Despite a struggling global economy and a notable downturn in Series A funding in the US, 2012 left a veritable smorgasbord of startup deals, competitions and acquisitions in its wake.
No ad to show here.
With our birds-eye view of the activity in emerging markets, especially sub-Saharan Africa, we wrote about many of this year’s deals. We covered startup competitions and talked to their finalists and we watched with glee as startups successfully completed mega government deals and got snapped up by bigger fish.
New incubators popped up, helping brilliant early-stage startups take root. New venture funds came into existence and existing ones became larger, expanding the pool of available startup capital for new ventures.
All this activity didn’t go unnoticed. A major corporate turned its talent search to Africa and a global startup competition added the continent to its world tour.
We went back and looked at the emerging market startup stories we covered in 2012 and compiled them into the list below. Click through to read more about each, and be sure to tell us about other significant deals, competitions winners or acquisitions in 2012 worth reflecting on.
Here’s to 2013. Be sure to stay tuned to Ventureburn, we’re just getting started.
Disclosed funding
Zando — €20m, Summit Partners
WyseTalk — $1m, Titan Investments
Nomanini — US$600 000, eVentures Africa Fund
Pashash — US$50 000, Umbono
Sample Board — US$50 000, Umbono
Undisclosed funding
HealthQ — 4Di Capital
Loot — Titan Investments
Rancard — Intel
Rubybox — HPV Africa
Moneysmart — Johan Schoeman, GT Ferreira
Real Time Wine — Michael Jordaan, Mike Ratcliffe
TaxTim — Umbono and undisclosed investors
Gyft — Google Ventures, 500 Startups, Founder Collective
Gigham — Umbono
Paperight — Shuttleworth Foundation
iStyla — Permjot Valia
Competition Winners
MoDe — IBM Global Entrepreneur South Africa
Greenpop — Enterprise Elevator
actNOW — African News Innovation Challenge
Dropifi — TopApps
Mobile Campaign Manager — Google for Entrepreneurs, 88mph
Flowgear — Demo Africa
ValuationUP — Tech4Africa Ignite
Easy2Map — Startup Knight
YuppieChef, Bidorbuy, Groupon SA, Property24, TravelGround — South African eCommerce Awards
IQLECT — MobiSparks Startup Showcase
Zoe-X — LaunchCapeTown
Snapplify — LaunchCapeTown
Virtual Firehose — Startup Weekend Cape Town
Builk — Echelon 2012
Acquisitions
SAcamera — Naspers
eMag — Naspers
Motribe — Mxit
HelloComputer — Interpublic Group
Acceleration — WPP
Aimifan.com — Delivery Hero
