Afridigest Week in Review: A new unicorn from Egypt, MNT-no-ride-Halan
Afridigest Week in Review: A new unicorn from Egypt, MNT-no-ride-Halan
+Africa's current unicorn list +Gokada & Sendy layoffs +Techstars Lagos' dirty dozen +The Collison decision-making framework +Jumia's Jazz +More
The Afridigest Week in Review is a must-read weekly recap for Africa-focused founders, executives, and investors.
Welcome back, friends! The most clicked link last week was Paul Graham’s short piece, 'How to get ideas.' And over the weekend, we published a piece on founders that raised $1M or more in Francophone Africa last year in English and in French.
📌 Wsh kho, wsh khti & marhaba to all the new subscribers from Algeria & Morocco last week 🙌🏽 — please do reply and say hello. In other news, I had a great convo with Fleri’s Sam Baddoo last week about the actual & potential value of this newsletter to startup founders, and it reminded me of this tweet. Many thanks for the dose of clarity, Sam 🙏🏽
If you’re new, welcome — this Week in Review is sent on Mondays, the Fintech Review on Sundays, and from time to time, an original essay/article goes out on Saturdays. For past essays and digests, visit the archive.
[We often link to older editions of this newsletter, but if you’re a free subscriber, you won't have access to the historical archive. Remember to upgrade your subscription to enjoy everything.]
💡 “Bitter truth is better than a sweet lie.” — Swahili proverb
» Today’s edition is a smidge long, but top notch. Go ahead and open it in your browser.
Week 5 2023: Jan 29 - Feb 4
📰 Deal of the Week🇪🇬 MNT-Halan, an Egyptian ‘super app’ turned ‘fintech ecosystem,’ raised $200M+ in equity from Dubai’s Chimera Investments.
About MNT-Halan: Launched in 2017 by Mounir Nakhla (CEO) and Ahmed Mohsen (CTO) as Halan, a ride-hailing and delivery app on a quest to become one of Africa’s super apps, the formal link to MNT didn’t come until four years later.
In June 2021, Halan entered into a (share swap) merger agreement with microlending holdco MNT, following MNT’s 100% consolidation of Raseedy, the first independent, interoperable digital wallet licensed by the Central Bank of Egypt.
And so MNT-Halan was created.
Despite its ride-hailing origins, the company is all in on fintech today. It derives most of its revenue from lending — over $300M in 2022 it says — and has even shut down its ride-hailing operations.
In addition to disbursing over $2 billion in loans of various types (BNPL, vehicle financing, payroll lending, & more) since inception, MNT-Halan also offers a variety of digital payments and e-commerce services (both B2C and FMCG B2B).
Deal details: You may have seen the $400M number floating around in various press reports linked to this deal, and to clarify things a bit: that includes Chimera’s new ~$200M in equity, ~$140M in a previously announced securitized bond issuance program (see, for example, Week 26 2022’s Week in Review), and an additional $60M in equity from the IFC (& perhaps others) that hasn’t closed yet, but is in “advanced stages” and expected to be finalized “in the coming weeks.”
Unicornucopia: Chimera’s $200M equity investment is in exchange for a 20% stake, making MNT-Halan Africa’s newest unicorn and Egypt’s first, depending on your definition. (Fawry & Swvl weren’t privately held when they first crossed the $1B valuation threshold.)
Here’s a look at Africa’s current unicorn list:
Investor tidbit: UAE-based Chimera previously participated in InstaDeep’s Week 4 2022 Series B ($100M), and now joins Sequoia, Tiger Global, Softbank, and others among Africa Tech’s unicorn makers.
Investor (partial) exit: With this deal, Apis Growth Fund II booked a partial exit of its Week 36 2021 investment in MNT-Halan, according to press reports.
Key personalities:
Mounir Nakhla, Founder and CEO, MNT-Halan
Seif Fikry, CEO, Chimera
In the Founder’s words: “[This fundraise is] a testament to our ability to significantly increase our revenues and open new revenue streams while growing our bottom line, despite the macro-economic situation… We continue to grow both organically and inorganically by offering cutting edge financial products and services locally and internationally to empower the underserved.”
In the Investor’s words: “We are thrilled to be part of Egypt’s greatest fintech success story. MNT-Halan … transform[s] a high touch business by seamlessly infusing an unparalleled proprietary tech platform while increasing product depth for its target customer segment.”
🔦 DealsEQUITY DEALS ACROSS THE CONTINENT
🇿🇦 Lulalend, a South African digital lending platform & digital bank targeting SMEs, raised a $35M Series B led by Lightrock, with participation from German development finance institution DEG, Triodos Investment Management, Women’s World Banking, the IFC, and Quona Capital.
