Lagos-based on-demand B2B maritime service Motor Vessel Xchange (MVX) has announced that an investment round it closed some months ago — which was led by US venture capital (VC) firm Oui Capital — was for $100 000 in funding.
Neon Ventures, Zircon Marine and other unnamed angel investors also participated in the pre-seed round.
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The startup matches vessel charter requests to available offshore support vessels operating in Africa.
While Oui Capital co-founder and managing partner Olu Oyinsan told Ventureburn in January that the deal had been concluded, the startup has only chosen to announce it now.
MVX’s pre-seed round marks Oui Capital’s second deal of the year
The startup will use the funding to scale its platform’s technology and acquire more enterprise users.
Currently, MVX’s main market consists of oil-producing African countries where the startup matches vessel availability to vessel utilisation at the optimal market rate.
MVX, which was founded last year by Tonye Membere-Otaji, claims to have reduced the time it takes to find a vessel from weeks to minutes.
In a statement yesterday (23 May) Membere-Otaji said MVX is building the future of offshore support vessel chartering in Africa by reducing inefficiencies and increasing capacity and utilisation of vessels across the continent’s waters.
Oyinsan told Ventureburn in an email yesterday (23 May) that the round marks the VC firm’s second deal of the year — following an undisclosed investment in Nigeria’s first bike sharing and lifestyle app Awa Bike.
In January he told Ventureburn that the firm will make initial investments of $100 000 in fintech, edtech, healthtech, mobility and logisitics as well as marketplace ventures and is looking to invest in between six to eight startups in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa (see this story).
Read more: Here’s all you need to know about Oui Capital’s $10m fund
Editor’s note (27 May 2019):Oui Capital managing partner Olu Oyinsan told Ventureburn in an email on 24 May that the pre-seed round it led in MVXchange had begun in January and that the round had only been closed in May.
Featured image: An MVXchange vessel, ENL Superior AHT (Anchor Handling Tug) sailing-off to Otakikpo field, offshore Nigeria for a spot charter (MVXchange via LinkedIn)
