Emerging Markets Roundup: September 6 - September 12 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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In Today’s Newsletter

🇮🇳 WOGOM raises funding to link rural phone shops with suppliers. The Indian hinterland, with 70% of the population, is arguably the next big startup opportunity. There’s evidence of demand in Tier II and III India catching up to the country’s metro cities, and with 76.6% mobile penetration as of last year, it’s only a matter of time before the villages catch up.

🇵🇭 Over 1.5M Filipinos are employed on international freelancing sites; until now, getting paid meant high transfer costs and long waiting times. With remote work here to stay and with freelancing exploding in emerging markets, Parallax gets $4.5M from General Catalyst and others to solve the $21T cross-border payments problem, using stablecoins for instant and cheap transfers.

🇲🇽 Sculptures and art pieces in your living room…3D printed and designed by AI? Ukma raises funding from Canvas Partners for its Mexican art inspired, AI driven, 3D printed sculptures marketplace. Over 36.7M art and antique pieces were sold in 2021, with online sales representing 20% of the market at $13.3B as of 2020.

🇳🇬 Imagine Singapore, but digital first and based out of Nigeria. Itana raises $2M in Pre-Seed funding to build an online “free zone” for global tech companies to situate their African operations in Nigeria, with the ideal policies, incentives, and services to operate and scale across the continent. Africa has long aspired for its own Singapore, with Rwanda emerging as a contender.

🇸🇦 A shocking 30% of food fit for human consumption is wasted globally each year, amounting to almost 3B tons. For the longest time, solving this meant government interjection or the efforts of a well meaning community. Saudi Arabia’s Barakah helps restaurants and grocery stores sell surplus food to consumers, giving them additional revenue and more engaged customers.

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

🇧🇷 iRancho, a Brazil based agtech aiming to modernize livestock farming and make it more sustainable, has raised $1.4M in funding from Banco do Brasil.

🇮🇩 Delos, an Indonesian aquaculture company offering a farm management and a harvesting and logistics platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Cleantech

🇮🇳 altM, an Indian biomaterials company helping companies reduce their carbon footprint through new alternatives, has raised $3.5M in Seed funding led by Omnivore.

🇲🇾 ERTH, a Malaysian electronic waste recycling platform incentivizing users with financial rewards, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Gobi Partners.

Consumer

🇲🇽 Ukma, a Mexican company using AI to create art and sculptures, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from CANVAS Partners.

E-Commerce and E-Commerce Enablement

🇨🇴 Rocketfy, a Colombia based e-commerce enablement platform, has raised $7M in funding from Aluna Partners.

🇮🇳 WOGOM, an Indian platform connecting consumer electronics and mobile phone retailers in the country’s hinterland with distributors, has raised $1.9M in funding from family offices.

Edtech

🇻🇳 Elsa, a Vietnamese AI based English learning app, has raised $20M in funding led by UOB Venture Management.

🇪🇨 Databits, an Ecuador based online education platform for data science and AI, has raised $600K in Pre-Seed funding from 500 LatAm and other investors.

🇮🇳 Navars Edutech, an Indian astronomy and space education startup for K-12 and undergraduate students, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation.

Fintech 

🇮🇳 Perfios, an Indian real-time credit decisioning and analytics platform, has raised $229M in Series D funding from Kedaara Capital, through a primary and secondary sale.

🇮🇳 Aaritya, an Indian platform for individual traders, has raised $7-$10M in Seed funding from Accel and Elevation Capital.

🇲🇽 Syscap, a Mexican fintech platform democratizing access to private credit for non banking financial institutions, has raised $2.3M in funding led by Wollef.

🇰🇪 Flexpay, a Kenya based “Save Now Buy Later” platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Renew Capital Angels.

Foodtech

🇸🇦 Barakah, a Saudi Arabia based foodtech startup helping restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores fight food waste by allowing them to sell excess inventory, has raised $1.5M in Seed funding led by Hambro Perks Oryx Fund.

Healthtech

🇧🇩 MedEasy, a Bangladesh based healthcare platform for underserved patients, has raised $750K in Seed funding from Seedstars and other investors.

HRtech

🇮🇳 Atypical Advantage, an Indian hiring platform for people with disabilities, has raised ~$193K in Seed funding from angel investors.

🇮🇳 Smartstaff, an Indian blue collar staffing platform for the manufacturing industry, has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Persol.

