The Capital Quest | Aruwa backs Taeillo; Gridless, Justyol get early-stage funding

On Dec 12, 2022

Aruwa Capital, an early-stage growth equity and gender lens fund investing in Nigeria and Ghana, said Monday it has invested in Taeillo, a technology-enabled furniture company.

Taeillo manufactures and retails mass market and premium Afrocentric furniture and lifestyle products across various product categories. It sells directly to its B2C and B2B customers through its e-commerce platform.

Founded in 2018 by Jumoke Dada, Taeillo launched as a custom furniture designer serving its B2B clientele. However, in 2020, as COVID-19 pandemic raged, the company entered the B2C space with the launch of the Amakisi table. Since then, it has expanded into 10 additional product categories and into East Africa, to meet growing demand.

The company has also incorporated augmented reality and virtual reality technology into its e-commerce platform to enhance customers’ shopping experience. Taeillo is now present in two African countries: Nigeria and Kenya, shipping around 10,000 pieces of furniture to over 5,000 customers in Nigeria and Kenya.

Justyol

Moroccan e-commerce venture Justyol has raised a follow-on funding of $350,000 in a pre-seed round from Earn Rocket Investment Holding. This comes four months after it raised $100,000 from the same investor.

Founded earlier this year by Ahmed Badran and Ahmed Rashed, Justyol is a cross-border, fashion-focused marketplace.

The firm said it will use the investment to develop its technical capabilities, enlarge its marketing activities and plan for the next expansion move in the region.

Gridless

Kenyan bitcoin mining company Gridless has raised $2 million in seed funding led by bitcoin-focused VC firm Stillmark and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s digital payments firm Block, Inc., with participation from Factor[e], which had led the pre-seed round.

Cofounded in early 2022 by Janet Maingi, Erik Hersman and Philip Walton, Gridless is engaged in bitcoin mining in partnership with small renewable energy producers.

Gridless serves as the anchor tenant, financing the construction and managing the operation of data centres in rural communities where traditional industrial or commercial customers are not available. In its first year, Gridless has contracted five project pilots in rural Kenya with HydroBox, an African hydroelectric energy company, three of which are currently operational. The company plans to expand to other geographies in East Africa in the near future.