🇰🇪 Mawingu, a Kenyan Internet service provider, raised a $9M Series B led by InfraCo Africa’s $6M, with E3 Capital and Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO also participating with $1.5M each.
🇳🇬 SunFi, a Nigerian solar energy financing platform that connects supply (providers/installers), demand (businesses & consumers), and financing options, raised a $2.3M seed round co-led by Factor[e] and SCM Capital Asset Management, with participation from Voltron Capital, Norrsken Impact Accelerator, Ventures Platform and Sovereign Capital.
🇲🇦 Gwala, a Moroccan earned wage access platform, raised an undisclosed pre-seed from Ingressive and others.
Pair with: The rise of earned wage access across developed & emerging markets (Afridigest)
The ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator announced its inaugural class. (Techstars offers $20K in exchange for a 6% equity and an optional $100K convertible note.)
.🇳🇬 Nigeria:
CDcare, an installment payments platform
Flick, a unified payments platform
Keble, a platform enabling fractional real estate investments
Keza, a smartphone financing platform
Oystr Finance, a provider of micro-lending infrastructure
Peppa.io, an e-commerce enablement platform offering escrow-as-a-service
Salad, an earned wage access platform
Sidebrief, a platform facilitating pan-African expansion by simplifying company incorporation & administration
Towntalk, a real-time analytics & operational intelligence platform targeting FMCG & logistics companies
Vittas, a B2B digital lender targeting healthcare providers
🇰🇪 Kenya:
ADJACENT DEALS
RapidDeploy, a South-African-born cloud-based, emergency response platform serving the American market, raised $34M led by Edison Partners. It’s a HAVAÍC portco.
DEBT
🇿🇦 Teraco Data Environments, a South African data center operator (Africa's largest) raised $680M in debt funding
🇿🇦 Yellow, a South African pay-as-you-go asset-backed financing platform, received a $5M loan facility from Oikocredit
🇰🇪 MyCredit, a Kenyan digital lending platform, received a $2.6M loan facility from Oikocredit
INVESTOR ACTIVITY
Andile Ngcaba’s Convergence Partners, a private equity growth investor focused on tech infrastructure investments across sub-Saharan African, closed its Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF) at ~$296M, surpassing its initial target by +18%.
Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO announced that it’s considering a $10M investment in Accion Venture Lab II.
British International Investment (BII), the UK's development finance institution, appointed Chris Chijiutomi as MD, Head of Africa.
📚 Quick hitsFOR YOUR READING PLEASURE
The Collison decision matrix: How to make the right decision — Taylor Pearson unpacks a decision-making framework from Stripe’s CEO: “Most ‘bad’ decision making isn’t bad in a generic way, but “bad” in the sense that it is contextually incorrect.”
Focus — Andrew Bosworth, CTO at Meta, on working at a startup: “I was something like the tenth engineer hired at Facebook… The best time to stop a distraction is before it starts. The second best time is now.”
Everything you can’t have — another gem from Morgan Housel: “If you want something and can’t have it, you drive yourself mad.”
AFRIDIGEST ARTICLES
27 founders that raised over $1 million in Francophone Africa in 2022 — Comes with a shareable infographic
PUBLIC BOOKMARKING
The sober potential and rising in Southeast Asia — “Christopher Schroeder: I just returned from two weeks in Southeast Asia, meeting over sixty venture investors, entrepreneurs, journalists, policy experts and alike… there is no comparison being on the ground.”
👀 Visual of the Week
🕵️♀️ In case you missed itNEWS
Nigerian mobility platform Gokada laid off ~50 employees after previous layoffs in November; the company apparently held discussions to be acquired by Kwik Delivery last year; and news reports last week highlighted the company’s turn to crowdfunding — Busy times for CEO Olutosin Oni who joined the firm in July 2022 from EchoVC
Kenya’s Sendy is ceasing ‘on-the-ground operations’ in Nigeria, but will continue to connect sellers to logistics providers — Sendy confirmed to TechCrunch that some Nigerian employees will be laid off, but not how many
Elon Musk’s Starlink is now available in Africa — Nigeria is the first country on the continent to receive service
Kenya withdrew its financial impropriety case against Flutterwave
Pair with: ‘Will Flutterwave move ahead with its IPO plans this year?’ (TechCabal)
ESSAYS & OP-EDS
Dr. Ola Brown, Founder at HealthCap Africa, writes ‘The private equitalization of venture capital & the effect it will have on tech founders/GPs in Africa’
- writes ‘Schrödinger’s value and uncertainty in informal markets’
Ighosime Oyofo, Executive Director at Lion's Head Global Partners, writes ‘Bring back brick and mortar’
Lotf Belych and Yassin El Hardouz published the Morocco Startup Ecosystem report 2023
Danladi Momodu, Business Development Executive at Drug-IT Solutions, writes ‘How technology can help close Nigeria’s gender gap’
Christopher Ball, co-founder of Finch Technologies, writes ‘Superapp mentality drives large enterprise success in Africa’
Pair with: ‘How Africa’s super app landscape is evolving’ (Afridigest)
OTHER ARTICLES
How Bitcoin mining saved Africa's oldest national park from bankruptcy (Cointelegraph)
How women entrepreneurs thrive in Nigeria's burgeoning tech scene (CNN Marketplace - Video)
Why 1% of venture financing matters more than you think in Africa (Briter Bridges)
InstaDeep’s acquisition is a classic case of an African startup gone global (TechCrunch)
Nigeria’s mobile Internet space needs more competition (Techpoint)
PROFILES/INTERVIEWS
Andile Ngcaba, chairman and founding partner at Convergence Partners: “Building digital infrastructure is really the foundation for the continent”
Adeola Ayoola, Co-Founder & CEO, Famasi Africa: “What you find in emerging markets like Nigeria and Africa at large is that pharmacists are the first point of access.”
