Nigerian startups Kippa, Mecho, Treepz snag early-stage funding
Nigerian business accounting startup Kippa has raised $3.2 million in pre-seed funding round led by Target Global.
Entrée Capital, Alter Global and Rally Cap Ventures as well as some angel investors also took part in the round.
This is one of the largest pre-seed rounds in Africa outside of Egypt. In Egypt, RabbitMart, Telda and Flexstock have raised larger pre-seed rounds over the past few months.
Kippa was launched in June by brothers Kennedy and Duke Ekezie along with Jephtah Uche. It helps merchants increase cash flow by recovering debts. Small business owners can keep track of debtors and send automated debt reminders. They can also record sales and expenses, create invoices and receipts, and manage their inventory.
The company has grown its merchant base to over 130,000 monthly active users.
Treepz
Plentywaka, a two-year-old shared mobility startup that recently rebranded as Treepz, has topped up its seed funding round with $1.6 million. The startup, which is operational in Nigeria, had previously announced a funding tranche of $1.2 million.
The additional funding came from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund Africa, Uncovered Fund, Blanford Capital, Jonomi Capital and Jedar Capital with participation of existing investors.
In August, it had said it raised $1.2 million led by Toronto-based venture capital firm The Xchange. Others who participated then were Chinese VC firm SOSV, US-based Shock Ventures, Argentil Capital Ventures and ODBA & Co Ventures. Techstars Toronto also invested some money, as did some unnamed angel investors from North America and Africa.
Treepz was founded two years ago by Onyeka Akumah, Johnny Ena, John Shaibu and Afolabi Oluseyi. It offers both inter-state and intra-state travel through an on-demand ride-sharing platform across nearly two dozen cities in Nigeria.
The firm entered Ghana with the acquisition of Stabus. It has also struck another inorganic expansion move by snapping up Uganda’s Ugabus.
Mecho
Mecho Autotech, a platform that matches users with car technicians to maintain and repair their vehicles, has raised an undisclosed amount from Ingressive Capital.
Mecho chief executive Olusegun Owoade said the Nigerian company was launched in April 2021, although he and his team started the process of onboarding and vetting mechanics across the country in 2019.
“The whole process took about two years before we were able to achieve what we have today. We hope to solve the problem and close the gap between car owners, quality repair services and maintenance,” Owoade said.
