Emerging Markets Roundup: June 7 - June 13 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.

I would love feedback on this edition and suggestions on what you’d like to see in a newsletter like this. Just reply back to this email.

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Opportunities

Let’s talk about insurtech.

I had the privilege of speaking with the founders of an insurtech company this week. I’d always assumed that the biggest opportunities in insurance were around data - how do new age insurance companies get access to the best data so that they can underwrite more accurately than anyone else?

I realized that for most emerging markets however, the biggest problem likes one step behind - distribution. Insurance penetration rates are woefully low in most emerging market countries:

Now you might ask - doesn’t everyone have a smartphone? Why isn’t this a simple case of launching an app and finding users?

The problem is, most consumers don’t know they need insurance (or in some cases, that they can get insurance). Even if they did, they wouldn’t understand what to look for. To overcome this hurdle, you need a human in the loop - someone who can educate the consumer, understand their needs, and suggest the right plan.

Insurance agents already exist in these countries, but their methods remain outdated - phone calls, endless paper forms, and a fully offline process that leaves potential policyholders scratching their heads.

Which brings me back to the company I spoke with. Rather than go the full Lemonade route, the company sought to empower existing insurance agents - and new freelance agents who could make some cash on the side - to sell insurance from existing providers.

This platform model has seen some early success in markets like India, where Turtlemint was last valued at close to $900M. Turtlemint gets the majority of its users from Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets in the country.

Given the fairly low levels of penetration in these markets, the size of the overall insurance space, and regulations that vary from country to country, there are multiple opportunities to build genuinely large companies in this space.

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

🇮🇳 Satyukt Analytics, an Indian agriculture analytics startup providing SaaS based advisory to farmers through satellites and machine learning, has raised ~$1.2M in Pre-Series A funding from Nabventures.

B2B Marketplaces

🇮🇳 Buyofuel, an Indian biofuel marketplace, has raised $550K in non-dilutive capital via Recur Club.

Biotech

🇿🇦 Maltento, a South African company developing insect based animal feed, has raised $3.3M in funding from Sand River Venture Capital.

Cleantech

🇮🇳 Proklean, an Indian company making non toxic, biodegradable products for industries and households, has raised $4M in funding from Raintree Family Office.

🇮🇳 Solarad.ai, an Indian energy generation forecasting platform for maximizing solar energy assets, has raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding led by India Quotient.

E-Commerce and E-Commerce Enablement

🇺🇾 NocNoc, a Uruguayan company facilitating cross border e-commerce for sellers who want to sell in Latin America, has raised $14M in Series A funding led by PayPal.

Edtech

🇮🇳 Raising Superstars, an Indian edtech company helping parents engage and teach children until the age of 6, has raised $2M in Pre-Series A funding led by BLinC Invest.

Fintech

🇮🇳 Indifi, an Indian lending platform providing online loans to small and medium businesses, has raised $35M in Series E funding led by ICICI Ventures.

🇮🇳 Lentra, an Indian cloud lending platform that enables financial institutions to automate retail finance and credit assessment, has raised $27M in Bridge round funding from Dharana Capital and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Bank.

🇮🇳 TradingLeagues, an Indian platform gamifying stock trading, has raised $3.5M in Pre-Series A funding led by Leo Capital.

🇮🇩 Finfra, an Indonesian startup that allows businesses provide embedded lending services, has raised $1M in new funding DSX Ventures, Seedstars, and others.

Healthtech

🇮🇳 HealthifyMe, an Indian health and fitness app providing smart meal plans and customized workout plans, has raised $30M in Pre-Series D funding led by Leapfrog Investments and Khosla Ventures.

🇧🇷 Sami, a Brazilian technology platform for small business healthcare companies in the country, has raised $18M in Series B funding led by Redpoint Ventures and Mundi Ventures.

Mobility

🇮🇳 Revfin, an Indian EV financing startup, has raised $5M in debt funding from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

🇮🇳 Attron Automotive, an Indian company producing cost-effective long-range, efficient EV components, has raised ~$579K in funding from Anicut Capital and others.

