Djamo $17M Bag💰️

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⟹ 🚀 STARTUPS WATCH 🚀 ⟸

Here are the 5 top startups in the African ecosystem I think you need to know:

Paga is a pioneering mobile payments and financial services platform with a mission to make it simple for one billion people to access and use money. Paga is building a robust ecosystem that empowers both individuals and businesses to send, receive, and manage money digitally.

The platform supports over 20 million users and 27,000+ agents across Nigeria, offering services like instant money transfers, bill payments, remittances, airtime top-up, and agent-led cash deposits and withdrawals. Through its Platform-as-a-Service, Paga also enables third-party developers to build on its infrastructure, extending its reach and functionality. 

Pargo is South Africa’s leading click-and-collect logistics platform, transforming how online shopping is fulfilled with unmatched convenience and reach. With a mission to make last-mile delivery seamless and affordable, Pargo enables customers to shop online and collect their parcels from 4,000+ Pargo Points nationwide—delivering the highest-rated experience in African logistics.

Serving both businesses and consumers, Pargo ensures 1.25-day average delivery times and a 100% first-attempt success rate, thanks to its robust network and easy e-commerce integrations via Shopify, WooCommerce, or API. Backed by 42,000+ 5-star Google reviews and a 4.9/5 customer rating, Pargo is not just a delivery service—it’s a logistics solution that empowers retailers to scale and consumers to shop on their own terms.

Garage Mobility is revolutionizing auto parts procurement in Africa by leveraging AI-driven solutions to streamline the supply chain between global parts manufacturers and local retailers. Founded in 2021 and based in Accra, Ghana, the company addresses inefficiencies in the $25 billion African auto parts market, which is projected to serve over 400 million vehicles by 2050. 

With a focus on accessibility and convenience, Garage Mobility enables businesses to order vehicle parts directly through WhatsApp, simplifying the procurement process and reducing reliance on multiple vendors. This approach has garnered the trust of over 2,000 businesses across the continent. 🚚🌍

⟹ 💼 💰️ VENTURE CAPITAL WATCH 💼 💰️ ⟸

🔹 Djamo’s $17M raise—led by Janngo Capital with backing from Partech, Y Combinator, Enza Capital, SANAD, and Oikocredit—is the largest-ever VC round in Côte d’Ivoire. With 1M+ users and 10,000 SMEs served, Djamo is positioning itself as Francophone Africa’s neobank of choice, bridging the mobile money gap with bank-level features.

🔹 Peach Payments’ acquisition of PayDunya marks a strategic move into six Francophone West African markets. It comes less than a year after its $30M Series A, led by Apis Growth Fund II. The firm is clearly executing an M&A-led growth strategy to build a pan-African payments infrastructure.

🔹 Nigerian logistics startup Kwik (Series A, $2M in 2022) lands a major strategic partnership as Alibaba’s first Authorized Channel Partner in Sub-Saharan Africa. The B2B platform now offers 48M+ buyers to Nigerian exporters—potentially increasing cross-border trade activity and merchant monetization.

Investor Lens:

While capital is still flowing into fintech and infrastructure bets, there’s a noticeable shift toward post-raise execution, governance discipline, and regional consolidation. The message is clear—growth alone isn’t enough; fundamentals now matter.

👀 This week’s featured investor is Alitheia Capital. 👀

Headquartered in Lagos, Alitheia Capital is one of Africa’s most influential impact-driven private equity and VC firms, co-founded by Tokunboh Ishmael and Jumoke Akinwunmi. Since 2007, they’ve grown into a powerhouse managing $250M+ across multiple funds, with a unique focus on gender-lens investing, inclusion, and sustainable development.

Their flagship fund, Alitheia IDF, is Africa’s largest gender-lens fund, channeling over $100M into women-led or women-serving businesses. Other funds include the Alitheia Clean Energy Fund and Goodwell West Africa Microfinance Fund, all focused on solving real problems with patient capital.

💡 Focus areas:

Clean Energy | Healthcare | Fintech | Agribusiness | Logistics | Manufacturing | Tech | Consumer Goods

💸 Typical investment range: $1M – $8M (Seed to Series B)

📍 Geography: Nigeria, Ghana, with partners across Southern and Eastern Africa.

🌍 Portfolio Highlights:

• Paga (payments)

• SweepSouth (on-demand home services)

• Jetstream (logistics)

• Lidya (SME lending)

• ReelFruit (agri-processing)

• Rentoza (device subscriptions)

• Oradian (banking software)

• Alma Clinics, Wemy, CHIKA’s, and more.

Alitheia isn’t just writing checks—they’re reshaping Africa’s VC landscape with true profit + purpose. From hosting bootcamps like Nzinga Scale-Up to pushing for 66% women job creation across their portfolio, their impact metrics speak volumes:

📈 51M+ women and girls reached with essential services.

📊 9.5M+ local jobs created, 66% of them for women.

⟹ 📺️ MEDIA WATCH 📺️  ⟸

Here are the 5 key things in the news this week that you need to know:

1. Ivorian fintech Djamo raises $17m funding to enhance platform as it hits 1m active customers - Disrupt Africa

2. Kenyan court orders Umba to pay $21,600 over unfair dismissal of former executive - Techcabal

3. SA’s Peach Payments acquires West African payments gateway PayDunya - Disrupt Africa

4. Kenya, Ghana, and Ethiopia hit with lowest tariffs under Trump’s trade war  - Techcabal

5. Nigeria's logistics startup Kwik partners with Alibaba to support exporters - Disrupt Africa

And that’s your weekly dosage of the African startup ecosystem! If you have any comments or feedback, just respond to this email. We are always looking to hear from our community.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Gitonga, the Stoic Founder at StartupHub.Africa 🚀

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