Investor Updates: April 12 2022 - Egypt’s Pylon raises $19m seed round

Egypt’s Pylon raises $19m seed round

Highlights

• Egypt-based infrastructure management platform Pylon has raised $19 million in a Seed funding round comprising equity and debt, led by Endure Capital, Cathexis Ventures, Khawarizmi Ventures, Loftyinc Ventures, and angel investors. 
• Founded in 2017 by Ahmed Ashour and Omar Mohamed Radi, Pylon democratizes smart grid infrastructure to energy and water distribution companies in emerging markets enabling them to capture up to $400 billion of losses and uncollected revenue.
• The investment will accelerate Pylon’s growth via expansion into other emerging markets (Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America) and advance engineering and product development.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

From cloud computing to data, AI to cybersecurity, analytics to IoT, enterprise-focused tech startups are springing up across Africa. There’s also a growing appetite for enterprise tech solutions by organizations that wish to digitize their workplaces and processes and take their services, infrastructure, and profits to the next level. From an estimated market size of $14.2 billion in 2021, for instance, the Middle East and Africa’s cloud computing industry is expected to grow to $31.4 billion by 2026.

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African genetics company BioCertica raises $1.6m seed round

Highlights

• Billed as the first African-based direct-to-consumer genetics company to introduce polygenic risk scoring (PRS) to generate DNA test results, BioCertica has just launched a $1.6 million seed round after raising $650,000 in pre-seed funding.
• PRS results are said to enable BioCertica to provide clients with a much higher resolution DNA result than was previously available in the market.
• This technological advancement is expected to enable African healthcare practitioners to gain deeper insights into their patients’ genetics through the BioCertica Practitioners Platform.

Source: Ventureburn

Our Takeaway

With significant venture capital funding pouring into the tech ecosystem, Africa is seeing a boom in the number of startups solving some of the most challenging health problems of the continent. These range from access to medical care, infant and maternal mortality and rapid diagnostics, genetics, and consistent, convenient monitoring of critical health care needs. Last year, over $4.77 billion was invested in African startups; around $379.6 million of those went to 479 healthcare-focused companies, compared to the $90 million 180 companies received in 2020.

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YC-backed Nigerian startup Lemonade Finance expands to 7 new markets

Highlights

• Users of Nigerian fintech startup Lemonade Finance can now send money to Senegal, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda.
• Founded in 2020 and a participant in Y Combinator’s W21 batch last year, Lemonade Finance allows Africans abroad to send and receive money from their home countries. Its app allows users to hold their balances in the currencies that matter to them, easily converting one to the other.
• The company already offered local and international transfers to Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Canada, and the United Kingdom (UK) and makes international transfers at the real market exchange rate.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

Africa is the most expensive region to send money to, with 10.6% in average transaction fees. Although most of the traditional players that charge high commission rates still dominate the space, a number of digital-first platforms like Lemonade Finance have sprung up in recent years offering lower rates to Africans, hoping to seize the lucrative business opportunity for remittance. Lemonade claims to have thousands of users across North America and Europe, and in the wake of its YC participation raised a $725,000 pre-seed funding round that featured the likes of Microtraction, Ventures Platform, and Acuity Venture Partners.