The Flip

These 3 African startups raised $12.5 million last week. 1. Omnisient - Collaborative Consumer Intelligence 2. SUKHIBA 3. Ampersand Energy Here's the funding tracker for week 35 (25th Aug - 1st Sept 2024): 3. Ampersand Ampersand offers electric motorcycles and a battery swap station network to power the motorcycle taxi drivers of East Africa. ・Amount raised: $2 million ・Lead investor: AHL Venture Partners ・Location: Rwanda ・Type of investment: Equity financing 2. Sukhiba SUKHIBA is a conversational commerce and CRM platform built on top of WhatsApp. ・Amount raised: $3 million ($1.5 million seed round & $1.5 million seed extension) ・Lead investor: EQ2 Ventures ・Location: Kenya ・Type of investment: Equity financing 1. Omnisient Omnisient is an AI and data analytics startup that helps financial institutions and consumer businesses collaborate and gain insights from consumer data. ・Amount raised: $7.5 million   ・Lead investor: Arise ・Location: South Africa  ・Type of investment: Equity financing Want more insights and stories from entrepreneurs around the continent to help make building easier? Subscribe to our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dFw3dXe

Per Gartner, 65% of e-commerce businesses say AI boosts customer satisfaction. chpter. , an AI-powered social commerce platform, has raised $1.2 million to boost its tech and expand into Ghana and Nigeria. Here are the details: Founded in 2021 by Mark Kiarie and Kuria Kevin… But partnered with Tesh Mbaabu, and Mesongo Sibuti, co-founders of MarketForce in 2022. Chpter is transforming how businesses use social media. Chpter transforms WhatsApp and Instagram into effective sales channels by integrating chat, order, and payment functions. This all-in-one solution has already drawn major clients like Britam and Kicks Kenya, showing early success in Kenya and South Africa. The recent $1.2 million funding round was led by Ken Njoroge’s investment firm, PANI. It also saw participation from Plesion Capital, Techstars, Norrsken, Renew Capital, and ViKtoria Ventures. But that’s not all—prominent angel investors also jumped on board. Among the angel investors are notable figures like Benjamin Fernandes from NALA, Paul Kimani 🇰🇪🌍 and Jackson Kibigo, co-founders of Workpay. Chpter’s rapid growth hasn’t gone unnoticed. The startup was accepted into the Norrsken Accelerator and the Safaricom PLC Spark Accelerator, programs that have provided critical training and mentorship. Strengthening Chpter’s position in the market. Now, with plans to expand into five new markets across sub-Saharan Africa, Chpter is focusing on enhancing its technology and scaling operations. This next phase will be crucial in shaping the future of social commerce across the continent. ------------------------------------------ Want more insights and stories from entrepreneurs around the continent to help make building easier? Subscribe to our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dFw3dXe

Africa's youth will shape the global workforce. But HR systems are still stuck in the past—until now. Here’s how Seye Bandele and Lekan Omotosho’s PaidHR (formerly Pade) processed $16 million+ fixing it:

Sneha Mehta, CFA on the role of perseverance in building a thriving business:

This is how African startups raised last week: (Week 34 Funding Tracker, August 19th - 25th, 2024). 2. Workpay Workpay provides an all-in-one cloud-based payroll and HR platform. It handles every stage of the employee and contractor lifecycle, from onboarding to offboarding. ・Amount raised: $5 million ・Lead investor: Norrsken22   ・Location: Kenya ・Type of investment: Equity financing 1. Waza (YC W23) Waza is a platform that provides payment and liquidity solutions for businesses in emerging markets. ・Amount raised: $8 million ・Lead investor: Y Combinator et al. ・Location: Nigeria ・Type of investment: Hybrid Financing (Equity + Debt) Want more insights and stories from entrepreneurs around the continent to help make building easier? Subscribe to our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dFw3dXe

This is Odunayo Eweniyi. At 26, her startup had already helped Nigerians save $15 million. This is how one tweet changed the future of savings and investment in West Africa: On New Year's Eve in 2015, Piggyvest's future CMO was scrolling through Twitter. A viral tweet caught their eye—a woman in Nigeria had saved 1,000 naira daily in a wooden box for a year. She shared her success online, sparking a trend. But the team saw more than just a trend… Instead of following the crowd to buy wooden boxes, the co-founders saw an opportunity. They thought, “What if we could use technology to help people save money in a smarter way?” And just like that, the idea for PiggyVest was born. The team was young—then Odun was only 22, and the co-founders were around the same age. They aimed to help young people save money automatically. But as they worked on the platform, they noticed some serious challenges in the Nigerian banking system… People had bank accounts, but their money often dwindled due to charges. And in a cash-based economy with no credit system, saving up large amounts upfront was crucial for big purchases. So, the team designed PiggyVest to make saving easier and more effective. The idea came to life on December 31, 2015, and within two weeks, co-founder Somto built the first version of PiggyVest. They launched it as Piggybank, which later became PiggyVest. But the first year was tough—there was growth, but no profit. The team was learning as they went. In their first year, PiggyVest helped users save ₦21 million. But they were still figuring out who their product was really for. The CMO, Joshua, personally handled customer service, alongside Odunayo, the COO. This hands-on approach taught them what their users really needed. Before PiggyVest, the team tried several other ventures, each with its challenges. By the end of 2015, they were nearly out of money and had to make tough decisions. But then came the viral tweet about the wooden box—a new direction was clear. In 2017, a partnership with a commercial bank helped PiggyVest gain the trust they needed. By the end of that year, they had helped users save ₦700 million. Things were finally starting to make sense. And this was just the beginning. By 2018, PiggyVest had helped people save ₦4.5 billion. By 2020, during the Covid year, they had paid back over ₦90 billion to users without any complaints. Through it all, their focus remained on one thing—making sure customers could always get their money back. Want more insights and stories from entrepreneurs around the continent, to help make building a little bit easier? Subscribe to our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dFw3dXe

I'm no Mr. Beast, but I'm becoming a pretty good YouTuber 😅 This year, The Flip has leaned heavily into video. We started as a narrative-style, audio-only podcast, and for a long time I wanted to start telling visual stories. It always felt pretty daunting - and it's a lot more work and cost production-wise! - but we started to record everything with a camera around this time last year. And a few months back, we published our first documentary-style video! So why video? I believe that if we want to help people understand what's happening across the continent, it's best to *show* them and not just tell them. Some stories, especially from the continent, are just better told visually. But also - and I don't think I fully appreciated this until we started properly publishing - YouTube is an amazing distribution tool. As much as content creators talk about content repurposing and distribution across other channels, the single best way to grow an audience is to learn how to get good at telling stories on YouTube. For us, *by far* the majority of our viewers come from the algorithm - YouTube's Browse Features and Suggested videos - and not from anything we do off-platform. So I'm on a mission to tell better stories about Africa. I'm proud of what we've published and how much our audience has grown on YouTube so far. PS, if you haven't seen any of our work, here's a fun video we recently published on how small, informal retailers grow, which was filmed on a recent trip to Lagos. Check it out and Subcribe 🙏 👉 https://lnkd.in/eDefFcpu

This Y Combinator backed startup helps African businesses manage and pay suppliers globally. And now, with an $8 million boost, they’re set to take on new markets beyond Nigeria Ghana: Waza (YC W23) was founded by Maxwell Obi and Emmanuel Igbodudu in 2022…

Temie Giwa - Tubosun on using technology to make basic systems more effective and scalable:

Studies show that female-led startups generate 35% more ROI. But in 2023, female-led startups raised 86% less than male-led ones. Here's why Eloho Omame thinks now is the best time to invest in female-led startups: