African startups Akiba, Strove, Ada Animation get funding; Brmaja, CribMD ink M&As

Nairobi-based entertainment tech startup Ada Animation and South African fintech and wellness ventures Akiba Digital and Strove have bagged early-stage funding.

Ada Animation said it has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding from Nigerian VC firm Platform Capital through its technology vehicle, Unicorn Group. The firm produces animation content besides motion graphics and is engaged in white board animation, VFX, voiceovers and other related spaces.

One year old Kenyan firm said it will use the money to hire talent, create African content and further developing its proprietary technology.

“We look forward to showcasing to the international community that there is a massive animation market opportunity in Africa for investment and scale through our work, talent and programs. The timing is so critical for us as we have started producing our first animation movie set for a global release next year,” said Joy Mwangi, CEO of Ada Animation.

Akiba Digital

Johannesburg-based fintech startup Akiba Digital has raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding, it said on Friday.

The investment round was led by Expert DOJO and Oui Capital with participation of Basecamp Fund, Soma Capital, Hustle Fund, Future Africa, LoftyInc, and some angel investors including a former PayPal executive.

The four-year-old venture seeks to connect SMEs and lenders by providing small firms with a financial health tool to access better financing while it helps lenders with its APIs to enhance value chain from onboarding, risk scoring, lending decisioning and nudging borrowers in real-time.

Akiba, which was co-founded by Tebogo Mokwena (CEO) and Kamogelo Kekana, is looking to expand beyond South Africa and it shall use part of the funding to assess the strategy to implement it.

Strove

In another early-stage deal, Cape Town-based wellness startup Strove, which has an activity-based mobile rewards application that empowers organisations to inspire their employees, clients and members to live a healthy and active life, has raised R 4 million ($0.28 million) seed round led by Launch Africa.

The startup was born out of venture builder The Delta in partnership with Chris Bruchhausen.

Employees of a firm that signs up to Strove, can download the app and create an account. They can then sync their exercise activities and track statistics such as calories burned and the points can be redeemed for rewards at partner brands.

Strove now also plans to expand into the UK.

CribMD

Nigerian healthtech startup CribMD has acquired retail pharmacy company Charisland Pharmaceuticals to get a deeper foothold in the drug distribution space. This comes just over a month after CribMD that offers users doctor-on-demand service raised $2.6 million in an oversubscribed round.

While Sputnik ATX, a Texas based startup accelerator was the first investor it added Sweden’s Norrsken and Nigerian media publication The Guardian to square off the funding round.

Brmaja

Brmaja, an IT solutions firm that has operations in the MENA region, has acquired a 50% stake in An-Nisa, a transportation app for women in Kenya. An-Nisa was founded by Mehnaz Sarwar three years ago.

Brmaja chief Hatem Bakheet said the plan is to take An-Nisa to expand not just in Kenya but across the African continent.

Based in Jeddah Brmaja has presence in Egypt, UAE, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.