Highlights

• Omnibiz, a Nigerian B2B e-commerce company, has secured a $15 million pre-Series A investment led by Timon Capital. The raise is structured as a $5M equity and $10M debt investment deal and saw participation from several investors. 
• Present in over 12 cities in Ghana and Nigeria, Omnibiz provides retailers with a fully integrated digital platform, on which they can purchase and restock conveniently from over 200 product brands.
• The funding will help the startup’s planned regional expansion, particularly to second-tier cities in Nigeria like Ilorin, Asaba, and Akure, where retail is growing.

Source: TechCabal

Our Takeaway

Informal retail controls 90% of Africa’s consumer products and retail market with more than $600 billion of consumer goods sold through those channels every year, supplying the vast majority of the 1.2 billion population. In Nigeria, the traditional retail sector is worth more than $200 billion, consisting of over 40 million businesses of varying sizes. However, the industry is faced with several challenges that can be addressed, profitably, with digitization, an opportunity Omnibiz and its counterparts/rivals are looking to seize. Digitizing operations for small businesses in Africa is big business!

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Africa-focused Microtraction hits $15m first close on its pre-seed fund

Highlights

• Microtraction, an early-stage VC firm that invests in pre-seed African startups, has reached the first close of its second fund, Microtraction Community Limited, at $15 million.
• The fund doesn’t have a set target and seeks to write first checks of $100,000 for 7% into startups with an option for a “quick top-up” of up to $350,000, as long as they are not over 25% of the company’s next official fundraising round.
• The target is to invest in 60 startups and provide follow-on investment to 20% of them in their next round. Microtraction has already invested in 20 companies from its second fund.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

An increasing number of small- to medium-sized funds with $10 million to $50 million of capital to deploy are targeting opportunities in Africa and other frontier markets. Uncovered Fund, LoftyInc Capital, Savannah Fund, and Ventures Platform are some of such Africa-focused firms that have launched in the past year. Microtraction’s first fund wrote checks to 19 companies in four countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda in startups that include Cowrywise, 54gene, Raise, Helicarrier, Bitsika, and Lemonade Finance. 

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Kenyan startup Afya Rekod partners with UK’s Medi-Science

Highlights

• The UK’s Medi-science International Limited and Kenya-based startup Afya Rekod have announced a partnership that seeks to transform healthcare delivery through decentralization and improved access to personal health data in Africa and Europe. 
• The partnership will reportedly give patients an accessible record of their own health history, by enabling patients, doctors, and hospitals to host health records securely on one platform through a digital application.
• To protect the confidentiality of records, Afya Rekod uses various AI and blockchain modules, and the patient maintains the sovereign right of ownership of their health data.

Source: ITNewsAfrica

Our Takeaway
Decentralization of healthcare records signifies the modification or change of current healthcare systems. More so, Afya Rekod’s solution is one of many innovative ways the emerging blockchain technology is being used in Africa, apart from finance, and is a much-needed one. On the continent, most health centers and hospitals still largely rely on pen and paper to record and keep health-related information, which is often locked away in files and storage rooms. The partnership comes at a time when healthcare startups are increasingly getting investors’ attention.