In this week’s deals digest, Africa’s investment scene leans towards the entertainment industry, welcoming investments to music streaming service Mdundo and Egyptian Esports team Anubis. The emerging markets received investments in food tech in Chile and a Fintech in Pakistan. Once again, India dominates the deals scene with Ambani’s Reliance Retail raising $1.02 billion.
Globally, Sweden joined our deals digest for the first time with Fintech Klarna raising $650 million.
Top Venture Deals in Africa.
Kenya’s Solarise raised $10 million in its Series B investment to advance Africa’s clean energy agenda. The funding round for the energy leasing company was led by Proparco, Energy Access Ventures and ElectriFi, who earlier invested $4.7 million into Solarise.
Music streaming platform for African music Mdundo.com raised $6.4 million in a Serie A funding round led by Silver Lake, General Insurance Corporation of India and two more investors. Mdundo raised the funding by listing on the Danish Stock Exchange, with its IPO oversubscribed by 111%.
Egypt’s Anubis Gaming raised $0.3 million in seed funding by China Renaissance Group, and Loyal Valley Capital among other investors, bringing its total raised funding to $0.45 million. The esports players organization startup that participates in video game tournaments plans to use the funding to recruit more players and form new teams, launch their apparel line and add international coaching staff.
Cameroon’s fresh food distributor Freshbag recently received an undisclosed investment from GreenTec Capital.
Top Venture Deals in Emerging Markets
Indian retail giant Reliance Retail raised $1.02 billion from Silverlake in exchange for 1.75% equity stake. The venture deal values India’s largest retail chain at $57 billion pre-money, with expectations that more investors will knock on Ambani’s door in the coming week.
Chile’s NotCo, a manufacturer and brand of multicategory plant-based dairy products raised $85 million from Future Positive Capital, L Catterton, Kaszek Ventures and seven other investors in a recent Serie C funding round. The largest Foodtech in Latin America is planning to expand its international market, eyeing the US market.
Pakistani Microfinance Telenor Bank raised $45 million from Telenor Group, and Ant Group. The investment will boost its capital, and help grow Telenor’s mobile payment platform in Pakistan.
India’s tech-enabled automotive insurance company Acko raised $60 million from Munich re ventures, Intact ventures, Amazon and RPS Ventures in a recent Series D funding. The data-driven startup is now valued at approximately $500 million.
Top Venture Deals Globally
Sweden’s Klarna, a startup that allows consumers to shop and pay later raised $650 million in an equity funding that will increase its post-money valuation to $10.65 billion. The round led by Silver Lake, General Insurance Corporation of India, Black Rock and HMI capital makes Klarna the highest valued Private fintech in Europe, and the fourth largest in the world. Klarna will use the funding to invest in its future growth, grow its global presence, especially in the US.
Sprinklr, a US-based Social media presence management platform, raised $350 million from Hellman & Friedmann, and Sixth Street Growth. The company will use the investment to strengthen its position as the pioneer of a new class of enterprise software purpose-built for customer experience management.
China’s Jiangji Distillery, a processor and a brand of liqueur raised $300 million from Loyal Valley Capital, Baille Glifford, China Renaissance Group, among other investors.
Click here to view a download the full deals digest for the week.
READ; Weekly Deals Digest: Sept 2 – Sep 8 2020
