Sava, a firm in South Africa, recently raised USD 1.8 million in “pre-seed funding” for its digital platform focused on “expenditure management and reconciliations” for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. The company plans to launch the platform’s beta version before the end of 2022. Its new funding comes from France-based Breega; Nigeria-based Ingressive Capital; South Korea’s Sherpa Ventures; and four US-based firms, CRE Ventures, Quona Capital, RaliCap and Unicorn Growth Capital.
Founded in 2021, Sava is building a platform that integrates “bank accounts, mobile wallets, [and] payment and accounting.” In the future, Sava plans to use this data to evaluate customer creditworthiness for credit cards that it plans to issue to SMEs that have been blocked from traditional credit markets. Eventually, the firm hopes to expand into Kenya and Nigeria. Meanwhile, it expects to generate revenue from credit card transaction fees, subscription fees and interest paid on outstanding credit.
Founded in 2015, Breega provides capital, connections and expertise for a variety of technology-based startup firms. As of 2022, the firm has raised EUR 510 million (USD 523 million) for four funds.
Founded in 2015, CRE Venture Capital invests in “visionary founders building category-defining tech companies” serving Africa.
Ingressive Capital, founded in 2017, focuses on “high-growth technology business[es] in Sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt.” During 2021, the firm raised USD 4.6 billion in venture funding.
With offices in the US city of Washington and the Indian city of Bangalore, Quona Capital invests in companies seeking to “improve the quality, access and affordability of financial services for underserved consumers and businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia.”
Founded in 2020, RaliCap sources funds for financial technology startups in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The firm raised USD 2 million during 2021.
Sherpa Ventures, founded in 2021, is an Africa-focused venture fund.
Unicorn Growth Capital was established in 2020 and focuses on “bridging Africa and emerging economies with developed markets” through digital financial services and infrastructure.
By Ben Greissman, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
TechCrunch article on Sava
https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/30/sava-a-spend-management-platform-for-african-businesses-gets-2m-pre-seed-backing/amp/
Sava homepage
https://sava.africa
Breega homepage
https://www.breega.com
Crunchbase profile on Breega
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/breega-capital/investor_financials
CRE homepage
https://www.cre.vc
Ingressive Capital homepage
https://ingressivecapital.com
Ingressive Capital 2021 review
https://ingressivecapital.com/blog/2022/2/3/the-success-of-ic-our-2021-review
MicroCapital article on Quona
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-quona-capital-closes-accion-quona-inclusion-fund-with-203m-for-fintechs/
RaliCap homepage
https://ralicap.com
TechCrunch article on RaliCap
https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/05/rali_cap-gets-backing-from-global-vcs-and-launches-30m-fintech-fund-for-emerging-markets/
Sherpa Ventures homepage
https://www.sherpa.africa
Unicorn Growth Capital homepage
https://www.unicorngrowthcap.com
Did you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
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