Tech

South Africa’s Planet42 secures $100m equity. 2 other stories and a trivia

Published

1 year ago

February 22, 2023

Ripples Nigeria

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

1. South Africa’s Planet42 secures $100m equity

South African car subscription service, Planet42, has secured 100M equity and debt funding.

The Co-founder and CEO, Eerik Oja, confirmed the funding in a statement on Wednesday.

Naspers, through its early-stage investment vehicle, Naspers Foundry, co-led the $15 million equity round alongside ARS Holdings.

Existing and new investors participated in the equity round, including Rivonia Road Capital, which also contributed a $75 million credit facility.

Additionally, private investors provided $10 million in loan financing to Planet42.

“We are here to make transport more accessible and are constantly working on making Planet42’s car subscription offering accessible to people unfairly ignored by banks,” said Oja.

Tech Trivia: Which of the following is a video format?
A. MiniDisc
B. Mini DV
C. Microfiche
D. Micro SD
Answer: see end of post

2. Workpay secures $2.7m pre-Series A funding round

A Kenyan HR startup, Workpay, has announced securing $2.7 million in a pre-Series A funding round.

This was contained in a media release by the startup’s co-founder and CEO, Paul Kimani, on Wednesday.

Workpay claims to be a comprehensive staff management program designed to coordinate timekeeping, payroll, and salary payments.

Launched in 2019 by Kimani and COO, Jackson Kungu, the company has since expanded to Nigeria in 2021.

“Since 2021 we have been doubling revenue every year and the number of our customers — who are nearing 700 as we speak.

“We also have about $200 million in total payroll value that we are handling for our customers annually,” Kimani claimed.

Launch Africa, Saviu Ventures, Acadian Ventures, Proparco, Fondation Botnar, Kara Ventures, Axian, P1 Ventures, and Norrsken were among the investors in this investment round.

3. Brand tracking startup, Tracksuit, secures $5m

A New Zealand-based brand tracking startup, Tracksuit, has announced securing $5M to make brand tracking more accessible.

Matt Herbert, co-founder and co-CEO of Tracksuit, confirmed the funding on Wednesday in a statement.

When Tracksuit first debuted in 2021, it had an easy-to-use dashboard that tracked parameters including brand awareness, consideration, preference, and usage and compared them to a company’s competitors.

According to Herbert, its software-as-a-service item is 10 times less expensive than the industry norm and has a flat cost.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the round, led by Blackbird, also included participation from Shasta Ventures, Icehouse Ventures, Ascential, and brand consultant Mark Ritson.

“Strong brands are the difference between good companies and great companies – whether they’re selling physical products or software,” said Phoebe Harrop, a partner at Blackbird.

Trivia Answer: Mini DV

Most digital camcorders record video and audio on a Mini DV tape. The cassettes measure 2.6 x 1.9 x 0.5 inches (L x W x H), while the tape itself is only 0.25 inches thick. A Mini DV tape that is 65 meters long can hold an incredible 11GB of data, or 80 minutes of digital video.

By Kayode Hamsat

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