Emerging Markets Roundup: August 16 - August 22 2023

Hi everyone, I’m Gautam. Every week I write the Spice Route newsletter, profiling tech in the five fastest growing regions in the world - India, SE Asia, MENA, Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America.

I’ve spent years immersed in these startup ecosystems as a founder and VC. If you’re a founder or PM building for these markets, or a VC looking to invest where the growth is, this newsletter is for you.

If you found this useful, share this with your friends and colleagues.

In Today’s Newsletter

🇮🇳 Make In India gets a boost; Wootz.work raises from Matrix and Nexus to help Indian SMEs sell light engineering products to US and UK factories and OEMs, by solving design, quality, and sourcing bottlenecks. India is capitalizing on supply chains moving out of China, through lucrative sops, export incentives, positioning, and the strength of its domestic market.

🇮🇩 Indonesia’s ALVA raises $50M, on the back of the region’s love of scooters. Over 80% of households in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam owns a two-wheeler, but rising emissions, fuel consumption and noise pollution have forced governments to push for electric mobility.

🇨🇴 Colombia’s Autolab brings car servicing into the digital age, with a SaaS platform for car servicing centers. The region boasts a robust automotive market, but also suffers from having aging cars on its roads, driving demand for aftermarket services.

🇬🇭 Ghana’s Oyster Agribusiness is bringing scale and technology to Africa’s smallholder farms. The continent possesses 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, and its agriculture market is expected to 4x to $1T by 2030.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia’s FlyAkeed raises $15.2M in funding on the back of the country’s push to become a global aviation and tourism hub. The region already boasts the largest share of widebody aircraft and is on track to have the fastest growing aviation and travel market in the world.

Wins

Companies in my portfolio that raised this week!

🇳🇬 LemFi, a Nigerian fintech building a digital bank for the African diaspora, has raised $33M in Series A funding led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from YC, Global Founders Capital, and other investors.

🇲🇽 Wonder Brands, a Mexico based D2C holding company that partners, acquires and builds brands in Latin America, has raised $15.5M in Series A funding led by Nazca and BID Lab.

Shoutout

🇨🇦 If you’re looking to move to Canada, look no further than Visto, led by my former co-founder Josh. The company’s platform uses AI to prep and file immigration applications. They’re currently in the process of closing a small bridge round.

Who’s Getting Funded

Local companies building for local markets.

We’re going to see the emergence of regional unicorns in sectors from fintech to agtech, driven by knowledge of local idiosyncrasies or protected by local regulation.

Agtech

🇬🇭 Oyster Agribusiness, a Ghana based vertically integrated agtech company helping smallholder farmers with sustainable inputs, improved practices, and a market for their produce, has raised $310K in grant and debt funding.

Cleantech

🇸🇬 Solar AI, a Singapore based solar-as-a-service platform has raised $1.5M in Seed funding led by Earth Venture Capital.

Consumer

🇦🇪 🇱🇧 Anghami, a UAE based and Lebanon founded music and entertainment streaming platform, has raised $5M in funding from SMRG Ventures.

Edtech

🇮🇳 Yummy Plate, an Indian subscription based meal service provider for schools, has raised $2M in funding from K12 Techno Services.

Fintech

🇲🇽 Klar, a Mexico based financial services platform for the underserved, has raised a $100M credit facility from Victory Park Capital.

🇮🇳 Zaggle, an Indian business spend management platform, has raised ~$11.9M in pre-IPO funding from Vikasa India EIF I Fund and other investors.

🇮🇳 Vegapay, an Indian company building technology for banks and non banking financial institutions, has raised $1.1M in Pre-Seed funding led by Eximus Ventures.

🇮🇳 Plus, an Indian app that helps homemakers save for jewelry purchases and offers them deals and discounts, has raised $350K in Seed funding from WFC, VCats, and other investors.

🇮🇳 BizPay, an Indian prepaid card and SaaS platform simplifying expense management for businesses, has raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding led by Inflection Point Ventures.

🇮🇳 FundsIndia, an Indian digital investment platform allowing users to invest in mutual funds, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Westbridge Capital.

HRtech

🇺🇸 Longevo, a US based employee wellbeing platform for businesses in Latin America, has raised $5.5M in funding led by Grupo Valora.

Insurtech

🇮🇳 Square Insurance, an Indian life and general insurance aggregator, has raised $1M in funding from Recur Club.

Mobility

🇮🇩 Ilectra Motor Group, an Indonesian e-motorbike company, has raised $50M in Series B funding led by Horizons Ventures.

