Investor Updates: May 11, 2022 - Egypt’s Mylerz closes $9.6m round led by Lorax Capital.

🇪🇬Egypt’s Mylerz closes $9.6m round led by Lorax Capital

Highlights

• Egypt-based last-mile delivery startup Mylerz has closed a $9.6 million round led by Lorax Capital Partners, with participation from Egyptian payment company Fawry.
• Founded in 2019 by Samer Gharaibeh, Mylerz provides its customers with same-day delivery through a fleet of over 350 vehicles and 21 local fulfilment hubs positioned across Egypt.
• The new funding will fuel Mylerz’s expansion plans in North Africa by Q3 2022 as well as allow the startup to construct and open a new AI-enabled, automated 25,000 sqm cross-docking fulfilment centre in Cairo by Q4 2022.

Source: Wamda

Our Takeaway

Mylerz’s fundraising comes at a time when the e-commerce industry in the Middle East and North Africa is fast growing, making its market opportunity substantial. The pandemic-induced boom in Africa’s digital economy is expected to continue its exponential growth trend with the continent’s e-commerce value projected to quadruple by 2030. In the MENA region, the market was worth $8.4 billion in 2014, with an annual growth of 25%, and is predicted to reach $28.5 billion by 2022. With the accelerated adoption of e-commerce induced by COVID-19, these figures are bound to have increased substantially.

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🇩🇿Algeria Venture and AIF launch $10m VC fund

Highlights

• Algeria-based accelerator Algeria Venture (A-Venture) and the Algeria Investment Fund (AIF) have partnered to launch a VC fund targeting $10 million to support startups.
• The partnership aims to provide financing for Algerian startups at all stages from creation, Seed, and up to acceleration that could lead to an IPO.
• The AIF was established in 2021 as a collaboration between the National Bank of Algeria (BNA) and the External Bank of Algeria (BEA).

Source: Algérie Presse Service

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, Ventures Platform, and Tofino are some of such Africa-focused firms that have launched in the past year. For Algeria, the A-Venture-AIF fund will provide financing to startups at various stages of development, and should particularly be a relief for early-stage founders in the tech ecosystem struggling to raise external capital.

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🇳🇬Nigeria-based Identitypass closes $2.8m seed round

Highlights

• Nigerian identity verification startup, Identitypass, has raised $2.8 million in seed funding led by MaC Venture Capital.
• Identitypass plans to expand its existing infrastructure, roll out new verticals around compliance, security and data collection, spread its reach into new African countries and employ more staff.
• The round, which comes a few months after Identitypass raised $360,000 in pre-seed investment, bringing its total funding to $3.1 million, also includes investors such as Y Combinator, Soma Capital, True Capital Fund and Sherwani Capital.

Source: TechEconomy

Our Takeaway

Globally, businesses lose up to $1 trillion annually to cybercrime and in Africa, that figure stands at a whopping $4 billion. As digital services, financial and non-financial, providers penetrate the African market at large, there is a need for fintech startups and digital businesses on the continent to carry out stringent Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and verification checks on their customers. Identitypass is one of the many platforms powering these crucial KYC processes for other startups.