Africa’s Talk360, LifeCheq, Finclusion, Betastore, DriveMe, FlexID get funding

South African international voice calling app Talk360 has secured $4 million in a seed round led by venture capital firm HAVAÍC, 4Di Capital and several angel investors to build an African payment platform.

The angel investors included several unicorn founders and executives such as Gaston Aussems (ex-Mollie), Robert Kraal (ex-Adyen), Gabriel de Montessuss (President, WorldPay International) and Marnix van der Ploeg (ex-Booking.com and EQT).

Talk360 enables people around the world to make calls to any landline or mobile phone worldwide and is now preparing to launch a new pan-African payment platform over the next few weeks.

The startup said that it noticed users either don’t have online banking to buy Talk360 airtime, or their local currencies or payment methods are not supported. The new payment platform aims to address the continued issue of inaccessibility by providing users with the option to buy products and services using any currency and more than 160 payment methods. It will also be opened to other service providers.

The startup was founded in 2016 by South African venture builder Dean Hiine and Dutch entrepreneurs Hans Osnabrugge and Jorne Schamp. It has offices in South Africa, the Netherlands, India and Nigeria. It says it connected more than 2 million people in 2021.

Betastore

Nigerian B2B retail marketplace for informal retailers Betastore, which is operational in its home market besides Ivory Coast and Senegal, has secured $2.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round from 500 Global, VestedWorld and Loyal VC.

The venture allows informal traders to source fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) directly from manufacturers or distributors by skipping sales agents. It is now looking to expand to neighbouring Ghana besides the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon by December.

Co-founded by Steve Dakayi-Kamga and Leo-Armel Tchoudjang two years ago, Betastore follows an asset-light business model. It is now looking to launch a buy-now-pay-later financing solution on the platform in the next few weeks.

LifeCheq

Naspers, through its early-stage tech investment vehicle Naspers Foundry, has announced a ZAR40 million ($2.5 million) Series A round of investment in fintech platform targeted at financial advisors LifeCheq.

LifeCheq uses an AI-powered platform to help financial advisers improve client experience and drive efficiency. It combines integrated workflows and an online dashboard to manage personal finances.

The startup was founded in 2015 by Abubakari Malik Addae, Shen Tian, David Jacka and Dylan Flint, former executives at life insurer Old Mutual.

For Naspers Foundry, this adds to its other fintech bets on companies like Ctrl, Naked Insurance, Planet42 and Floatpays.

Finclusion

Egyptian micro-VC fund The Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF) has invested an undisclosed amount in South Africa-based fintech startup Finclusion Group.

Cofounded by Timothy Nuy and Tonderai Mutesva in 2019, Finclusion is a neobanking platform. It offers earned-wage access, buy-now-pay-later, and direct credit to its clients with a presence in South Africa, Eswatini, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania.

For CASF, this is the second investment in Africa outside of Egypt and its third fintech investment so far.

DriveMe

Nigerian mobility tech company DriveMe has announced an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding with participation from Niche Capital, FM Capital and a few local angel investors.

Founded and led by Damilola Odunlade Akeju, DriveMe is focused on driver sourcing, verification, and driver pairing for vehicle owners and fleet operators. Founded three years ago, it claims to have a network of over 3,000 drivers and paired over 1,000 drivers with businesses and individuals with operations in Lagos and Abuja.

FlexID

Zimbabwean startup FlexID, which is building a blockchain-based identity verification system, has raised an undisclosed amount from Algorand, a blockchain protocol created by Silvio Micali.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Victor Mapunga four years ago, FlexID uses a self-sovereign identity (SSI) platform to decentralize the process of identity verification.

Gooo Delivery

Egyptian on-demand delivery startup Gooo Delivery has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed round. Founded in 2020 by Yasser Hassan, Gooo offers point-to-point delivery services through an app that enables users to order food, medication, and groceries in several cities in Egypt including Cairo, Giza and Tanta. It did not name the investors.