Investor Updates: March 14 2022 - Nigeria’s Moove raises $105m Series A2 round

Nigeria’s Moove raises $105m Series A2 round to scale globally

Highlights

• Nigeria-based mobility fintech startup Moove has raised $105 million in an oversubscribed Series A2 round to scale to seven new markets across Asia, MENA, and Europe over the next six months.
• The startup uses proprietary performance and revenue analytics to underwrite loans to drivers that have previously been excluded from financial services.
• The company is now planning global expansion after closing the Series A2 round consisting of equity and debt, which brings the total investments raised by Moove to $174.5 million.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

Africa’s tech industry is increasingly seeing mega funding rounds (above $100M) like Moove’s latest raise. Last year, the ecosystem witnessed 14 megadeals coming from 12 companies and 48% of total equity funding went to these megadeals. Prior to 2021, only 8 megadeals had been recorded in the entire history of the African funding ecosystem. Moove claims over 3 million rides have been completed in its financed vehicles across six markets and three product categories.

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Egyptian neobank Nexta raises $2.2m pre-seed

Highlights

• Egypt-based fintech Nexta has raised a $2.2 million pre-seed funding round, led by Disruptech with participation from some international investors.
• Founded in 2021 by Ibrahim Farag and Ahmed Hisham, the startup is a “next-generation banking” platform that allows users to transfer money and aggregate their existing payment cards into one Nexta card. 
• Nexta will use its newly acquired funds to launch digital banking solutions, as well as support its effort in expanding its market and continuing its strategic partnerships.

Source: Wamda

Our Takeaway

Riding the wave of the growing influence of online banking, Africa-focused neobanks have been attracting a significant share of fintech investment on the continent. As of last September, digital-only African banks had collectively raised $220 million with some of the leaders in the sub-sector including Tyme Bank, which had raised $123 million in venture funding and Nigeria-based Kuda with $92 million secured.

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Tunisian smart energy startup Wattnow raises $1.3m pre-Series A

Highlights

• Tunisia-based IoT energy management solution Wattnow has closed a $1.3 million pre-Series A funding round, led by Katapult Climate and 216 Capital.
• Founded in 2018 by Issam Smaali, Wattnow helps companies optimize their energy usage and extend the lifetime of their assets in order to reduce costs and their carbon footprint.
• Wattnow will deploy the new funding into boosting its local sales and expand outside of Tunisia, targeting markets in Africa and the Middle East.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

Being a fast-growing continent, Africa is experiencing a heightening usage of energy among companies, homeowners, and industries. This development comes with its challenges of rising energy costs, climate change, and energy depletion. In response, many innovators and startups are springing up across the continent to help counteract these challenges. Investors as well see the opportunity in backing Africa’s energy-focused founders with millions of dollars pouring into startups playing in that space.