Emerging Markets Roundup: May 17 - May 23 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 focus on sectors I believe have the most potential to produce breakout companies from these geographies.

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.

Disclaimer: This newsletter is in closed Beta - it’s currently going out to a very small, very trusted group of friends and mentors. I’ve spent years immersed in these startup ecosystems as a founder and VC, and I want to make this as useful as possible to you.

This is V1 - to start with, I’m curating funding rounds and VCs focused on these regions. If this is/isn’t useful, let me know.

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.

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.

B2B Marketplaces

🇲🇦 Chari, a Moroccan B2B e-commerce platform for FMCG products, has raised funding from Plug and Play.

Cleantech

🇰🇪 Amini, a Kenyan climate tech company building a single source of truth for Africa’s environmental data, has raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding led by Pale Blue Dot.

E-Commerce and E-Commerce Enablement

🇮🇳 Vinculum, an Indian SaaS enabling omni-channel retailing for brands and distributors, has raised a strategic investment from logistics unicorn Delhivery.

🇮🇳 Gan.ai, an Indian video creation platform for brands powered by generative AI, has raised $5.2M in Seed funding led by Sequoia Surge.

🇸🇦 Baytonia, a Saudi furniture e-commerce platform, has raised an undisclosed Seed round led by Khwarizmi Ventures.

Edtech

🇻🇳 EQuest Education Group, a Vietnamese Edtech company, has raised $120M in debt and equity funding from KKR and other investors.

Fintech

🇮🇳 PhonePe, an Indian payments and financial services platform owned by Walmart has raised $100M in equity investment from General Atlantic.

🇸🇬 Bolttech, a Singaporean embedded insurtech platform, has raised $196M in Series B funding led by Tokio Marine.

🇵🇭 Netbank, a Filipino Banking-as-a-Service platform, has raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding led by Beenext.

🇿🇦 Tymebank, a South African neobank, has raised $77.8M in pre-Series C funding led by Norrsken 22 and Blue Earth Capital.

🇨🇱 Sheriff, a Chilean fintech SaaS for financial risk assessment and monitoring has raised $500K in Pre-Seed funding from angels.

Healthtech

🇸🇬 ORA, a Singaporean end-to-end telehealth platform handling consultations, prescription delivery, and post-care, has raised $10M in Series A funding led by TNB Aura and Antler.

Mobility

🇮🇳 Chalo, an Indian startup digitizing bus commutes through tracking and digital payments, has raised $45M in Series D funding led by Avataar Ventures.

🇮🇳 Ola Electric, an Indian startup building electric two wheelers and helmed by Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal, has raised $300M in funding led by an undisclosed sovereign fund.

🇮🇳 EMO Energy, an Indian startup building battery packs for light electric vehicles, has raised $1.2M in Seed funding led by Transition VC and Gruhas.

🇲🇾 ChargeSini, a Malaysian EV charging solutions startup, has raised $1.23M USD in an equity crowdfunding round.

🇪🇬 Helpoo, an Egyptian auto-tech platform offering vehicle insurance, claim management, and road assistance services has raised an undisclosed round of funding from Morni Holding.

Supply Chain and Logistics

🇳🇬 Figorr, a Nigerian IoT company supporting last-mile delivery of perishable goods, has raised $1.5M in Seed funding led by Atlantica 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.

Business Automation

🇮🇳 Course5, an Indian data and analytics company helping organizations drive digital transformation, has raised $28M in funding from 360 ONE Asset Management.

Crypto

🇰🇪🇵🇭 Jia, a Kenya and Philippines focused blockchain-based fintech platform providing SME loans in emerging markets, has raised $4.3M in Seed funding and $1M in on-chain liquidity led by TCG Crypto.

🇻🇪 El Dorado, a Venezuelan P2P marketplace for buying and selling stablecoins, has raised $450K in Pre-Seed funding through the Berkeley Skydeck accelerator.

Gaming

🇮🇳 Nodwin Gaming, an Indian eSports content and services company, has raised $28M in funding from Sony, Krafton, Nazara and and other investors to grow the gaming ecosystem in India.

🇮🇳 Rooter, an Indian gaming platform enabling users to share their insights, predictions, analysis, and opinions, has raised $16M in a growth round led by Lightbox.

Industrial Automation

🇮🇳 Infinite Uptime, an Indian industrial IoT company providing predictive maintenance and plant reliability services, has raised $18.85M in Series B3 funding led by Tiger Global.

IoT

🇻🇪 Vikua, a Venezuelan startup helping local governments and companies turn cities into smart cities, has raised a Seed round from CAF.

Who’s Investing

🇮🇳 Physis Capital an Indian growth stage venture firm, has completed the first close of its $50M Fund I.

🇮🇳 Matrix Partners India has raised $525M for its fourth fund.

🇸🇬 Asia Fund X, a new Singapore based firm focused on early-stage growth startups expanding into South East Asian markets, has launched.

🇦🇪 Reef, a UAE based DeFi company, has launched a $10M accelerator for Middle East based Web3 projects on the Reef chain.

🇰🇪 🇬🇧 E3 Capital, a Kenyan early stage VC, along with Lion’s Head Global Partners, an emerging markets focused investment bank, has completed the first close of its E3 Low Carbon Economy Fund for Africa at $48.1M. The fund will back startups in Africa’s climate tech sector.

🇿🇦 SA SME Fund, a South African Fund of Funds, has raised $31M in commitments from investors.

🇺🇸 The Yield Lab, a US based agri-food focused VC, has announced a $50M fund to invest in 30 LatAm startups.

Shoutout

🇮🇳 The International Finance Corporation (IFC), is considering a $10M equity investment in Kuku FM, an Indian audio content platform I helped syndicate investment for.

Place of the Week

There’s a whole world out there to explore.

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

Best,

Gautam