Afridigest Week in Review: Copious capital for agent-led e-commerce

+Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) officially enters Africa +African startup SPACs +Gaussian vs Pareto distributions +Global internet use +A ton of essays

Emeka Ajene

Jan 25

The Afridigest Week in Review is a must-read weekly recap for Africa-focused founders, executives, and investors, as well as interested observers. Share it liberally. 😊

Welcome back, friends! The most clicked link from last week was 'The Trust Paradox.' There was a LOT of activity in Week 3 making for a very long email. Click here to read the web version. Let’s get into it!

If you’re new, welcome 🙌 — you’ll receive a weekly digest like this one every Monday (sometimes Tuesday) and, generally (but not always), an original essay/article on Saturdays. For past essays and digests, visit the archive.

Week 3 2022: January 16-22

Commerce Shop — Credit: *Guillaume Kurkdjian*

📰 Deal of the Week

AGENT-LED E-COMMERCE

Copia Global, a Kenyan B2C e-commerce company, raised a $50M Series C led by Goodwell Investments with participation from new investors Zebu Investment Partners, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and Koa Labs, and existing investors Lightrock, DEG, and Perivoli Innovations. This takes Copia’s total funding since its 2013 inception to ~$84M.

💡 Why it’s the deal of the week: We’re big fans of agent network-led & -adjacent businesses/initiatives across the continent and Copia is among the leaders in the e-commerce space; it provides a stark contrast to Western e-commerce models as profiled in last year’s piece on how offline agent networks are driving Africa's digital development.

The company is effectively a catalogue-based distribution system that leverages technology, mobile payment systems, proprietary logistics, and a network of ~25,000 agents (nearly 80% of whom are women) who serve as order, delivery, and pick up points in an interesting blend of online & offline commerce in rural parts of Kenya and Uganda.

“This helps to create the viability of the model from a cost and unit economics perspective. But it also means that we don’t suffer the same issues many e-commerce companies face where deliveries fail because the receiver is not available at the location. Our agents are always there because they’re running their businesses.” — CEO Tim Steel

⛏️ Go deeper:

Traction: Copia now has ~1.4M unique customers (a figure which the CEO says is currently doubling approximately every 12 months); it delivers to thousands of customers daily and has fulfilled more than 10M orders since its 2013 inception
Use of funds:
- Copia intends to deepen its market coverage in Kenya and Uganda and expand across East Africa to Rwanda and Tanzania
- It’s also considering future expansion into Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi
Agent networks as the next ‘leapfrogging’ tech: According to Els Boerhof, Managing Partner at Goodwell Investments, “Copia’s e-commerce model is built for the unique requirements of the African market and will save many Africans a lot of time and money. We see it as one of the next big leapfrogging technologies; just like mobile phones leapfrogged landlines and solar power leapfrogged the grid, Copia is leapfrogging retail.”
A deeper look: Watch testimonials from Copia agents & customers in this 2016 video:

