Connect with us

Tech

Nigeria’s female-led startup, Shuttlers, secures fresh $1.6M. 2 other things and a trivia

Published

on

This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today.

1. Nigeria’s female-led startup, Shuttlers, secures fresh $1.6M

Nigeria’s female-led “tech-enabled scheduled bus sharing” company, Shuttlers, has announced securing a $1.6 million in seed funding from several investors.

The development comes after years of bootstrapping as a startup in the mobility space.

According to the startup, the new injected fund is expected to help it blitz scale within and outside Nigeria.

Led by Chicago and Africa-focused investment firm, VestedWorld, the round also saw the participation of Fintech unicorn Interswitch, Africa-focused VCs Rising Tide Africa, Launch Africa, EchoVC, Consonance Investment, CcHub Syndicate, CMC 21 & Alsa, ShEquity, Five35, Sakore and Nikky Taurus also participated in the round.

Damilola Olokesusi founded Shuttlers in 2016 in a bid to address the issue of inefficient transportation costs in Nigeria’s most renowned urban city, Lagos.

Speaking on her vision to start off the brand, Damilola noted that the idea was to transform the commute culture of people living in Lagos.

She said: “Our mission is to transform the way people commute around the world by building a global partner network and connecting communities of shuttlers like we are presently doing in Lagos, Nigeria.”

Tech Trivia: Which company acquired Yahoo! in 2017?

A AT&T
B Verizon
C Sprint
D T-Mobile
Answer: See end of post

2. Nigeria’s Chooya closes $100k from Entrepreneurship World Cup

Chooya, an Aba-based e-commerce startup has closed a US$100,000 in cash as a support finance in the Entrepreneurship World Cup.

The startup was founded in 2019 by Igwe Uguru as a “search engine for African traditional markets.”

READ ALSO: Nigerian fintech startup, Payhippo, closes $1m funding. 2 other things and a trivia

Previously bootstrapped, the startup finished as one of 100 finalists – chosen from 200,000 participants – for the Entrepreneurship World Cup.

According to media sources, the challenge was organised by Misk Global Forum and Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN).

Winning the edition, the startup received a US$100,000 national prize as well as a US$850,000 global prize from the competition.

Chooya is expected to use the fund to finance new customer acquisition as the startup helps them digitise word-of-mouth marketing.

Speaking on the inspiration behind the venture, Uguru said that he was inspired to build the startup following the experience he saw his old father go through daily while engaging in his local business.

He said: “I was inspired to digitise word-of-mouth marketing by my experience helping my 72-year-old father at his local business.

“Without any form of paid commercial or social media ads, I watched the customers grow every single month through word-of-mouth marketing and helped my father train all his five children in the high institution.

“We are very excited about Chooya’s future and the impact we are set to make considering the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, especially on small businesses.”

3. Nigerian money transfer startup, Aboki Africa, secures pre-seed funding

Aboki Africa, Nigerian money transfer startup, has secured a round of pre-seed funding.

The fund is expected to help Aboki expand its team and scale its product.

The startup was launched by Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo in July of this year.

According to media sources, the launch followed a year of piloting as the startup seeks to allow users open a virtual global bank account for free to receive and make foreign payments or convert currencies, all in one place.

The pre-seed funding round was led by Abdul Hassan, CEO of fellow Nigerian fintech Mono, and saw the participation of Niche Capital, Ingressive Capital, Decimal Point Ventures and other strategic investors.

Speaking on the new raiser and the potential of the new partners on-board, Aghedo noted that the capital will be invested in scaling its product and expanding its core team.

He said: “We built Aboki Africa out of necessity. I have had personal experiences with the pain points we are trying to alleviate. People who work and do business remotely should not have to jump through hoops to receive payments. We are fixing that.”

“We are proud of the team that we have built and how far we have come. It is remarkable to see how much we have accomplished with a small, passionate team, and we’re excited that we have the best partners backing us.”

Trivia Answer: Verizon

Yahoo! is one of the Internet’s leading search engines. It is also the largest Web portal, providing links to thousands of other websites.

Verizon originally purchased AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion, and acquired Yahoo in 2017 for $4.5 billion. After completing its Yahoo acquisition, Verizon placed both brands under the woefully bland “Oath” brand.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now