🇨🇴 Autolab, a Colombia based SaaS platform for car servicing centers, has raised $4.1M in funding led by Vertical Venture Partners and Haven Ventures.

🇮🇳 Car Easy, an Indian car servicing platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding from ah! Ventures and other investors.

Supply Chain and Logistics

🇰🇪 Zanifu, a Kenya based inventory financing platform for micro, small, and medium businesses, has raised $11.2M in Pre-Series A debt and equity funding.

🇮🇳 Wootz.work, an Indian cross-border procurement platform for light engineering products, has raised $3.5M in Seed funding led by Matrix Partners India and Nexus Venture Partners.

🇮🇳 Boxs, an Indian B2B manufacturing platform for interior designers and architects, has raised $1.6M in Seed funding led by Peak XV’s Surge.

🇦🇪 Lumi AI, a UAE based business intelligence platform for organizations with physical supply chains, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Forum Ventures and other investors.

Travel

🇸🇦 FlyAkeed, a Saudi Arabia based flight-booking platform for consumers and businesses, has raised $15.2M in Series A funding led by PIF’s Sanabil Investments and Elm Company.

🇮🇳 Teleport, an Indian startup simplifying tourist visa applications, has raised $500K in Pre-Seed funding from Superb Capital and other investors.

Local companies building for global markets.

The pandemic accelerated two ongoing trends; product-led growth and a digital go-to-market became the norm, and enterprises had to digitize faster than ever. Community driven growth happens online, and the API-fication of tech has leveled the playing field when it comes to building software. Global companies in business automation, software and data infrastructure, AI, future of work, and web3 can now be built from anywhere.

Creator Economy

🇮🇳 Hypergro.ai, an Indian marketing platform helping brands acquire customers through user generated videos, has raised ~$848K in Seed funding led by Silverneedle Ventures.

Cybersecurity

🇺🇸 Metabase Q, a US based cybersecurity platform focused on Latin America based businesses, has raised $3M in Series A funding led by SYN Ventures.

Devtools and Infrastructure

🇮🇳 🇺🇸 Kombai, an India and USA based startup that helps front-end developers convert UI designs to code, has raised $4.5M in Seed funding led by Stellaris Venture Partners and Foundation Capital.

Horizontal SaaS

🇸🇬 Sirius Technologies, a Singapore based enterprise architecture platform, has raised $18M in Series A funding from Integra Partners and other investors.

🇮🇳 Contiinex, an Indian speech AI platform to help businesses improve customer satisfaction, has raised $2M in Pre-Series A funding from YourNest and Refex Capital.

Industrials and IoT

🇦🇪 MaxByte, a UAE based industrial robotics company serving the automotive, defense, utilities, and food and beverage sectors, has raised $5M in Series A funding led by e& Capital.

🇸🇬 Beep, a Singapore based universal, modular IoT platform with use cases across retail, healthcare, and mobility, has raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding led by GGV Capital.

Web3

🇸🇬 ZTX, a Singapore based Web3 virtual world and creator platform, has raised $13M in Seed funding from Jump Crypto.

🇻🇳 Wiziin, a Vietnam based venture investment management platform, has raised $500K in Pre-Seed funding.

Who’s Investing

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has launched a $200M fund for early-stage local and global tech startups.

🇮🇳 Sorin Investments, an India based technology VC, has secured the second close of its debut fund at $122M.

🇸🇬 🇦🇪 🇸🇦 🇪🇬 🇵🇰 Singapore based VC firm Antler has launched a $60M Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan focused early stage fund.

🇮🇳 India based early stage venture fund Veda VC has announced the first close of its ~$30.2M fund to invest in tech startups in the country.

🇧🇷 The Brazilian Government has committed to invest ~$7.4M in govtech startups building AI for public administrative services.

🇦🇷 Pampa Start, an Argentina based VC firm focused on agtech startups, is launching its second fund worth $5M.

🇸🇦 🇯🇴 Saudi Arabia’s Sadu Capital has raised $1.5M from Jordan’s Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund to invest in B2B startups in the region.

🇲🇾 Malaysia based AntsBees has earmarked $860K to support AI powered startups in education and healthcare in the country.

🇸🇬 🇮🇳 Singapore based healthtech investor HealthXCapital (HXC) has merged with Jungle Ventures to lead the firms’ healthcare investments in India and South East Asia.

Place of the Week

There are other worlds out there to explore. India’s Chandrayaan 3 makes a historic landing on the south pole of the moon. Here’s a guide to visiting.

Thank you for reading 🙏 

This newsletter is very early, and I’m exploring taking this in multiple different directions.

If you found this useful, share this with your friends and colleagues. 

Best,

Gautam