Equator, a climate tech venture capital firm focused on sub-Saharan Africa, has reached an initial close of its first fund with $40 million in commitments. Its limited partners include BII, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), the Shell Foundation and impact investor DOEN Participaties, according to the company’s statement.
Kaszek Ventures, one of Latin America’s first venture firms, has raised $975 million across two funds. Since 2011, Kaszek has backed more than 120 companies, which the firm says collectively have raised more than $15.5 billion in capital. Portfolio includes companies in a range of industries such as fintech, enterprise/SaaS, proptech, insuretech, health tech, edtech, e-commerce, food tech, climate tech, biotech and blockchain. They include Nubank, QuintoAndar, Kavak, Creditas, NuvemShop, Bitso, Gympass, Notco, MadeiraMadeira, Loggi, Konfio, Technisys, Kushki and Cora.
Shuttlers, a Nigerian shared mobility company that allows individual and corporate passengers to take rides on multiple bus routes via an app, has raised $4 million in a new funding round led by Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), a Pan-African focused venture capital firm.
Customer engagement platform MessageGears will partner with content localization and translation platform Smartling to streamline email translation and localization for 450+ languages. The workflow is automated but actual translations are still done by (machine-assisted) humans.