Investor Updates: April 15 2022 - SA-founded Luno hits new milestone

SA-founded Luno hits new milestone with 10m customers

Highlights

• Luno, the crypto company founded by two South Africans, now has 10 million customers in over 40 countries. Luno’s latest one million customers were onboarded in just six months.
• Luno allows customers to buy crypto for as little as R1 in line with its mission to put the power of crypto in everyone’s hands.
• South Africa is one of Luno’s strongest and most active markets. Customer growth in the country is almost 40% year-on-year while over 40% of the new customers added in the last six months are based in the home market.

Source: TechCabal

Our Takeaway

Luno’s growth reflects the broader crypto industry’s resilience following a volatile year. According to Chainalysis, the value of Africa’s cryptocurrency market rose to $105.6 billion between July 2020 and June 2021, a 1,200% surge, despite repeated efforts by governments on the continent to stifle adoption. Considering the prevailing unfavorable macroeconomic conditions in most African countries that have so far propelled adoption by Africans still persist—including weak currencies, high unemployment rates, and low-income levels—we anticipate increased crypto uptake going forward.

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Endeavor Harvest Fund II closes at $13m

Highlights

• Endeavor South Africa has raised double its initial target for Harvest Fund II with R190 million raised in the fund’s final close. 
• Harvest Fund II is a founder-aligned, rules-based, co-investing fund, into a vetted pipeline of medium-sized, high-growth SA founded Endeavor Entrepreneurs which are enrolled in its global program.
• The fund has invested in 10 companies since its first close in 2021 with headline-grabbing participation in Clickatell and Flexclub rounds the obvious highlights.

Source: Daily Maverick

Our Takeaway

Endeavor Harvest Fund II invested in 10 companies in its first year, making it the most active VC fund in South Africa and one widely recognized as highly efficient. Fund II follows the terms of the lead investor, enabling Endeavor to actively assist entrepreneurs to raise capital through access to its investor network and supporting them negotiate terms with the lead investor before Fund II joins the round. This strategy enables Fund II to rapidly deploy capital into its network of Endeavor Entrepreneurs and stay aligned with the founder.

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Africa’s startup funding bucks global trend in Q1

Highlights

• African startups had a very solid Q1 2022 in terms of VC investment, both in dollars and in deal volume, at a time when venture funding was simultaneously declining in the US, Asia, and Latin America.
• According to Briter Bridges, $1.77 billion of VC funding went into African tech in Q1 2022. That’s close to the $1.8 billion estimate from Africa-focused newsletter, The Big Deal.
• Regardless, the fact that it is trending in the other direction as most of the world is curious.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

In what was a record year for venture funding in Africa, startups on the continent raised more than $4 billion in 2021. This year, African startups secured more than $1 billion in a record seven weeks, prompting predictions startup funding in Africa may reach $7.3 billion at the end of 2022. The continent however still accounts for a small fraction of global VC activity. According to CB Insights’ latest Venture Trends report, African startups attracted a mere 1% of all funding last quarter, with a 2% deal share, indicating more room for growth.