Fund raising week
Tech money is good money. This week a lot of seed funding has been coming into the African tech space despite all the Chao of the big tech layoffs and cost cuts
Curacel $3m seed funding
Curacel, a Nigerian insurtech firm, has raised US$3 million in initial funding to launch new products and assist its expansion into North Africa. Curacel is an AI-powered platform for claims processing and fraud monitoring in Africa.
Curacel, a 2017 startup, automates the insurance claims process so that staff can handle large volumes of claims quickly and effectively. It also automatically verifies claims to look for fraud, waste, and abuse.
The startup, which started out as an electronic health information management system, has evolved into an insurtech infrastructure business that uses cloud-based tools and APIs to assist partners and insurers in expanding the reach and usefulness of insurance in Africa and other emerging markets.
In order to launch new technological solutions intended to power the next generation of insurance experiences in Africa, the firm has already acquired US$3 million in venture funding. Also, the investment would help the business grow throughout North Africa.
Y Combinator, Tencent, AAF Management, Elefund, Blue Point Capital Partners, Pioneer Fund, Olive Tree Capital, James Park (CEO of Fitbit), Olugbenga "GB" Agboola (CEO of Flutterwave), Babs Ogundeyi (CEO of Kuda), and other strategic investors are among the participants in the round. As part of the financing, senior executives from Covergenius, Zopper, and Pie Insurance will also join Curacel's advisory board.
With Grow, Curacel's embedded insurance product, over 100 banks, fintechs, logistics providers, and other tech-enabled businesses are given the ability to boost their recurring revenues by providing digital insurance products that are seamlessly integrated into their current products and services, fostering much-needed insurance penetration and client loyalty.
Co creation hub $15m EdTech fellowship program funds
The Edtech Fellowship Program, a $15 million accelerator program being launched by Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), the largest innovation hub in Africa, will develop and fund 72 entrepreneurs in Kenya and Nigeria over the next three years.
The program's objective is to establish a new ecosystem of edtech firms that will define what the market for educational solutions should look like.
According to Bosun Tinjani, co-founder and CEO of CcHUB, "we believe that we can begin to gain a better understanding of how to use technology to improve learning in schools if we intentionally invest in a very structured edtech inclusive ecosystem of government, teachers, investors, foundations, and even in some cases, the students and their parents.”
Although there are currently entrepreneurs in Africa exploiting this market, there are still problems with education in the continent. To enhance access to education, edtech solutions will require an unorthodox solution.
By saying, "It is important that when we build a program that not only finds the smartest people in the startup ecosystem but also connects the startup ecosystem with government authorities, public sectors, schools, and academic institutions so that we can ensure that there's a clear understanding of how to scale education solutions in the space," Tijani emphasizes the need to involve more stakeholders in the process of developing edtech platforms.
However, he mentioned that the $15 million accelerator program will not simply support any firm with obvious ideas.
30 researchers will be tasked with working with portfolio businesses and testing their products from launch to scalability in order to guarantee this.
Undisclosed pre-seed round secured by Famasi
In a round headed by Microtraction, the Nigerian healthtech company Famasi Africa has secured an undisclosed pre-seed investment to create the pharmacy infrastructure for African digital healthcare.
This fund round was led by Microtraction with participation from Ore Ogundipe, GetEquity SPV, Isaac Ewaleifoh, Ibrahim Bello, Ayobami Olufadeji, Yusuf Abdulmalik, Adeline Okoh, Echezona Uzoma, Lanre Adelowo, Prosper Otemuyiwa, and Nadayar Enegesi.
By the end of 2023, Famasi hopes to increase its provider base from 229 to 1000 thanks to this fresh investment, having signed up more than 35,000 new members. "Although still in beta, our solution increased sales while saving users up to five hours each month and more than $5 million in unexpected expenses. The powerful mix of our newest partners and our incredible team offers us everything we need to personalize access to drugs at scale, beginning with our APIs, and we are on a quest to enable 1 million refills by 2027 "Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Umar Faruq stated.
With a pledge to enhance access to drugs, Nigeria-based Famasi Africa joins the extremely small roster of health techs, which already includes mPharma, OneHealth, and myMedicines.
Smile identify $20m series B expansion across Africa
The business, which was established in 2017 by William Bares and Mark Straub, has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Costanoa and Norrsken22 with participation from Commerce Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Two Culture Capital, Valuestream Ventures, Intercept Ventures, Latitude, Future Africa, and 500 Fintech.
Smile Identity provides ID verification and KYC compliance for African faces and identities using machine learning algorithms.
With the $7 million they raised in their Series A investment round in 2021, this puts Smile Identity's total funding to $31 million.
During its Series A funding round, Smile Identity has carried out 50 million KYC checks for hundreds of partners throughout the African continent, assisting them in growing their companies by reducing fraud and smoothly onboarding new clients.
With its Document Verification product, the company also provides global coverage, and it has recently expanded its capabilities to include a Business Verification or "Know-Your-Company" (KYB) solution. Moreover, Smile Identity has developed offices in London and Cape Town and expanded into Uganda.
Naked raises $17m funding
The International Finance Corporation is leading the $17 million Series B financing launched by South African insurtech firm Naked (IFC). In addition to the original investors in Naked, Yellowwoods and Hollard, the German Development Finance Institution (DEG) is also a participant in the investment round.
The product solution from Naked is an end-to-end digital platform powered by artificial intelligence that lets customers manage all aspect of their insurance experience online. Customers of Naked can complete all of these tasks without contacting a contact center agent, including requesting a quote, purchasing insurance, maintaining their policy, and filing claims.