Who invested in African EV firms last month?

From the newsletter

The number of institutional sources of new money came to 14 in October, a higher total than in any recent month. Investors remain a critical part of the mobility ecosystem. Though somewhat constrained by the current global investment climate, many VCs continue to invest in African transport startups. 

• Equity investors included: Africa50, Novastar Ventures, CFAO Kenya Limited, Mobility 54, SBI Investment, Trucks.vc, Moxxie Ventures, Susquehanna Foundation, 500 Global, Untapped Global and angel investors.

• Debt was issued by DFC (the US government) and BII (the UK government), while grants came from the UK Freight Innovation Fund and Rwanda Green Fund.

More details

• Ten of the 14 new investors are private rather than government-run (although some of the private funds invest taxpayer money).

• Two investors are only interested in the mobility sector, still a rarity: private, French-based and Africa-focused Mobility 54, as well as private US-based and globally focused Trucks.vc.

• Four private, multi-sectoral investors are based and focused in Africa: Africa50 (Morocco), Untapped Global (Kenya), Novastar Ventures (Kenya), and CFAO Kenya Limited.

• But increasingly, we also see private US investors with global, multi-sector focus: Moxxie Ventures, Susquehanna Foundation and 500 Global.

• Among the more prolific investors is DFC, the US government venture investment arm. It has put money into the mobility sector for the third time in recent years.  

• The funding data is compiled by specialist site Africa: The Big Deal. See also our coverage yesterday on which companies raised money.

Our take

• There is growing interest in debt. We can see that in deal activity. It’s also in tune with the broad sentiment in the market. Both investors and entrepreneurs have gained a more nuanced view of the benefits of different types of capital. Equity can be the right choice. But it isn’t always. In some cases, lending trumps owning, and borrowing is more favourable than sharing board control. 

• It’s good to see a global specialist fund such as Trucks.vc investing in African mobility. That’s a vote of confidence. It also is likely to bring additional expertise into the sector. Impact funds will remain an important player. But even they will welcome the for-profit specialist investors as it validates their investment theses to a degree. 

• Rwanda is making the right moves at the moment. Its green fund, which links back to the government, supports domestic startups, including last month. That should be obvious – but is not the norm in many African countries.