Emerging Markets Roundup: August 30 - September 5 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

🇮🇳 The sky is no longer the limit; India’s Manastu Space raises funding for cleaner propulsion and debris collision avoidance, following SatSure’s $15M raise last week and the lunar landing 2 weeks ago. The country boasts 140+ registered spacetech startups, a space industry the same size as Japan’s, and a spacetech market that is expected to 5x to $40B by 2040.

🇻🇳 🇮🇩 Job hunting in SE Asia gets a boost; Vietnam’s TopCV raises a Series B to get candidate resumes past ATS filters, while Indonesia’s Kupu raises $6M to help its 600K+ users land roles through AI driven matching. The region’s job market remains robust despite global economic uncertainty.

🇧🇷 Outdated processes, underserved customers, and large market opportunities…what’s not to love about B2B marketplaces? Brazil’s Praso raises funding from NFX to connect bars, cafes and restaurants with suppliers. A focus on higher margin food businesses and little competition in NE Brazil, which houses 50 million people and 500K merchants, help set it apart.

🇰🇪 Digital payments, no internet connection required; Kenya’s Kotani Pay is tapping stablecoins to slash high transfer fees for remittances on the continent. The platform’s middleware uses a communication protocol on feature phones to allow users, many of whom are underbanked, to send money without needing mobile data.

🇦🇪 UAE’s myZoi raises $14M from Standard Chartered to reduce the remittance cost for low income migrant workers to less than 3%. As of 2013, the UAE had 7.8 million migrant workers, out of a total population of 9.2 million. Many of these workers would send most of their income back home, leaving little for personal use.

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

🇮🇳 Captain Fresh, an Indian B2B fish and seafood supply chain platform, has raised $20M in extended Series C funding led by SBI Investments and Evolvence Capital.

Cleantech

🇦🇺 Okra Solar, an Australia based company bringing electricity to Africa with its mesh-grid technology, has raised $12M in Series A funding led by At One Ventures.

🇮🇳 Cirkla, an Indian startup providing large businesses with sustainable packaging solutions, has raised $3M in Pre-Seed funding led by Matrix Partners India and Stellaris Venture Partners.

🇮🇳 Ellipsol, an Indian startup building a retrofittable solution to increase the energy yield of conventional solar panels at a minimal additional cost, has raised ~$301K in Seed funding led by Capital A.

E-Commerce and E-Commerce Enablement

🇮🇳 PrintBrix, an Indian startup helping brands with designs, printing, and fulfilling promotions, has raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Seed funding from EvolveX.

Edtech

🇲🇦 Smartprof, a Moroccan platform connecting students seeking academic support with qualified tutors, has an undisclosed amount of funding from Fuze.

Fintech 

🇦🇪 myZoi, a UAE based digital remittances platform for low income migrant workers, has raised $14M from SC Ventures and SBI Holdings.

🇮🇳 CredRight, an Indian data driven lending platform providing credit to micro and small businesses, has raised $9.7M in equity and debt funding led by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

🇸🇬 iMin Technology, a Singapore based point-of-sale solutions firm, has raised $5M in pre Series A funding led by Yonghua Capital.

🇵🇭 TANGGapp, a Filipino remittances platform allowing users to transfer money from the US to the Philippines, has raised $2.5M in Seed funding led by Ten13, Goodwater Capital, North Fifth Asia, and Foxmont Capital Partners.

🇳🇬 Anchor, a Nigerian Banking-as-a-Service platform for countries across the continent, has raised $2.4M in Seed funding led by Goat Capital, with participation from Y Combinator and other investors.

🇰🇼 Kem, a Kuwait based peer to peer instant payments platform, has raised $1M in Pre-Seed funding led by Maqamees Holdings.

🇪🇬 HEDG, an Egypt based savings management and pension planning platform for private sector employees, has raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Seed funding from various investors.

Healthtech

🇮🇳 MediBuddy, an Indian healthtech startup offering video consultations, lab test booking, and order medicines, has raised $18M in additional funding from existing investors Quadria Capital, Lightrock, and TEAMFund.

🇸🇬 MiyaHealth, a Singapore based healthtech SaaS platform for improving the patient experience, has raised $1.76M in pre Series A funding led by Fondation Botnar.

🇮🇳 LISSUN, an Indian mental health platform providing self diagnosis, expert guidance, and treatment, has raised $1.3M in Seed funding led by Inflection Point Ventures and Rainmatter Capital.

