Nigeria

Hotels.ng, a Lagos, Nigeria-based hotel booking platform, raised $1.2m in funding. Backers included EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund and Omidyar Network. The company, which had raised $225k in seed funding in 2013 by Lagos-­based Spark.ng, intends to use the funds to invest further in its technology capacity and look to expand in Ghana and French West Africa. […]

Jumia, the African online retailer part of the Africa Internet Group, raised €120m in funding. Existing shareholders made the investment. Africa Internet Holding GmbH participated in this round with an amount of €108.3m with the remaining €11.7m being provided by other existing shareholders through intermediate holding company BGN Brillant Services. The company intends to use the […]

In a few words: Andela is a talent accelerator that prepares African developers and connects them with top employers globally. Yesterday, the company announced a seed round (read here). Today, CEO Jeremy Johnson, a serial education technology entrepreneur, answered our questions about the company, the funding and the future of the startup. FinSMEs: Hi Jeremy. First, can […]

iROKOtv, a Lagos-based VOD platform for Nigerian movies, raised $8m in funding. The round, which brought the total raised to $21m, was led by existing investor Tiger Global with participation from Kinnevik and new investor Rise Capital. The company intends to use the funds to increase the audience, transition from an ad supported model to […]

Rancard, a Lagos (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana) and Mauritius -based provider of social recommendations technology for mobile content and services, raised an undisclosed amount of venture capital funding. The round was led by Peninsula Capital with participation from existing backers Intel Capital and Adlevo Capital. The company intends to use the funds to grow the team, build partnerships and […]

Emerging markets fund manager LeapFrog Investments held the initial close for its second fund at US$204m. Supporter included MetLife Inc., Prudential (USA), XL Group, Achmea, PartnerRe and Swiss Re, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Christian Super and TIAA-CREF, CDC, DEG, the European Investment Bank, FMO, and Oikocredit. Led by Andrew Kuper, President and Founder, LeapFrog Investments […]

Silvertree Capital, a Cape Town Africa-focused venture capital investor, invested in two Nigerial e-commerce sites. The companies are: – Sunlasses.com.ng, an e-commerce site which specializes in fashion eyewear and contact lenses; – Glamour.com.ng, a web site for cosmetics, fragrances and personal care products. The amount of the two investments were not disclosed. Both e-commerce sites […]

Jumia, an African e-commerce company, raised $35m in funding. Millicom International Cellular S.A., a global telecommunications group, made a follow-on investment and increase its stake in the company from 20% to 35%. The company intends to use the proceeds to increase its leadership position in Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, and Kenya and to expand to new […]