In this edition of the weekly deals digest series, Ghanian fintech startup OZÉ led Africa with a $0.7 million seed fund to expand to Nigeria.
India dominated the emerging markets space, following several high profile deals in Dunzo, DeHaat and Digit Insurance. Dunzo’s deal topped emerging markets following a $40 million Series E investment led Google, Lightbox and Evolvence among other investors.
Globally, the US and the UK split top deals with the US bagging all top 3 investments, all above $1 billion.
Top 2 Venture Deals in Africa
Ghanian fintech OZÉ, a cloud-based platform which works with small businesses to make data-driven business, and improves access to capital, raised $700K seed funding from Anorak Ventures, Rising Tide Africa and Matuca Sarl among other investors. The startup will use the funding to grow its team, promotes its iOS business app, and expand to Nigeria.
Egypt’s Opio, a women’s fashionwear e-commerce platform raised $300K in a seed funding round led by AUC and Flat6Labs Cairo. The startup will use the funding to expand its offerings and scale its operations.
Top 3 Venture Deals in Emerging Markets
Dunzo topped emerging markets with a $40 million from Google, Lightbox, Evolvence, Hana Financial Investment, LGT Lightstone Aspada, and Alteria among other investors. The Series E round brings total investment to the startup to $121 million, which will power the hyperlocal delivery platforms 2021 strategy to push for sustainable growth in Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai.
Colombia’s La Haus came in second with a $35 million Series B investment round led by Greenspring Associates, Acrew Capital, Kaszek Ventres, NFX, IMO Ventures, and Hometeam Ventures. The provider of real estate brokerage services Colombia and Mexico will use the funds to expand its product and services, eyeing other parts of Latin America.
India’s DeHaat, an end to end farming service provider raised $30 million in Series C round to accelerate its growth. The round was led by Prosus ventures, Sequoia Capital, RTP Global, FMO, Omnivore, and Agfund., bringing total investment into the Agritech to $46 million.
Top 3 Venture Deals Globally
Deals in the US took the global crown, with top deals featured in this digest totalling approximately $5.6 billion.
Offroad electric pick up maker Rivian raised $2.65 billion, the biggest investment in this edition of deals digest. The round led by T.Rwe Price Associates, with the participation Fidelity Management and Research Company, D1 Capital Partners and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund pushes its valuation to $27.6 billion. The investment round will help Rivian design, develop and produce its consumer truck vehicles, and build its EV charging network.
Honda and Microsoft invested $2 billion equity into autonomous vehicle company Cruise, making Microsoft a partner. In the deal, Cruise will use Azure and edge computing platform for its autonomous ride-hailing services.
Lastly, cloud-based experience and content management solution Sitecore raised $1.2 billion in private investment. The company will use the investment to drive product innovation and expand its geographic footprint globally, opening offices in Spain, Italy and the Global East.
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READ : Top 10 Funding Deals in Africa in 2020
