• Terragon Group

  Participated · Series B · Jul 2023

  Terragon is a data and cloud marketing-technology company that converts telco channels into mobile advertising inventory and provides cloud analytics and marketing tools to telecom and financial-services clients. Its flagship product Adrenaline evolved into the Terragon Marketing Cloud, which holds over 150 million segmented profiles in Nigeria and connects to major online publishers via a DSP. The platform enables clients to target consumers across online and offline channels, link to online sales and payment systems, and monetize telco data for marketers. Terragon lists partners and clients including Microsoft, Unilever, Access, Fidelity, FCMB and telcos such as MTN, and reports a customer retention rate above 50% quarter over quarter. Revenue has grown tenfold since its 2018 Series A, and the company projects 100% year‑over‑year growth through 2023. Terragon plans to strengthen cloud‑native capabilities, develop localized ML and AI, expand across Africa (already active in Ghana and Kenya), and deepen collaborations with AWS, Microsoft, and telecom partners. Terragon is a Lagos-based marketing-technology company that offers a consumer insight and activation platform aggregating, organising and enriching first-party customer data. Founded in 2011, the platform helps brands personalise engagement across preferred channels, target prospective customers and measure ad campaign effectiveness while remaining data-privacy compliant without relying on third-party cookies. The company operates across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt and has amassed more than 100 million user profiles across Africa. Terragon monetises first-party data and provides advertisers with tools to gather, aggregate and act on customer data. Reported plans include expanding geographic reach, broadening the product suite and developing new partnerships as it scales into new markets. Co-founder and Managing Director Elo Umeh said the investment will help accelerate pan-African market expansion, product development and talent sourcing. Terragon develops a data analytics platform (including its Adrenaline product) that lets clients drill into behavioral and demographic combinations, run video and SMS campaigns, and connect campaigns to online sales and payments. The platform captures consumer signals across web, mobile and mobile‑money channels and is designed to operate channel‑agnostically. Terragon emphasizes data governance and security, saying Adrenaline was built on a comprehensive data governance framework and that it is working with Deloitte to implement ISO/IEC 27001 standards. The company serves sectors including fast‑moving consumer goods, financial services, gaming and betting, and NGOs, and employs about 100 people across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. Terragon says it has been in business eight years, is profitable, was bootstrapped until this investment, and generates roughly $4–$5 million in annual revenue. Management is pursuing continental dominance in Africa with plans to consider licensing the technology into Southeast Asia and Latin America and exploring expansion in Asia and the Americas.

• FoondaMate

  Participated · Seed · May 2022

  FoondaMate provides a WhatsApp- and Facebook-based learning chatbot that gives students immediate answers, access to revision papers, and guidance on responding to questions. The product targets high-school students in emerging markets where WhatsApp is widely used and is often cheaper or free to access. Educators can use the platform to set and post homework and share learning materials with students. Since launch it has been used by more than 400,000 students in over 10 languages across more than 30 countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia. The team vets the bot’s information sources and monitors results to keep children safe on the platform. FoondaMate is working on localizing learning material to accommodate learners in more countries and aims to grow its platform to more than 50 million users. The recent funding is intended to fuel rapid global takeoff and faster adoption of the service.

• Pylon

  Participated · Seed · Apr 2022

  Pylon builds software that gathers grid data, analyzes it to detect theft and losses, and automates billing while offering smart metering-as-a-service (SMaaS) with no upfront hardware cost. The platform serves more than 1 million metering endpoints across 26 meter models for over 12 utilities (seven private, five public) in Egypt and the Philippines. Pylon says it can reduce utility losses to 8% and cut emissions by 25% for subscribing utilities, and it has a goal of achieving 1 gigaton of CO2 reduction by 2035. The company grew revenues 3.5x in 2021 and claims to be profitable. Founded and bootstrapped by CEO Ahmed Ashour and CTO Omar Radi since 2017, Pylon plans to reach 3 million meters next year (a 4x year‑on‑year increase) and to expand into Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. The startup estimates a market opportunity of over $20 billion across 10 emerging markets, initially focusing on a quarter of that opportunity covering Egypt, the Philippines, Brazil and Africa.

• Rocket Health

  Participated · Series A · Mar 2022

  Founded in 2012, Rocket Health provides an integrated digital health service that combines virtual medical consultations, at-home sample collection, and same-day medicine delivery through its own lab and pharmacy network. For patients without internet access, the company operates a USSD service, widening reach across urban and rural areas. Rocket Health charges approximately $3 per consultation and $1.5 for drug delivery, and its annual virtual visits have grown from a few thousand to roughly 400,000, helped by COVID-19–driven demand. The platform is used by individuals managing everything from childhood vaccinations to chronic illnesses, and 12 regional insurance companies have partnered to extend coverage. Looking ahead, management plans to scale nationwide in Uganda and expand into additional East African markets within two years, with long-term ambitions in West Africa. The company is also integrating Ada’s AI symptom-assessment technology to enhance teleconsultations. To date, Rocket Health has raised $6.2 million in venture funding to finance this expansion.

• Craydel

  Participated · Seed · Nov 2021

  Craydel is a Kenyan edtech startup that provides a portal for students to discover, compare and apply to higher-education programs. Launched earlier this year by Manish Sardana, John Nguru and Shayne Aman Premji, the platform offers verified college listings, career assessments, application and visa guidance, and online certificate options. The startup has partnered with more than 90 universities and vocational colleges and currently lists 3,000 higher-education programs. Craydel raised $1 million in a pre-seed round to improve its search and recommendation technology and expand its online resources. The company plans to build a proprietary AI-powered search and recommendation engine to generate curated program suggestions based on interests, grades, budgets and career aspirations. Management positions the product as a way to reduce misinformation and bias in higher-education decision-making across Africa.

No current team members are available.