💰MENA Money Moves: $75M for Nawy & $15M for AURA

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⟹ 🚀 STARTUPS WATCH 🚀 ⟸

Here are the 5 top startups in the African eco-system we think you need to know:

MyCover.ai, based in Lagos, Nigeria, is revolutionizing insurance accessibility across Africa with its open insurance API and AI-powered claims management. Their platform simplifies insurance processes for both providers and consumers, offering coverage across various sectors including health, auto, gadget, travel, and home insurance.

Dedicated to making insurance easy and accessible, MyCover.ai helps businesses integrate insurance into their offerings and innovate new insurance products. Supported by Factory Founders, Ventures Platform, and Techstars, they are shaping the future of insurance in Africa.

Wattnow, a Tunis-based energy management pioneer, is transforming the way companies optimize their energy usage. By providing real-time insights through advanced IoT sensors and an intuitive software dashboard, Wattnow helps businesses identify waste, monitor trends, and ensure optimal consumption.

Their technology is driving sustainable change and significant cost savings across diverse industries, making energy management smarter and more efficient.

Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Sote is transforming the logistics landscape with its tech-enabled customs clearing and forwarding services. With $7 million in funding and a vision to enhance trade across the continent, Sote provides a comprehensive digital infrastructure for logistics, combining ERP solutions with cutting-edge software.

Their flagship platform, Hanan, offers real-time visibility and cost transparency, ensuring a seamless and predictable supply chain experience. Sote's advanced tools and services, including customs brokerage, freight, and trade finance, are designed to unlock value and facilitate growth, making them the go-to solution for modernizing African trade.

⟹ 💼 💰️ VENTURE CAPITAL WATCH 💼 💰️ ⟸

This week’s dealflow reflects three key trends shaping Africa’s venture landscape:

🔎 1. Strategic Depth Over Volume

While overall deal count remains modest, the size and nature of recent deals suggest a strategic tilt toward deep tech, frontier infrastructure, and defensible B2B models.

• Nawy’s $75M raise (equity + debt) signals growing investor appetite for real asset-backed proptech and structured financing in MENA, especially in verticals like mortgage innovation and fractional ownership.

• Flour Mills’ equity investment in OmniRetail shows how traditional conglomerates are embracing CVC as a defensive and strategic play to stay relevant across the FMCG value chain.

🌍 2. African DeepTech is finding serious backing

• Sand to Green’s $50K DeepTech Summit win, while small in ticket size, unlocks visibility and validation for climate-focused, capital-intensive solutions in climate resilience and regenerative agriculture.

• This aligns with growing institutional interest in agriculture-as-a-service (AaaS) and climate-tech infrastructure across North Africa and the Sahel.

🚑 3. Health and safety are scaling B2B/B2C hybrids

• AURA’s $14.6M Series B is more than a safety tech play — it reflects investor confidence in B2B2C subscription models with global expansion capability. With 1.2M+ paying users and traction across Africa, UK, and now the US, AURA is building what may become Africa’s most exportable emergency services stack.

• Meanwhile, Impulse Biomedical’s new funding round to commercialize affordable devices like the ZiBiPen shows how African medtech ventures are starting to secure cross-stage capital to navigate global regulatory and commercialization pathways.

📊 Investor Takeaway:

This week’s venture activity suggests that pan-African scalability, regulatory foresight, and embedded distribution are top of mind for both global funds (e.g., Partech, CAIF) and local CVCs.

While pre-seed and seed activity appears subdued, mid-stage rounds are revealing where confidence — and capital — is consolidating.

👀 This week’s featured investor is Flat6Labs. 👀

Flat6Labs is MENA’s leading seed and early-stage venture capital firm and accelerator, with active programs across Egypt, Tunisia, UAE, KSA, Jordan, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Palestine. 

Backed by Sawari Ventures and other regional funds, Flat6Labs has become an institutional co-founder for over 1,000 startups, investing in 100+ new ventures annually through its structured accelerator and seed fund models.

More than just a fund, Flat6Labs operates as an innovation engine — offering capital, mentorship, regional access, and operational support through tailored programs like the Anava Seed Fund, Tamkeen Accelerator, and the newly launched $95M Africa Seed Fund.

Its standout portfolio spans fintech, healthtech, mobility, and deeptech — including startups like Chefaa, Instabug, Brimore, and GoMyCode. Flat6Labs is shaping the next wave of scalable MENA and African startups by blending local ecosystem development with world-class startup services

⟹ 📺️ MEDIA WATCH 📺️  ⟸

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

1. Egyptian prop-tech startup Nawy secures $75m funding to fuel MENA expansion - Disrupt Africa

2. SA’s AURA raises $15.1 million to drive U.S. expansion and global ambitions - Techcabal

3. Egyptian ed-tech startup Career 180 secures 6-figure investment - Disrupt Africa

4. Why Flour Mills, Nigeria’s 64-year-old food giant, joined OmniRetail’s $20 million round - Techcabal

5. Morocco’s Sand to Green secures $50K DeepTech grant to turn deserts into farms - Techcabal

And that’s your weekly dosage of the African startup ecosystem!

If you have any comments or feedback, just respond to this email. I am always looking to hear from the community.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely week ahead.

Gitonga, the Stoic Founder at StartupHub.Africa 🚀

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