The Capital Quest | African startups Omnibiz, Koolboks and iProcure raise VC funding

Omnibiz, a Lagos-based B2B e-commerce platform that links FMCG companies to retailers, has raised $15 million in a pre-Series A equity and debt investment led by Timon Capital. Out of the total, $5 million came in as equity and $10 million was in the form of debt.

Others who participated in the round include Ventures Platform, Lofty Inc, Chapel Hill Denham, Chandaria Capital and Musha Ventures.

This comes just a year after Omnibiz raised $3 million in a seed round led by V&R Africa, Timon Capital and Tangerine Insurance. Lofty Inc., Musha Ventures, Sunu Capital, Launch Africa and Rising Tide Africa had also participated in that round.

The three-year-old venture was started by Deepankar Rustagi, who had previously tried his hand at another startup VConnect that later shut own. VConnect was positioned as a digital marketplace and to find local professionals for services.

Post the seed funding it entered Ghana and was eyeing other West African markets including Ivory Coast. The startup currently has operations across a dozen cities in Ghana and Nigeria and provide a digital platform where retailers can purchase and restock from manufacturers including top MNCs.

Omnibiz claims to have annual gross merchandise value of $130 million with 65,000 active retailers using the platform.

Koolboks

Paris- and Lagos-based startup Koolboks that is creating an Africa-focused sustainable cooling company with accessible cold storage solutions to businesses across the continent, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding.

Aruwa Capital led the round with participation from Acumen, Blue Earth Capital, All On, GSMA and other investors.

Koolboks is a four-year-old venture started by Ayoola Dominic and Deborah Gael. Its initial target market was European campers with an outdoor refrigerator but later tweaked its business to aim at business owners in off-grid places in Africa, starting with Nigeria.

It operates with a pay-as-you-go model and says its products are available in 18 countries, including 13 in sub-Saharan Africa. It is now aiming to grow its B2C business and plans to construct a local assembly unit.

iProcure

Kenyan agritech startup, iProcure, has raised $10.2 million Series B financing led by impact investor Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) with participation from Novastar Ventures, British International Investment (BII) and Ceniarth.

The funding includes both debt and equity and help the company finance its expansion into Uganda and Tanzania besides a credit product for agri-retailers.

The company has also roped in Niraj Varia as its new CEO. Varia is a former partner at iProcure’s own investor Novastar Ventures.

Asif Noorani, Senior Investment Manager of I&P, said, “iProcure is playing a pivotal role in transforming the agricultural sector in Africa by digitising the agro-retailer networks and making last-mile agricultural inputs distribution more efficient. At its core, iProcure is improving farmers’ access to genuine and affordable agricultural inputs by consolidating the region’s fragmented agricultural inputs sector. These processes ultimately lower the cost of food production and improve food security.”

Abel Boreto, Associate Investment Director at Novastar Ventures, added, “iProcure has grown 23 times in the five years since Novastar invested. This speaks to the demand for its services, which now reach over 1,000,000 Kenyan farmers.”

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