Kenyan ecommerce platform Sky.Garden and ride-hailing startup Mondo Ride raised a combined $3.2-million in funding this week. What can we learn from these two deals?
Nairobi-based Mondo Ride is reported to have raised $2-million from investors in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in its second funding round.
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Quartz Africa reported that the capital funding will be used to drive expansion in Kampala and Dar es Salaam and four other cities by the end of this year.
The company is competing against the likes of Uber and Taxify, however customised services, like the ability to hail cheaper motorbikes make Mondo Ride stand out and give it a potential edge against rivals.
Two of Sky.Garden’s investors stated the team’s experience as having motivated them to participate in the funding round
Sky.Garden, which was founded and launched last year, raised $1.2-million in a funding round by Norwegian and Danish investors.
Disrupt Africa reported that the investors include Jesper Drescher, TRK Group, The Katapult Accelerator Follow-up Fund and Futuristic.vc.
In the article, two of the investors — Katapult Accelerator and TRK Group –mentioned Sky.Garden’s team as being one of the reasons they invested in the startup.
The startup’s founders (including James Mwai, Christian Grubak, Isaac Hunja and Martin Maljund) have between them, backgrounds in software engineering, sales and online marketing and marketing technology.
Editor’s note (8 February 2018): Sky.Garden CEO and co-founder Daniel Maison told Ventureburn subsequent to the publication of this story, that the company intends to start its regional expansion by launching into Kampala, Uganda by next year.
Maison said the company will use the capital it secured to develop its platform through enhanced artificial intelligence engines, integration with AdTech platforms as well as to scale Sky.Garden’s sales and marketing efforts. Prior to the funding round, Sky.Garden received $100 000 in startup capital from Oslo-based The Katapult Accelerator.
In the six month’s since it launched, the startup has had over 10 000 orders placed on the platform. Maison said the company currently has over 3000 merchants on the platform and that this number has been growing at 25% month-on-month.
