CDP Institute

Total funding into Southeast Asia (SEA) tech startups fell 71% to US$2.3 billion in the first half of 2023, from US$8 billion a year ago, said Tracxn Technologies Ltd in its SEA Tech Semi-Annual Funding report. The total funding in the first half is 45% lower than US$4.3 billion raised in the second half of 2022. The decline was largely driven by a plunge in late-stage investments in the first half, which fell 54% and 72% when compared with the second half of 2022 and first half of 2022 respectively.

In June, Visa announced the acquisition of the Brazilian payment platform Pismo for US$1 billion in a move to expand its presence in Latin America. With this operation, the Brazilian startup becomes the first success story of the Falabella Ecosystem, turning into a unicorn. Pismo, founded in 2016, is a payment processor and central banking platform operating in Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe. In 2019, Falabella started collaborating with Pismo to develop the digital wallet Fpay in Chilean market.

This is one of the lowest capital raising periods for Latin American startups in the last five years, according to a study by Endeavor. Latin American companies only raised US$406 million in the first quarter of 2023, according to the Venture Capital and Growth Equity Ecosystem 2023 study. The study also revealed that the number of investments is 40% above the first quarter of 2021.

Nigerian insurtech startup MyCover.ai is announcing today that it has raised US$1.25 million in pre-seed funding led by Pan-African venture capital fund Ventures Platform with participation from Founders Factory Africa and follow-on investor Techstars. The startup, which participated in the Techstars Toronto program last year, said it will use the investment to bolster its in-house operations and tech talent, invest heavily in its proprietary technology and strategically expand its operations into other African markets.

Flash, an Egyptian fintech that provides cashless payment solutions for consumers and businesses through a scan-and-pay service, has raised US$6 million in seed funding led by Addition, the venture capital firm headed by former Tiger Global executive Lee Fixel. Flourish Ventures and other strategic angel investors participated in the round, which will help the startup accelerate product development and customer and business acquisition in Egypt.

Kenyan startup Tappi is helping SMEs build their online identity in less than two minutes through a chat tool that automatically creates a webpage, which is indexed to be found online. Founded by Kenfield Griffith and Louis Majanja, Tappi allows SME owners to download its app, add their “look and feel”, and promote their business through a three-step process that goes to Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads using airtime credit or mobile money.