🇮🇩 Staffinc, an Indonesian digital staffing platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Altara Ventures, Antler, and Mynavi.

Insurtech

🇻🇳 Saladin, a Vietnamese insurance platform non-life insurance, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Mobility

🇮🇳 Ola Electric, an Indian electric vehicles manufacturer, has raised $140M in pre-IPO funding led by Temasek.

🇲🇽 123 Lease, a Mexican car leasing services platform, has raised $30M in funding from Emso Private Credit Fund.

🇧🇷 EZVolt, a Brazil based network of electric charging solutions, has raised $2M in funding from Vibra Ventures.

🇸🇬 Sleek EV, a Singapore based manufacturer of EV two-wheelers, has raised an undisclosed amount of pre Series A funding led by Orzon Ventures and 500 TukTuks.

Regtech and Legaltech

🇳🇬 Itana, a Nigerian online “free zone” to improve ease of doing business and drive foreign investment and employment, has raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding led by LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital, and Future Africa.

🇮🇳 TrackWizz, an Indian software platform for combating financial crime, money laundering, and terrorist financing, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from WestBridge Capital.

🇮🇩 Hukumku, an Indonesian legal aid platform connecting users with vetted lawyers, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by East Ventures.

Supply Chain and Logistics

🇮🇳 Kale Logistics, an Indian logistics platform and ERP solution for simplifying cargo movements at airports and seaports, has raised $30M in Series B funding led by Creaegis Advisors LLP.

🇮🇩 Manuva, an Indonesian supply chain platform for small and medium sized manufacturers in the country, has raised $8M in funding led by Tin Men Capital.

🇸🇦 Equiptal, a Saudi Arabia based marketplace for heavy equipment connecting contractors with suppliers, has raised $1M in Pre-Seed funding from Plug and Play Middle East.

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

🇮🇳 DevDynamics, an Indian engineering analytics platform and AI co-pilot for engineering leaders, has raised $600K in Pre-Seed funding led by Powerhouse Ventures.

Hardware, Robotics, and IoT

🇮🇳 Noccarc, an Indian manufacturer of smart ventilators for hospitals and clinics, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from SIDBI.

Horizontal SaaS

🇲🇽 Kunzapp, a Mexican platform helping enterprises manage their software subscriptions, has raised $750K in funding from Platanus Ventures and other investors.

Web3

🇮🇳 Brine Fi, an Indian decentralized crypto exchange, has raised $16.5M in Series A funding led by Pantera Capital.

🇵🇭 Parallax, a Philippines based platform helping freelancers and remote workers accept near-instant international payments at low rates, has raised $4.5M in Seed funding led by Dragonfly Capital.

🇸🇬 Helix, a Singapore based platform giving lenders access to stable yields tied to real-world assets through tokenized collateral and smart contracts, has raised $2M in bridge funding led by Saison Capital and Superscrypt.

🇦🇪 GAM3S.GG, a UAE based Web3 gaming platform that curates and creates content showcasing games, reviews, guides, news and more, has raised $2M in Seed funding led by Mechanism Capital.

🇳🇬 Nestcoin, a Nigeria based non-custodial crypto wallet with the benefits of a custodial wallet, has raised $1.9M in funding led by Hashed Emergent.

Who’s Investing

🇮🇳 🇸🇬 Vertex Ventures, a Singapore based early stage venture firm investing in Indian and South East Asian startups, has raised $541M for its fifth fund.

🇲🇾 The Malaysian Government has announced plans to invest $211M in local startups, matching contributions by other investors.

🇸🇬 500 Global, an early-stage venture firm, has closed its third South East Asian early stage fund at $143M.

🇮🇳 Xponentia Capital, an India based private equity firm, has announced the final close of its Opportunities Fund II at ~$120M.

🇲🇾 HSBC Malaysia has launched a new ~$107M fund to support startups in the country at the Series B stage and onwards.

🇸🇬 Singapore’s Temasek, along with Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore, are committing $55M to early stage deeptech startups from the two universities.

🇸🇬 Aelf, a Singapore based blockchain solutions company, has launched a new $50M fund to support blockchain projects.

🇮🇳 The Indian state of Maharashtra has announced a $6M fund to support proptech startups.

🇦🇪 🇸🇦 UAE based VentureSouq has raised $5M from Saudi Venture Capital for its new fintech fund.

🇸🇬 Protege Ventures, a Singapore based student run VC for startups founded by students, has launched its second fund at ~$367K.

Place of the Week

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

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