The Rare One About Botswana’s First Startup Funding Round Since 2019

While the venture funding cloud gets thicker for Africa, it appears tech startups from undermined, lesser-known or underserved markets are gradually and literally making rounds.

Hardly are investments into the African tech space unconnected to or undominated by early-stage companies from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt.

But, for a few times of recent, local and international VCs are starting to bet on ventures from embryonic tech ecosystems.

One of such ventures is AlphaDirect, an insurtech from Botswana, a Southern African country where VC funding into innovation-driven startups isn't just rare, but also somewhat non-existent.

During the week, the firm raised USD 600 K in pre-Series A. The funding tops USD 2.5 Mn which AlphaDirect has raised across four seed rounds between 2015 and 2019.

Described as a bridge round, the "money in the bank" came from Launch Africa Ventures and Century Oak Capital—a private investment company from Liechtenstein. A limited partner (LP) to Launch Africa Ventures—on the basis of a Fund—Century Oak invested alongside the VC.

Not that it's bizzare for a tech startup from a landlocked African country like Botswana to attract local and international investors, but how AlphaDirect took the check home is the fabric of the development.

What's more, the startup divulges that a USD 5 Mn Series A is in the works for June 2021.

In Botswana?