Mareme Dieng, Africa Lead for 500 Global: “We believe there is a continued need to digitize sectors and services across the continent.”
Tidjane Dème, General Partner at Partech: “When a very big deal happens in the market, like what happened in Algeria in 2022 and what happened in Senegal in 2021, it clearly signals to everybody that you can build a big valuable business in that market.”
Jessica Hope, Founder of Wimbart: “[PR] is an important part of the ecosystem… Tech startups continue to realize how important professional services are.”
Massimiliano Spalazzi, Country CEO, Jumia Nigeria: “Our new strategy is to accelerate progress toward profitability with a comprehensive plan.”
Pair with: ‘Could Jumia’s staggering liquidity position be the company’s latest predicament?’ (TechCabal)
Jumia was using Jazz all along. The original blitzscaling that everyone was applauding and hyping. Its not where you start. Its where you ultimately end up. 💀Jumia predicted that it will become profitable by 2022. Guess what? Jumia closed the year 2022 with a revenue of $177.9 million, recording losses of $226.9 million. That is, an average of $59 million per quarter. So far, Jumia has lost $2 billion since its launch.
Kingsley Ndimele: Your Reliable Consultant @KingsNdimele
🐤 Tweet of the WeekI’m bullish too:
Bonus tweets: Do we still have unicorns in Africa?, A Twitter thread masterclass on Nigeria’s NIBSS, and 21 principles from Y-Combinator's Startup Playbook.
🗣️ Community Corner and Opportunities (feel free to send yours in)🎰 OPPORTUNITIES
Women founders who are building tech startups in or for Africa are invited to apply before February 20th for the Google for Startups Accelerator Women Founders Africa program.
East African agtech startups focused on precision farming, sustainable supply chains, or the circular economy & renewable energy are invited to apply before February 28th to looking for Startup Africa Roadtrip’s Seeds for sustainable energy 2023 program.
African mobility startups with at least a proof of concept or MVP and a full-time CEO and CTO are invited to apply before March 31st for the 2023 Region I Start-up Challenge of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.
Entrepreneurially-minded Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan citizens are invited to apply to Cohort 4 of the Jasiri Talent Investor Program by April 23rd. Those selected will participate in a fully-funded 13-month program offering guidance with idea generation, validation, prototyping, market entry, and venture creation. Since its inception in December 2020, Jasiri has spawned 25 ventures.
Africa-focused startups are invited to apply to Norrsken’s 2023 Accelerator cohort. The accelerator offers a a $125K investment and its alumni include Kwara, Asilimia, Wella Health, and others.
💼 HIRING
The IFC’s Disruptive Technologies and Venture Capital team is hiring a Lagos-based Investment Analyst.
Mercy Corps Ventures is looking for an Investment Fellow — it’s a six-month engagement with the chance to turn into a full-time position.
Yolélé West Africa, a joint venture of African food brand Yolélé and Haskè Ventures, is hiring a bilingual Dakar-based CEO.
Shared mobility platform Treepz is hiring an Accra-base Ghana Country Manager.
Nigerian edtech platform Edukoya is hiring a Lagos-based Marketing Manager.
🙊 The last wordWHAT I’M THINKING ABOUT
This Thursday February the 9th at 2:30pm WAT, I’ll be speaking about The State of Tech in Africa Today with Dami at the AfricaNXT conference.
If you’re in Lagos, come through. I also have several complimentary badges — if you’re interested ping me & one is yours.
If you liked today’s edition of the newsletter, don’t keep it to yourself. Be generous and share it aggressively. Thanks in advance 🙌🏽
FIN
Thanks for reading Afridigest 🙌🏽 Kindly share this newsletter with friends, colleagues, and Africa Tech enthusiasts in your network. 🙏🏽 And, as always, you can email me, or send me a message on Whatsapp, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