🔦 Other deals

A DOWNPOUR OF DEALS, A TORRENT OF TRANSACTIONS

Poa Internet, a Kenyan internet service provider, announced the first close of a $28M Series C led by AfDB-backed Africa50, with participation from Novastar Ventures — Since its 2016 start, Poa has provided internet to 12,000 home customers and thousands of street Wi-Fi users in Kibera, Kawangware, Jamhuri and Kabiria in Nairobi and in areas of Kiambu and Ting’ang’a; the funding will be used to broaden coverage across Kenya and expand to other markets
Asaak, a Ugandan mobility-focused tech-enabled asset financing platform, raised a $30M (debt & equity) pre-Series A from Resolute Ventures, Social Capital, HOF Capital, Founders Factory Africa, End Poverty Make Trillions, Decentralized VC, and others — Asaak works with platforms like Bolt, Jumia, Safeboda, and Uber to create driver credit scores, then offers financing with an interest rate of 1 -4%; Asaak has financed ~5,000 motorcycles since 2019 and has started providing smartphones and fuel financing as well. (The debt/equity split was not disclosed)
Carry1st, a South African publisher of mobile games & interactive content for the African market, raised a $20M Series A extension round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Avenir, Google’s Africa Investment Fund, and existing investors Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures and TTV Capital — Carry1st handles user acquisition, operations, community management and monetization for its partners which include Tilting Point, publisher of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off, CrazyLabs, and Raketspel; this is a16z’s first African investment (excluding US firms Zipline and Branch) and Google AIF’s second announced investment
Finclusion, a pan-African financial services group focused on AI-driven alternative credit scoring models, raised a $20M (debt & equity) pre-Series A with the equity portion coming from Future Africa & others, and the debt financing coming from local currency funds in Eswatini and South Africa — Finclusion will now transition to a neobank strategy; since 2018 it has disbursed over $300M worth of loans to more than 240,000 customers up until this point. (The debt/equity split was not disclosed)
Float (formerly Swipe), a Ghanaian cash flow management and digital lending platform for SMEs, raised a $17M seed round ($7M equity/$10M debt) co-led by Tiger Global and JAM Fund with participation from Kinfolk, Soma Capital, Ingressive Capital, Magic Fund, and others, and with Cauris providing the debt portion — Since its launch less than a year ago, Float has onboarded hundreds of businesses who have reached $10M in credit spend and cash advances cumulatively
Orderin, a South African Delivery-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform raised a $4.7M pre-series B — Founded in 2012 as South Africa’s first food delivery platform, Orderin shut down its consumer business in 2020 and relaunched as a B2B DaaS platform serving other businesses like McDonalds and Pick n Pay; it has a delivery network of ~2000 couriers and has raised ~$20M to date with Orderin Chairman Dr. Lutz Mieschke (of Switzerland’s Mieschke Investments) being one of its main investors
PAPS, a Senegalese tech-enabled B2B logistics & delivery platform, raised a $4.5M pre-Series A co-led by 4DX Ventures and Orange with participation from new investors Yamaha, LoftyInc Capital, Proparco, Google Ventures, To.org, Kepple Ventures, and Enza Capital and existing investors Uma Ventures and Saviu Ventures — Founded in 2016, PAPAS operates in Senegal and Ivory Coast and has made over 10M deliveries to date; its clients include DHL, FedEx, Jumia, Glovo, and Sokowatch
Sote, a Kenyan/American tech-enabled customs clearing/forwarding & supply chain finance platform, raised a $4M seed extension round led by Social Capital with participation from MaC Venture Capital, K50 Ventures, and others — This brings Sote’s total funding raised to date to $8.4M; as of Dec 2021, the company was growing customers 370% y-o-y and revenue 200% y-o-y
ExpandCart, an Egyptian e-commerce platform focused on the MENA region, raised a $2.7M Series B led by the Betatron Venture Group, with participation from Sawari Ventures and Agility Ventures — Founded in 2016, ExpandCart has over 25,000 merchants on its platform who it says have generated more than $850M worth of profits across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE
Orcas, an Egyptian digital live learning platform, raised a $2.1M pre-Series A co-led by CIRA’s NFX Ventures and Access Bridge Ventures, with participation from Algebra Ventures, Launch Africa Ventures, Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund, and Seedstars International — This is the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund’s first investment
Orda (formerly StarKitchens), a Nigerian restaurant management operating system, raised $1.1M pre-seed led by LoftyInc Capital, with participation from Techstars Boulder, Magic Fund, Hustle Fund, Norrsken Foundation, Microtraction, DFS Labs, Oxford Seed Fund, Enza Capital, Agrolay Advisors, and others — Orda is currently growing GMV 15% w-o-w and processing ~10,000 transactions weekly
Zanifu, a Kenyan SME financing platform, raised a $1M seed round from Saviu Ventures, Launch Africa Ventures, Sayani Investments, and others — Officially launched in 2018, Zanifu has disbursed over 85,000 loans worth over $13M to over 7,000 MSME's in Kenya
Frain, a Nigerian platform building global developer tools, raised a $473K pre-seed led by Rally Cap Ventures, with participation from Musha Ventures, Future Africa, and others — Frain’s first product is a cloud-based webhook service and its customers include Buycoins, Termii, GetWallets, and Dojah
Nine African startups were accepted into Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 batch — YC invests $125K in exchange for 7%, plus an additional $375K at the most favorable terms of the next equity round
- beU Delivery, an Ethiopian on-demand food delivery platform with super app ambitions
- Numida, a Ugandan B2B financing platform targeting microbusinesses
- Tendo, a Ghanaian e-commerce reselling & enablement platform
- Topship, a Nigerian international shipping platform
- Moni, a Nigerian financing platform for mobile money agents
- IdentityPass, a Nigerian identity verification and compliance platform
- Dojah, a Nigerian KYC, identity, and user onboarding platform
- Touch and Pay, a Nigerian NFC-enabled payments platform
- Frain, a Nigerian platform building global developer tools
Chari, a Moroccan B2B e-commerce marketplace, raised an undisclosed bridge round at a $100M valuation led by Khwarizmi Ventures, Air Angels and Afri Mobility (the venture capital arm of Moroccan conglomerate AKWA Group) — The funds will be used to pilot BNPL services, and if successful, to acquire a local credit company to enable shop owners to lend money to their end-users and further grow their business; Ismael Belkhayat, Co-Founder/CEO, added that Chari is now looking to raise a $30M Series A at a valuation between $150M and $200M

