Flutterwave, One pipe, and funding raised by Nigerian Tech startups

The year 2020 was really an eventful year for tech start-ups in Nigeria, with many clinching high financial backing from investors and achieving outstanding growth in a pandemic year.

The Nigerian tech community witnessed more people come up with amazing ideas to solve challenges in real-time and this has brought more investors into the Nigerian tech space.

Here is a breakdown of how some of these start-ups have grown from pre-seed funding to Series funding and what they plan to do in the future.

READ: Chipper Cash just raised $13.8 million Series A funding

Flutterwave

• According to Crunchbase, Flutterwave has raised a total of $64.7million since it was founded in 2016.
• Flutterwave provides digital payments infrastructure and services which enable global merchants, payment service providers, and pan-African banks to accept and process payments across various channels. The company first raised $19.2M in their Series A funding and an extended $10million still in Series A.
• The new capital was used to acquire more talent and also fuel rapid expansion across Africa. In January 2020, the company completed a $35 million Series B round. The new funding was used to support its expansion across Francophone countries and North Africa as part of its mission to connect Africa.

READ: Field Intelligence raises $3.6 million to take advantage of pharmacy cravings in Nigeria

54 gene

• 54 gene is equalizing precision medicine by including underrepresented Africans in global genomics research.
• According to Crunchbase, the company has raised a total of $19.7M in funding over 3 rounds. 54gene raised $4.5M in their seed round from Y combinator.
• It recently closed a $15 million Series A round. These new funds will be used to address the gap that exists in precision medicine for people in the African continent.

READ: Our major challenge is eliminating paper – Tito Ovia of Helium Health

Kuda Bank

• Kuda Bank provides a full banking service on your smartphone. Since moving from kudi money to Kuda Bank, the startup has raised a total of $11.6M in funding over 3 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Nov 10, 2020 from a seed round according to CrunchBase.
• They first raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed round to launch a beta of its service, then subsequently raised $10 million — the biggest seed round ever to be raised in Africa.
• This money will be used to help accelerate its growth plans and keep up with customer demand. Specifically, funds will be used for key hires, product development, and to expand operations across Africa.

READ: Nigeria’s Kuda raises Africa’s all-time seed round of $10 million

Spleet

• Spleet, just like Airbnb, provides easier living in Africa with access to flexible subscription-based rental and lifestyle services.
• After bootstrapping for 18 months, Spleet closed a US$265,000 pre-seed round in 2019 and is currently raising a seed round.
• According to disrupt-africa, Spleet is planning to expand to Ghana in the second quarter of 2021, and Kenyan and Rwanda in Q3.

READ: Nigeria Fintech startup, CredPal raises $1.5million funding

One pipe

• A Nigerian fintech API company that aggregates APIs from banks and fintechs into a standardized gateway that is easy to integrate and makes partnerships with other service providers seamless raised $950,000 in a pre-seed round from a roster of institutional and angel investors.
• According to CrunchBase, the API company has raised a total of $1.1million in funding over 2 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Dec 17, 2020, from a Pre-Seed round. With OnePipe, fintechs and banks can collaborate closely to achieve mutual growth rather than compete.

READ: DEAL: Tomato Jos secures over N1.8billion series A funding

Evolve Credit

• An online marketplace for Nigerians to secure their best loan options.
• Evolve credit shows you all the information you need to apply for loans from lending platforms. The company has raised a total of $325K in funding over 2 rounds.

READ: From Pre-Seed to Series D: Startup Funding Rounds Explained

Helium health

• Helium Health has raised a total of $12.2million in funding over 5 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on August 12, 2020 from a Series A round.
• Founded in 2016, Helium Health has become the leading provider of full-service technology solutions for healthcare stakeholders in Africa.
• The Lagos based health start-up raised $10 million Series A round.
• According to Tech crunch, Helium plans to use the latest funding round to hire and expand to North and East Africa, including Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Morocco.

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