Sandbox, the Nigeria-based e-commerce fulfillment platform for merchants in Africa, has announced the completion of a $1.8 million seed round from investors including 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs and Golden Palm Investments. The new funding will be used to expand the company’s operations in other countries across West Africa, bolster the development of its product range, and hire new talent.
VCs continue to funnel money into the region. Brazil and Mexico, the two largest markets in terms of population and economic activity, have shown the biggest uptick in startup funding. The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America (LAVCA), a not-for-profit membership organization, reports that VCs invested $10.3 billion in more than 400 Latin America startups in the first half of 2021, doubling the investment in the same period in 2020. Brazil is home to 53% of Latin-America startups, while Mexico contributes 14%.
Nigerian prop-tech startup Rent Small Small has been accepted to join the latest cohort of the Techstars Toronto accelerator programme, securing US$120,000 in funding and assistance in scaling. Launched in 2018, Rent Small Small is an online platform that allows users to identify homes to rent and pay rent monthly. The startup has so far helped renters save NGN550 million (US$1.3 million) on legal and agency fees and provided over 12,000 monthly stays across 18 locations in Lagos State.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.