ADJACENT

Aceleron, a British sustainable battery technology startup, raised a ~$6.8M Series A from Mobility54, the Business Growth Fund, and Mercia — The funds will be used to accelerate battery innovation across Africa; Aceleron began its Africa operations in 2021 where it assembles repurposed and reconditioned battery packs for use by local communities

DEBT

Bboxx, a Pay-As-You Go solar home system and LPG clean cooking stove solution provider in DRC, Rwanda, Togo, Kenya, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, obtained a $5.5M medium-term senior secured loan from the Africa Go Green Fund for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency — Bboxx, whose head office is in the UK, has deployed more than 500,000 solar home systems and has over 1000 staff across nine offices across Africa and elsewhere

CHALLENGES/GRANTS/OTHER

13 clean energy startups were announced as winners of the annual United State African Development Foundation (USADF)’s Nigeria Off-Grid Energy Challenge: A1 Power Technologies, Alabaster Agro-Allied Industries, Bols N Sels Technologies, CeeSolar Energy, Elvees Engineering, Enercity Smart Grid, First Electric, GreenPower Overseas, Manamuz Electric, Novel Integrated Services, PowerStove Off-Grid Electricity, Sendavis Nigeria Limited, and Uwana Energy — The start-ups will each receive $50K in convertible debt and $50K in grant funding

FUNDS

Global Ventures, a UAE-based VC firm focused on startups in Africa and the Middle East, announced an investment of $1.5M from Jordanian investment company Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund (ISSF) — Global Ventures’ focus is on the pre-seed to Series A stages and in December it announced that it’s close to raising a target $100M second fund. The Global Ventures portfolio includes TeamApt, Helium Health, and MAX in sub-Saharan Africa and Cartona, Paymob, Kitopi, & more across the MENA region.

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The Afridigest Week in Review is designed to inform Africa-interested founders, executives, investors, and observers. Share it with those interested in innovation across the continent. 🙏

📚 Quick Hits

FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE

We need to let go of the bell curve — “Most of us view the world as largely Gaussian, which means we believe most things are distributed, or should be distributed, according to bell curves… Yet they aren’t… The realization that we live in a largely Pareto world — inherently unfair, asymmetric, and unpredictable — may feel unpleasant at first. The upside, however, is that systemic change in such a world is much easier and faster.”
The five levels of hype — “Hype moves on a scale from overpromising to overselling, and even irrational exuberance. Today‘s tech industry is obsessed with the big futures. The metaverses, the next internets — you name it. Hype is everywhere… But hype is not always the same; there are different forms and levels.”
The unbundling of venture capital — “The trends are early and venture still operates in much the same way as it has for decades. But every day more of the cracks breaking and we're closer to a fundamental shift in venture than we realize.”
GTM canon: The best GTM content from around the internet — A roundup of content that offering insight on taking products to market

Bonus:

Future films: Content in a web3 world — “We seem to be on the cusp on the next wave of the democratization of content creation, which has the potential to put more power in the hands of creators and consumers than ever before. Why is this happening now? And how might these trends fundamentally change the way we experience and consume content like film and TV?”