🇮🇳 Kyte Energy, an Indian manufacturer of two wheeler EVs, has raised ~$366K in Pre-Seed funding ah! Ventures, Soonicorn Ventures, and others.

🇮🇳 SheerDrive, an Indian AI/ML platform for used car dealerships to maximize their business potential, has raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding from Inflection Point Ventures.

Proptech

🇮🇳 Basic Home Loan, an Indian company building an end to end platform for home loans, has raised $4.7M in Pre-Series B funding from Dexter Angels and others.

Supply Chain and Logistics

🇪🇬 Trella, an Egyptian logistics company connecting shippers with truckers in real time, has raised $3.5M in funding from Avanz Capital.

🇳🇬 Haul247, a Nigerian end-to-end logistics platform connecting businesses to haulage and warehousing assets, has raised $3M in Seed funding led by Alitheia Capital.

🇳🇬 Messenger, a Nigerian end-to-end logistics platform digitizing the retail supply chain, has raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Seed funding led by Nama Ventures.

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.

Cybersecurity

🇨🇱 Hackmetrix, a Chilean cybersecurity company, has raised $1.3M in bridge funding led by Daedalus Ventures.

Gaming

🇮🇳 HighXP, an Indian gaming studio focused on social, casual games, has raised $2.2M in Seed funding led by 3One4 Capital.

Horizontal SaaS

🇧🇷 Digibee, a Brazilian app integration platform for enterprises, has raised $60M in Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs.

🇮🇳 RevSure.ai, an Indian startup helping organizations predict, generate, and accelerate their pipelines, has raised $10M in Seed funding led by Neotribe Ventures and Innovation Endeavors.

🇳🇬 Termii, a Nigerian messaging startup that makes it easier for businesses to engage with their users, has raised $3.65M in funding led by Fintech Collective.

🇮🇳 Skills Caravan, an Indian Learning-as-a-Service platform for organizations, has raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding from angel investors.

Vertical SaaS

🇨🇴 Fanki, a Colombian startup allowing sports organizations to budget, generate reports, and provide services to their fans, has raised $6M in Seed funding led by Broom Ventures and Tenacity Ventures.

IoT and Industrials

🇴🇲 Byanat, an Omani SaaS analytics company for scaling and maintaining connected infrastructure, has raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding from 500 Global and other investors.

Who’s Investing

🇮🇳 2070 Health, an Indian healthcare venture studio helping founders test, launch, and iterate on futuristic healthcare ideas, has raised $30M in Seed funding from W Health Ventures.

🇮🇳🇸🇬 Quadria Capital, a PE firm based in India and Singapore focused on investments in mid-cap healthcare companies in South and Southeast Asia, has raised $35M in funding from Proparco.

🇰🇷 🇮🇳 Mirae Global, a South Korean financial services company has provided ~$151M in funding for its Indian arm, Mirae Asset Capital Markets.

🇮🇳 CaHa Capital, an Indian boutique investment advisory firm, has launched a climate tech and climate finance focused venture studio, VAIA Climate Studio.

🇮🇳 AWE Funds, an Indian venture fund focused on women, has raised a $15M first close of its maiden fund.

🇵🇭 Kaya Founders, a Filipino VC firm, has raised $12M for two funds to invest in Pre-Seed to Series A startups in Southeast Asia.

🇸🇦 Investcorp’s Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund, formed to invest in companies based in the country planning to go public in the next few years, has raised funding from Jada Fund of Funds.

🇸🇦 🇰🇷 Saudi Arabia and South Korea have announced a joint fund worth $160M to invest in Saudi and South Korean startups.

🇪🇬 🇳🇬 Acasia Ventures, an Egyptian VC firm, has opened an office in Lagos, Nigeria to extend its reach across Africa.

Place of the Week

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

Thank you for reading 🙏 

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

I’d love the feedback - please reply back with any suggestions, requests, or questions you have for me.

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

If you liked this email, I highlight my take on these markets on my Twitter account as well.

Best,

Gautam