While the spotlight often shines on headline-grabbing mega-rounds, the bedrock of Africa’s rapidly growing startup ecosystem lies in the consistent flow of smaller (or missed bigger rounds), yet equally vital, investments. This month’s edition of the African Startup Deal Tracker delves into these under-the-radar transactions, encompassing pre-seed funding, angel investments, and strategic acquisitions that collectively paint a picture of sustained growth and investor confidence across the continent. These deals, spanning diverse sectors from agri-tech to legal tech, highlight the ingenuity of African startup founders and the breadth of opportunities being seized.
Here’s a closer look at the notable under-the-radar investment activity we’re tracking this month:
Yongeza Capital
- Investment: Undisclosed (Seed investment).
- Investor(s): Holocene.
- Sector/Focus: E-Mobility / Energy Infrastructure. Building a comprehensive electric two-wheeler swapping network. The model replaces traditional downtime-heavy charging with “swap stations” where riders exchange depleted batteries for charged ones in seconds.
- Country of Operation: Uganda.
- Purpose: To scale clean, accessible mobility infrastructure across Uganda and expand operations into the rest of Africa. The startup leverages a founding team with deep experience in scaling telecom and energy infrastructure (e.g., American Tower Corporation) to manage uptime-critical systems at scale.
Spiro Mobility
- Investment: $7 million senior debt working capital facility.
- Investor(s): Nithio, through its FAIR (Facility for Adaptation, Inclusion and Resilience) fund.
- Sector/Focus: E-Mobility / Clean Energy. Africa’s largest electric vehicle platform, deploying electric motorcycles and a massive battery-swapping network. The platform uses a “State of Charge” (SoC) monitoring system and smart energy IoT to optimize battery lifespans.
- Country of Operation: Currently active in 7+ countries, including Benin, Togo, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana.
- Purpose: To expand its electric motorcycle fleet (currently 80,000+ units) and battery swapping network (2,500+ stations), while strengthening the company’s working capital as it scales to meet regional demand for low-carbon commercial transport.
Arc Ride
- Investment: Up to $5 million (Proposed equity investment as part of a larger Series A round).
- Investor(s): International Finance Corporation (IFC). Other strategic backers include Mirova, British International Investment (BII), Musashi Seimitsu Industry, and Novastar Ventures.
- Sector/Focus: E-Mobility / Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS). Develops IoT-enabled electric two-wheelers and proprietary tech infrastructure for managing fleet and battery swap facilities.
- Country of Operation: Kenya (HQ in Nairobi).
- Purpose: To finance the company’s Series A expansion and growth. The funds will support the large-scale deployment of electric bikes (Boda Bodas) and the rollout of hundreds of battery-swapping cabinets to create a seamless, low-carbon transport network across East Africa.
Talk360
- Investment: $1.4 million (Secondary Investment).
- Investor(s): Led by HAVAÍC (lead investor since 2022) with support from Universum Wealth (a limited partner in HAVAÍC’s African Innovation Fund 3).
- Sector/Focus: Fintech / Global Communications. A cross-border calling platform specifically designed for diaspora communities, international travelers, and businesses, offering savings of up to 90% on international calls.
- Country of Operation: Headquarters in South Africa and the Netherlands, with major operations in Nigeria and India; serves over 6 million users in 180+ countries.
- Purpose: To fund the next phase of product development, including the expansion of Shop360 — a feature allowing users to send mobile airtime, data bundles, and top-ups globally. The secondary nature of the deal also provided partial liquidity to early angel investors who have backed the company since 2016, realizing up to 5x returns.
Ollo Africa
- Investment: $1.8 million (Capital increase from 68 million CFA to 1 billion CFA).
- Investor(s): Togolese and American business angels (including Sophia Boyer).
- Sector/Focus: Fintech / Digital Social Savings. Digitizes traditional Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs), commonly known as tontines, through its proprietary Ohana Africa platform.
- Country of Operation: Togo (with ambitions to expand across the WAEMU region).
- Purpose: To launch a major customer acquisition campaign in Togo and technologically enhance the Ohana Africa platform. The funds will also support strategic partnerships with microfinance institutions and community organizations, building on its existing partnership with Ecobank and its BCEAO license to provide secure, traceable collective savings.
Tactful AI
- Investment: $1 million Pre-Series A round.
- Investor(s): Jointly led by Foras AI and M Empire, with participation from prominent deep-tech angel investors.
- Sector/Focus: SaaS / Agentic AI / Customer Experience (CX). A platform that enables organizations to move beyond simple chatbots to “Agentic AI” — autonomous agents capable of handling complex customer requests from end-to-end within defined operational controls.
- Country of Operation: Egypt (HQ) with a presence in Europe and the Middle East.
- Purpose: To accelerate growth within the Egyptian market, explore and test new regional markets across the EMEA region, and continue R&D for its proprietary agent-based execution technology.