Nigeria’s Smile Identity secures $20m Series B. 2 other stories and a trivia

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

1. Nigeria’s Smile Identity secures $20M Series B

African ID verification and KYC startup, Smile Identity, has announced securing a $20M Series B to expand infrastructure.

The startup made the disclosure in a statement on Wednesday.

Smile Identity provides ID verification and KYC compliance for African faces and identities.

Silicon Valley investor Costanoa Ventures, co-led this recent Series B round with Africa-focused venture capital firm Norrsken22.

Participating investors include existing ones such as ValueStream Ventures, Intercept Ventures, Latitude, Future Africa, and 500 Fintech — and new backers like Commerce Ventures, Courtside Ventures, and Two Culture Capital.

Since Mark Straub and William Bares founded the African KYC onboarding and identity verification platform in 2018, it has attracted more than $30 million from investors.

“The interesting update we have is the Document verification, which analyzes a document’s photo and compares that to users’ provided selfie. And with that product, we can cover all of Africa,” noted Straub.

The company anticipates that its war chest will enable it to work closely with governments and ID authorities to develop consumer consent guidelines and implement regional data protection legislation across Africa.

Tech Trivia: Remote procedure calls are often written in what language?
A. JavaScript
B. HTML
C. XML
D. Swift
Answer: see end of post

2. Africa’s Qotto secures $8M in a Series A equity-debt round

Africa-focused cleantech company, Qotto, has secured a $8 million in a Series A equity-debt round led by the IBL group to scale its operations in existing markets.

Read also:Kenya-based smartphone startup, Badili, secures $2.1m pre-seed. 2 other stories and a trivia

Qotto co-founder and president, Jean-Baptiste Lenoir confirmed the funding in a media release on Wednesday.

Founded in 2016, Qotto designs and distributes standalone solar kits and lanterns to individuals residing in the least electrified regions of Africa.

“Our model helps to solve these critical issues under a single solution — which we call ‘essential services,’ backed by our proprietary technology stack. In addition, we are aligned with the SDGs to serve customers and improve impact indicators in our markets,” said Jean-Baptiste.

According to Qotto, its income has increased by 50% year over year, and as of the end of last year, it had 11,000 active customers.

Should its expansion plans come to fruition, it expects its number to more than double by the end of this year.

3. Naked secures $17M in Series B Funding

IFC & DEG back digital insurance pioneer, Naked, has secured $17M in Series B funding.

Alex Thomson, co-founder of Naked confirmed the funding in a statement seen by Ripples Nigeria on Wednesday.

Naked, an AI-based system, offers unmatched customer convenience and also enables the company to reap significant cost savings from automation and pass them on to customers in the form of lower premiums.

Actuaries Alex Thomson, Sumarie Greybe, and Ernest North launched Naked in 2018.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) – a member of the World Bank Group, the German Development Finance Institution (DEG), and Naked’s original investors, Yellowwoods and Hollard are also taking part in the funding round.

“More than five years ago, we set out to create an insurance platform that people would love for being fair, convenient, and transparent, at game-changing prices,” Thomson said.

Trivia Answer: Stands for “Remote Procedure Call.”

Most computer programs run procedures, or sets of instructions, using the computer’s CPURPCs are typically written in a standard format, such as XML so that the procedures can be understood by multiple computer platforms.

By Kayode Hamsat

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