Social commerce startup, Kapu, exits stealth with $8M funding. 2 other stories, and a trivia

This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today

1. Social commerce startup, Kapu, exits stealth with $8m funding

A Social commerce startup, Kapu, founded by former Jumia Group executive Vice President, has secured a $8M funding to come out of stealth.

Kapu founder, Sam Chappatte, confirmed the raiser in a statement on Monday.

The B2C e-commerce service said that it was hoping to help lessen the burden of buying food for Kenyan consumers.

The seed round was co-led by Giant Ventures and Firstminute Capital, with participation from Founder Collective, Base Capital, Norrsken, and Raven One.

They join Kapu’s early backers, including India’s Meesho and Brazil’s Facily co-founders, and several African family offices, Twitter’s Biz Stone, Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen, Tom Blomfield of Monzo and Alexander Rittweger.

Commenting on the reason for launching Kapu, Sam stated:

“The reason we started Kapu is that we think that there is a more relevant model of e-commerce that can be built to target the grocery basket, which is the biggest portion of spend for the vast majority of consumers”.

Sam noted that the startup will soon support WhatsApp orders.

Tech Trivia: Delay caused by a slow internet connection is also known as what?
A. Slag
B. Lag
C. Drag
D. Rag
Answer: see end of post

2. Egyptian startup, OneOrder, sets out on growth drive with $3m new funding

Egypt’s supply chain solutions provider for restaurants, OneOrder, has secured $3 million in seed funding led by Nclude.

Read also:Kenya-based smartphone startup, Badili, secures $2.1m pre-seed. 2 other stories and a trivia

OneOrder co-founder and CEO, Tamer Amer, disclosed the funding in a media release on Monday.

The startup plans to use the funding to scale its operations in Egypt including increasing its warehouse footprint.

Launched in 2022, the startup claims it is making it possible for restaurants to order food supplies through its online platform.

“We are exploring Saudi Arabia and expanding south into our continent. I think Africa has a lot of markets that feel the same pain points that Egypt does,” said Amer.

The latest funding brings the total funding raised by the startup to $10.5 million and saw participation from A15, and Delivery Hero Ventures.

3. Voo rebrands as SideUp secures $1.2M to expand footprints

Egypt’s e-commerce support platform, SideUp, has secured $1.2M to expand market footprints.

SideUp founder and CEO, Waleed Rashed, confirmed the funding in a media statement on Monday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the latest round had the participation of Launch Africa VC, 500 Global, Riyadh Angels, Alex Angels, Al Tuwaijri Fund, and Saudi angel investor Faisal AlAbdulsalam.

Voo rebranded as SideUp claims it offers a complete spectrum of e-commerce support services, including payment gateways, and API integration for shipping, warehousing, fulfillment, and advisory.

“There is a lot of talk about how e-commerce is scaling, but still, we are not empowering enough of those (micro, small and medium enterprises) that are selling online. Merchants need many services and a complete ecosystem to be successful,” said Rashed.

With the new funding, the startup is set to expand and change its headquarters to Saudi Arabia.

Trivia Answer: Lag

A lag is a slow response from a computer. It can describe any device that responds slower than expected, though it is most often used in online gaming.

By Kayode Hamsat

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