The Capital Quest | Pastel, Lori, Droppa and Homefarm get VC funding cheques

On Aug 16, 2022

Nigerian business management solution provider Pastel has secured $5.5 million in a seed funding round from pan-African venture capital firm TLCom Capital and other investors.

Global Founders Capital, DFS Labs, Ulu Ventures, Plug and Play, Golden Palm Investments and Soma Cap also took part in the round.

This comes a year after Pastel raised $620,000 pre-seed round.

The startup was founded by Abuzar Royesh, Olamide Oladeji and Izunna Okonkwo. It had first floated a bookkeeping app, SabiCash, in Lagos. This was rebranded as Pastel.

The firm says it currently has more than 45,000 active merchant users on the platform.

Lori

Lori Systems, a Kenyan on-demand logistics and trucking company that allows shippers to digitally manage their cargo and transporters, has secured an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series B round. Google and some existing investors took part in the round.

TechCrunch, which first reported the development, said the deal was at a higher valuation than the $110 million tag the startup commanded two years ago.

This is the third known investment from Google’s $50 million Africa Investment Fund unveiled a year ago. It had previously backed Ugandan super app SafeBoda and South African games publisher and studio Carry1st, which snagged a Series A extension round led by marquee VC firm a16z.

Droppa

South African logistics-tech startup Droppa has raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A investment round led by logistics giant SkyNet Worldwide. This comes two years after SkyNet had come as an investor and a strategic partner for the venture.

The six-year-old on-demand logistics platform was founded by Khathutshelo Mufamadi.

Homefarm

South African agritech startup Homefarm’s parent PixelBlue has raised ZAR1.7 million ($104,000) in seed funding from venture builder CapaciTech.

Founded by Michael Currin in 2017, the firm champions small-scale indoor farming in the mainstream consumer and commercial markets through fully automated food farming systems. It is positioned as a solution provider for automated indoor farms with a farming-as-a-service model.