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Damilola Olokesusi — the founder of Shuttlers — has joined the small percentage of women who have received major funding from venture capital in Africa during 2021. After experiencing her own trouble securing transportation in Nigeria, Olokesusi would later become driven to find a solution to combat transportation insufficiencies. Her startup Shuttlers was created in 2016 to transport professionals and organizations from buses to work and combat the continent’s transportations costs in Lagos, Nigeria. Now, the company can further its mission with the help of a successful seed round totaling $1.6 million from investors housed in Nigeria and beyond, TechCrunch reports. The round was led by VestedWorld, a venture capital firm based in Chicago, IL, and Africa. Other investors included Rising Tide Africa, Launch Africa, EchoVC, Consonance Investment, CcHub Syndicate, CMC 21 & Alsa, ShEquity, Five35, Sakore and Nikky Taurus. Olokesusi acknowledges the interest for these investors was due...
At just 40 years old, Nigerian-American entrepreneur Tope Awotona has gone from overseeing a small startup to turning his company into a tech unicorn. The founder and CEO of Calendly — a scheduling app designed to streamline calendars — has been called “one of America’s wealthiest immigrants” by Forbes, and it’s a title he doesn’t take lightly. With a $200,000 investment — his life savings — Calendly made more than $100 million in revenue, driven in part by its spike in popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And Forbes estimates that his revenue will double in 2022 and beyond — and that he’s potentially tapping into a $20 billion market. What’s more, he shows absolutely no signs of slowing down — and we love to see it, indeed. “In my life, I’ve benefited from not taking the conventional wisdom,” Tope Awotona said to the outlet. “It’s benefited me personally, and I think it has benefited the business.” Calendly has long been considered a Black-owned startup that is “killing the...
Metro Africa Xpress Inc. (MAX) plans to improve Africa’s transportation sector after securing $31 million in a Series B funding round. TechCrunch reports, the seed round was co-led by global private equity platform, Lightrock, and international venture capital firm, Global Ventures. Novastar Ventures and Proparco also participated in the round. The mobile tech startup launched in 2015, initially to complete customers’ orders. As the startup developed, it incorporated ride-hail services, vehicle subscriptions, and financing services. Three years after MAX’s inception, vehicle financing became an available service and CFO Guy-Bertrand Njoya revealed the company’s attrition rate is now “close to zero,” the outlet also revealed. “We spent time understanding drivers’ operations and it became apparent to us that most of them don’t own the vehicles they use,” said Njoya, according to TechCrunch. “It became clear that the fundamental issue that drivers face is consistent access to vehicles....
Nigerian transportation platform Treepz has now acquired Ugabus — a bus transportation service that groups inter-city bus operators in Uganda — due to an acquisition totaling $1.5 million in funding. According to TechCrunch, the funds served as an addition to a previous seed round from August, in which $1.3 million was raised. The contributors to the extension were Japan-based Uncovered Fund, Dubai-based Blanford Capital and Jonomi Capital and Egypt-based Jedar Capital. With recent funding, Ugabus — to be renamed Treepz beginning on Dec. 1 — currently houses 70 percent of the country’s bus operations and over 50,000 customers in Uganda, TechCrunch reports. Now the Nigerian transportation platform is one step closer to fulfilling its plans to expand throughout the continent. “We’ll be able to service most of the major cities in Uganda, but the good thing about East Africa is they have very seamless borders between the countries, so it’s easy to move from Uganda to Rwanda, Uganda to...
Sometimes small businesses face the challenge of learning how to develop effective bookkeeping practices. This obstacle could lead to disrupted cash flow and a failure to meet the financial obligations of one’s business. Looking to resolve this issue in Nigeria is the startup Kippa, which markets itself as the country’s simplest accounting software. Founded by Kennedy Ekezie alongside Duke Ekezie and Jephthah Uche in February 2021, the application is designed to help small business owners create a bookkeeping system that will help them “recover debts 3x faster,” TechCrunch reports. According to Kippa, a stand-out feature on its application is customers who have not made payments can not only be tracked, but they will receive an automated reminder message for the business owner to recover debts. In addition, businesses can manage inventory, track daily cash flow and expenses, create invoices and generate receipts. “For us, what we do is we have such a unique opportunity to provide...