🙈 Visual of the week

THE OPPORTUNITY CREATED BY GROWING INTERNET USE IN DEVELOPING MARKETS

“Developing markets lag behind developed nations in terms of capturing the growth that the digital economy provides… Despite this, there are some encouraging signals in the market…”

Source: World Economic Forum Whitepaper, January 2022: Attracting Investment and Accelerating Fourth Industrial Revolution Adoption in Africa

🕵️‍♀️ In case you missed it

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

VIDEO

Watch Celo Founder in Residence Charles Nichols discuss Celo and Web3
Watch David Akinin of Namibia’s Jabu discuss his path, the recent fundraise, and the vision for Jabu
Watch the keynote speeches of Firas Ahmad (⭐) and John Kamara at Sahara Sparks 2021
Watch Paga CEO Tayo Oviosu and Jim Chu, CEO of Untapped Global, do car karaoke 😄

PODCASTS

Mostafa Amin, CEO of Egypt’s Breadfast, discusses quick commerce, dark stores, and Breadfast’s strategy with Mikal Khoso on the Emergent podcast
Michael Kimani discusses Decentralised Autonomous Organizations on Africa Tech Roundup’s Unajua series
Salma Baghdadi, startup ecosystem director at Smart Capital, discusses the Tunisian and North African ecosystems on the AfricArena podcast
Nelly Chatue-Diop, Co-Founder & CEO of Ejara, discussed bitcoin in Africa on the Not from Silicon Valley podcast

ESSAYS

Chukwuemeka Afigbo, former Google SSA developer community lead & former Facebook head of Africa strategic partnerships writes ‘On Sub Saharan Africa’s tech talent problem’
Thea Sokolowski, Head of Marketing & Communications at Stitch, writes ‘The anatomy of an African fintech’s tech stack’
African media analyst David Adeleke writes ‘How African tech startups can get better PR’
Lee Naik, CEO of Transunion Africa writes ‘NFTs and Web 3.0 to shape Africa's future in 2022’
Bob Wekesa, Deputy Director, The African Centre for the Study of the United States, Wits University, writes ‘Foreign investment is Africa's best shot at growth, but its share is still pitiful’
Dominique Collett, senior investment executive at Rand Merchant Investments and head of AlphaCode, writes ‘What to expect from fintech in South Africa in 2022’
Daniel Junowicz, RVP EMEA & Strategic Projects at Appsflyer writes ‘3 trends set to dominate African mobile apps in 2022’
Maxime Bayen and the BFA Global/Catalyst Fund team write ‘Why we invested: Ziada is enabling informal workers, artisans and tradespeople to find work digitally’
Andreessen Horowitz’ David Haber and Jonathan Lai write ‘Investing in Carry1st’

INTERVIEWS

Adewale Yusuf on Talent QL and Alt School Africa (The Guardian)
Ismael Belkhayat on Chari and e-commerce in Morocco and Africa (Techcabal)
Kenneth Obiajulu on Agricorp and the role of technology in agriculture (Benjamin Dada)

🗣️ Community Corner

I see you, friends!

Congrats to Chidinma Iwueke on the new role at QED 💪🏽 — share Afridigest with Gbenga and your new colleagues 🗣
Congrats to Samora Kariuki, author of the Africa-focused Frontier Fintech newsletter (an Afridigest favorite), for joining Sote as Director of Fintech and Financial Services 🦸🏽‍♂️
Congrats to Andrew Olaleye and Aneto Okonkwo on the Chatdesk fundraise 🏋🏽
Join Ashley Lewis, Matt Schaar, and friends at the Accion Venture Lab — they’re hiring an Africa-focused Investment Analyst 👩‍💼
Congrats to the Katapult team on the launch of the Mauritius Accelerator — African startups working in the field of regenerative food and agri-tech are encouraged to apply 🌾

LA FIN

Feedback, questions, notes for the community corner? Or just want to say hi? Message me on Whatsapp or Twitter (@eajene) or email me.

Thanks for reading 🙌

Afridigest