HRtech

🇮🇳 🇸🇬 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 Atomicwork, an Indian startup that uses AI to automate business workflows and improve the employee experience, has raised $11M in Seed funding led by Blume Ventures and Matrix Partners.

🇮🇩 Kupu, an Indonesia based AI enabled recruitment platform offering sourcing, AI powered video interviews, and AI driven matching, has raised $6M in bridge funding led by Ascend Global Investment Fund.

🇻🇳 TopCV, a Vietnamese recruitment platform helping candidates get their resumes past screening filters, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from Mynavi.

Insurtech

🇪🇬 Sehatech, an Egypt based insurance as a service platform automating medical approvals, claims processing, and billing cycles, has raised $850K in funding from A15 and Beltone Venture Capital.

🇿🇦 LeaseSurance, a South African platform helping property owners replace security deposits with lease insurance, has raised $161K in Seed funding led by Fedgroup Private Capital.

Mobility

🇮🇳 Ather Energy, an Indian manufacturer of electric two wheelers, has raised ~$66M in funding from Hero MotoCorp.

🇧🇷 Frota 162, a Brazilian fleet management platform reducing time spent on fines management, driver restrictions, and administrative tasks, has raised $600K in funding led by ACE Ventures.

Proptech

🇮🇳 Flipspaces, an Indian platform to manage interior designers, product suppliers, and contractors for SMEs, has raised $4M in Pre-Series B funding from existing investors.

Supply Chain and Logistics

🇻🇳 Telio, a Vietnamese B2B e-commerce platform building solutions for groceries and consumer goods, has raised $15M in funding led by Granite Oak.

🇧🇷 Praso, a Brazilian company building a distribution platform for small retailers, has raised $9.3M in Series A funding led by Valor Capital and NFX.

Travel

🇮🇳 Mappls Kogo, an Indian AI powered travel planning app, has raised ~$1.1M in funding from MapMyIndia.

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.

Devtools and Infrastructure

🇮🇳 Facets.cloud, an Indian infrastructure management platform to streamline workflows in cloud deployment, has raised $4M in Seed funding led by 3one4 Capital.

Gaming

🇸🇬 Komet Games, a Singapore based mobile games platform, has raised $1M in Pre-Seed funding led by Picus Capital and Creative Collective Capital.

Horizontal SaaS

🇨🇱 Biwiser, a Chilean business intelligence platform providing an analytics platform and data consulting services, has raised ~$160K in funding through the Uper.co community funding platform.

Spacetech

🇮🇳 Manastu Space, an Indian spacetech startup developing green propulsion and debris collision avoidance systems for satellites, has raised $3M in Pre Series A funding led by Capital 2B, BIG Capital, and E2MC.

Web3

🇰🇪 Kotani Pay, a Kenya based crypto payments startup looking to make offline remittances easier for the underbanked in Africa, has raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding led by P1 Ventures.

Who’s Investing

🇹🇭 🇺🇸 Thailand’s CP Group has partnered with US based LDA Capital to launch a $2B fund for South East Asia’s middle market.

🇮🇩 Merah Putih Fund, an Indonesian VC firm backed by the country’s government, has raised $300M in the first close of its inaugural fund to invest in local startups.

🇮🇳 India based, B2B SaaS focused venture firm Pentathlon Ventures has announced the launch of its Fund II, with a target of ~$54M.

🇰🇪 Kenya based Catalyst Fund has reached the first close of its $40M fund to invest in climate tech startups in the continent.

🇮🇩 Indonesia based digital bank Superbank has launched a $40M financing solution to back local startups.

🇮🇩 Indonesia’s BRI Ventures has announced the final close of its D2C and fintech focused fund at $30M.

🇮🇳 Indian investment technology platform Soonicorn Ventures is launching a ~$30M angel fund to invest in drones, B2B SaaS, EVs, fintech, and supply chain and logistics startups.

🇮🇳 India based Unicorn India Ventures has announced the first close of its Fund III at $27.1M. The firm will invest $1M to $2M in startups in agtech, spacetech, and semiconductors.

🇮🇳 Anicut Capital, an Indian alternative investment firm, has raised $6M to invest in 12 to 14 Series A and B Indian startups within the next 2 years.

🇮🇳 gradCapital, an Indian venture firm investing in student led startups, has announced the launch of its $6M second fund.

🇧🇷 Copel, a Brazilian energy company, has launched a Fund I, focused on Seed and Series A startups in renewable energy, ESG practices, energy as a service, smart cities, and energy efficiency.

Place of the Week

There’s a whole world out there to explore. Here’s a guide to visiting Kuwait.

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