Nigerian restaurant management startup Orda, which raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding led by LoftyInc Capital earlier this year, has now secured $3.4 million in a seed round.
The new round was co-led by Quona Capital and FinTech Collective with participation from Far Out Ventures and Outside VC and some angels. Existing backers Norrsken Foundation, LoftyInc Capital and Enza Capital chipped in again.
Launched in 2020, Orda operates a cloud-based restaurant management system that is currently available in Nigeria and Kenya. It was founded by Guy Futi, Fikayo Akinwale, Mark Edomwande, Kunle Ogungbamila and Namir El-Khouri.
Badili
Kenyan smartphone re-commerce startup, Badili, has secured $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round from Venture Catalysts, V&R Africa, Grenfell holdings and SOSV, besides some family offices and angel investors from Africa and India.
Cofounded by Rishabh Lawania (CEO) and Keshu Dubey (CTO) earlier this year, Badili is present in its home market currently and is launching operations in Uganda and Tanzania with plans to go to West Africa soon.
Owoafara
Nigerian fintech Owoafara has raised an undisclosed amount from Mauritius-based ShEquity, an African impact investment firm, which has deployed all its corpus across nine ventures.
Led by Tale Alimi, Owoafara offers digital banking encompassing payments, credits, savings, health insurance and pensions on a single platform.
Mobility for Africa
InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), has signed an agreement committing $2 million to scale the offering of Mobility for Africa, an electric mobility company delivering affordable, cargo-carrying e-tricycles and solar-powered battery charging solutions for underserved communities in rural Zimbabwe.
Mobility for Africa’s Director and CEO, Shantha Bloemen said of the investment, “It will allow us to demonstrate how our fleet management system can be replicated to many rural communities.”
Known locally as ‘Hambas,’ Mobility for Africa’s electric three-wheelers service the daily transport needs of small-scale farmers – often women’s cooperative groups – who buy or lease the trikes to transport their produce to markets. Reduced journey times and access to markets in larger towns enable farmers to sell their produce at higher prices whilst also minimising post-harvest losses and increasing income generation.
For InfraCo, this is the first investment in Zimbabwe.
The investment will finance four hundred new Hambas, six hundred batteries and eight new charging stations at strategic locations across eastern Zimbabwe.
Solarise Africa
Kenya-based energy leasing company Solarise Africa, which raised $5.9 million in debt from Swedish impact investment platform Trine last year, has received commitment for $33.4 million multi-currency loan facility from Lion’s Head Group-managed funds, the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI), AfricaGoGreen and Oikocredit.
The investment will support Solarise Africa’s solar and energy efficiency solutions for small and medium enterprises and other commercial and industrial businesses.
FEI acted as the lead arranger for the loan, investing $21.4 million, followed by Oikocredit with $7 million and AfricaGoGreen with $5 million.
Founded by Patrik Huber, Jan Albert Valk and Sakkie van Wijk, Solarise Africa had raised $10 million in a Series B funding round two years ago.
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