Emerging Markets Roundup: November 8 - November 14 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, a VC looking to invest where the growth is, or you want to stop falling behind on what’s happening in the rest of the world, this newsletter is for you.

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I had to take a hiatus for the last 2 weeks for health reasons. Back with a new edition this week.

Highlights from Last Week’s Funding Announcements

🇮🇳 India’s construction boom: Four proptech companies raise rounds this week, including two construction tech companies. Snaptrude raises funding to bring BIM modeling for architects and interior designers to the browser, while LivSYT gives construction teams on-site a digital assistant.

Why it’s interesting: India is in the midst of an unprecedented construction boom driven by surging real estate demand in its top eight cities; Mumbai has one of the largest concentrations of construction cranes anywhere in the world. This boom is expected to add 30 million more jobs by the end of the decade, which in turn is driving the demand for new software products.

🇵🇭 The future is fractional; Philippines based Swarm raises a pre-seed from Hustle Fund and Plug and Play.

Why it’s interesting: An interesting side effect of pandemic induced remote work is the uptick in fractional consulting. Employees who tasted location freedom for the first time or had more time from not commuting decided to pursue part-time consulting work, and young companies lacking resources could now bring on expertise from anywhere in the world. SE Asia, and the Philippines in particular, has always led from the front with outsourced work.

🇨🇴 Payments for Mobility: Colombia’s GoPass raises $15M for digitizing payments across toll booths, parking garages, gas stations, car washes and other places you drive a car.

Why it’s interesting: We’ve all been there, scratching our heads figuring out where and how to pay once we’ve parked our car. Mobility continues to be a hot space in Latin America, and this fundraise highlights that big opportunities exist in niche sounding spaces; the company claims to have more than 350K users and has processed over 6M transactions.

🇳🇬 Modernizing African education: Altschool Africa raises $3M to help Africans access global standard learning resources and pedagogies.

Why it’s interesting: Youth unemployment is a chronic problem in Africa; only 30% of young people who join the workforce every year are able to find jobs or earn enough to support themselves. Altschool’s online learning platform for business, data, engineering, and media, along with its ISA model of connecting learners with internships should help with plugging this gap.

🇲🇦 Europe-Africa trade gets a fillip: Morocco’s Cloudfret gets $2.1M to modernize Mediterranean shipping.

Why it’s interesting: Cloudfret uses AI to detect empty cargo vehicles, and redirect them to available goods for transportation, minimizing empty truck returns in Europe Africa trade routes in the Mediterranean. The company is further expanding its offering to become a B2B marketplace for fuel cards, cargo payments, and quick payment after delivery.

Top 10 Funding Rounds

1. Supply Chain and Logistics: 🇮🇳 Xpressbees, an Indian logistics solutions provider offering cross-border, 3PL, and B2B services, has raised $80M in Series G funding from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

2. Fintech: 🇮🇳 InCred, an Indian technology and data driven financial services platform for India's lower middle to middle class, has raised $60M in Series D funding from various investors.

3. E-Commerce and E-Commerce Enablement: 🇮🇳 Zepto, an Indian quick commerce platform delivering groceries in 10 minutes, has raised an additional $31.25M in Series E funding from Goodwater Capital and Nexus Venture Partners.

4. Proptech and Construction Tech: 🇸🇦 Ajras, a Saudi Arabia based flexible payment solutions platform for landlords and their tenants, has raised $28M in Seed funding led by Madarek International.

5. Travel: 🇹🇭 Traveligo, a Thailand based online travel agency, has raised $25M in funding led by Beacon Venture Capital.

6. E-Commerce and E-Commerce Enablement: 🇵🇭 Etaily, a Philippines based customer relationship management, marketplace management, and brand building service for consumer brands, has raised $17.8M in Series A funding led by Pavilion Capital and SKS Capital.

7. Proptech and Construction Tech: 🇮🇳 Bharat Housing Network, an Indian co-lending platform for housing finance companies and financial institutions to provide affordable housing loans, has raised $15M in Series A funding led by Nabventures.

8. Mobility: 🇨🇴 GoPass, a Colombia based payments ecosystem for toll booths, gas stations, car wash services, self-service commerce, and towing services, has raised $15M in funding from Kaszek Ventures.

9. Proptech and Construction Tech: 🇧🇷 CondoConta, a Brazilian digital bank that offers financial solutions for condos and property managers, has raised $14.6M in Series A funding led by SYN Proptech, Endeavor Scale-Up, and Terracotta Ventures.

10. Proptech and Construction Tech: 🇮🇳 Snaptrude, an Indian collaborative, browser based building information modelling platform for architects and interior designers, has raised $14M in Series A funding led by Foundamental and Accel.

Over $430M+ raised this week from the likes of Peak XV’s Surge, Nexus, Accel and more.

Click the button below to get the full list of funding announcements.

Who’s Investing

🇺🇸 IBM has announced that it is launching a $500M venture fund to invest in artificial intelligence companies.

🇦🇪 🇯🇵 SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered, has partnered with Japan-based SBI Holdings, to establish a $100M digital assets investment firm in the UAE.

🇻🇳 Vietnamese Web3 coalition Ninety Eight has announced the launch of a $25M fund, focusing primarily on nurturing the growth of Web3 startups in Asia.

🇸🇬 Blockchain startup Kyber Network is launching Caliber, a new venture builder that aims to create crypto consumer apps and infrastructure.

Place of the Week

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

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