Investor Updates: February 10 2022 - YC-backed Nigerian fintech Duplo raises $1.3 pre-seed.

YC-backed Nigerian fintech Duplo raises $1.3 pre-seed 

Highlights

• Duplo, a Lagos-based startup building a payments operations platform for businesses, raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round led by early-stage pan-African VC firm Oui Capital.
• Last November, Duplo got into Y Combinator and is taking part in the accelerator’s current winter batch. Its solution addresses inefficiencies in payment processes, predominantly cash-based, in the FMCG sector.
• The startup plans to spend most of the funding on improving its product, tech, and sales as well as move into other sectors asides from FMCG retail.

Source: TechCrunch

Our Takeaway

Informal players account for up to 90% of businesses in Africa and represent a massive opportunity waiting to be tapped by Africa’s budding technology startups. Alerzo, TradeDepot, OmniBiz, and Duplo are some of the players creating digital products for the different segments of SME operation in Africa with sufficient backing from venture investors. Essentially, layering digital solutions on offline business activity—from payments to inventory management and fulfilment—helps merchants operate efficiently and scale while generating returns for the startups and venture backers.

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Google backs South African startups and small businesses

Highlights

• Google has unpacked a number of grants to support South African startups, small businesses, and nonprofits in a bid to accelerate digital transformation and help the country’s economic recovery.
• This follows announcements made in October last year where Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, announced a plan to invest $1 billion over five years to support Africa’s digital transformation.
• These investments are focused on enabling fast, affordable internet access across the continent; building helpful products; supporting entrepreneurship and small business; and helping African nonprofits to improve lives.

Source: Venture Burn

Our Takeaway 

Until now, Google’s investments in African startups had been through its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program and the $10 million Black Founders Fund. The former has so far supported over 80 startups in seed to Series A stages, providing equity-free mentorship and resources. Now through the recently launched Africa Investment Fund, Google plans to invest up to $50 million in African early- and growth-stage startups, ramping up efforts to support more tech startups on the continent.

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Meta shuts down its low-cost internet program across Africa

Highlights

• Meta recently pulled the plug on its Express Wi-Fi program, which is designed to provide low-cost internet in developing countries through partnerships with local communities, mobile operators, and businesses.
• The decision comes barely a year after the Facebook parent company partnered with Eutelsat Konnect, a satellite operator, to expand the low-cost internet service in parts of DR Congo, Nigeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Cameroon, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, South Africa, and Uganda.
• In countries like Kenya, the service has been unavailable since mid-December 2020 and is currently active in over 30 countries across Africa, Asia, and South America.

Source: Tech Nova

Our Takeaway

The move by Meta is the latest in a series of canceled internet projects in Africa by big corporations, all of which cast doubt over the viability of achieving continent-wide internet coverage. In a similar fashion, Google shut down project Loon, one of its low-cost internet projects active in Kenya, about a year ago. Although while Meta is winding down Express Wi-Fi, the company has said it is focusing on other projects around internet access. In a continent of 1.2 billion people, internet connectivity stands at less than 25%.