SweepSouth, an online home services platform with a presence in Nigeria and other African countries, today announced that it has closed an $11 million investment round led by Alitheia IDF (AIF), Africa’s first and largest gender-lens private equity fund.
The size of the round, which is SweepSouth’s largest to date, is a result of strong growth in the company’s valuation and social impact since the previous funding round. Current investors include Naspers Foundry, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Futuregrowth Asset Management, all committed to participate in this new round, as did new investors, Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor’s Harvest Fund II, Caruso Ventures, and E4E Africa.
Co-founded in 2014 by Aisha Pandor and Alen Ribic, SweepSouth has a presence in Africa’s four key tech markets: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt. This latest round of funding will allow the company to further develop and grow its infrastructure and team in South Africa, roll out new services in existing markets, and pursue both greenfield expansions and acquisitions across the African continent and beyond.
What they are saying
Commenting on the fundraising, co-founder of SweepSouth, Aisha Pandor, said: “This new funding round is an important one for our team as we continue to scale in South Africa, and further grow our operations in Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt. We’re excited to continue SweepSouth’s work in connecting customers with home service providers across the continent, building a platform that empowers domestic workers and local tradespeople.”
“We are particularly proud to have raised funding from Alitheia IDF, a female-led fund, and to have included more women investors on the cap table via a female-focused SPV during this round. We are excited about what this means for us going forward and thrilled to have Polo Leteka from Alitheia IDF join the board,” she added.
Principal Partner at Alitheia IDF Fund, Polo Leteka, said: “We are proud to support SweepSouth’s growth as it expands its platform that substantially improves the financial and social outcomes for domestic workers across Africa, most of which are women. In the domestic services industry, which is notoriously informal and exploitative, SweepSouth’s model solves autonomy, security, increasing income for its service providers, and affordability and flexibility for its end users. AIF’s investment will enable the development of infrastructure and operations that will deliver growth for stakeholders – particularly domestic workers and local tradespeople at the base of the economic pyramid.”
What you should know
- Alitheia IDF (AIF), Africa’s first women-focused and women-led private equity fund, is a US$100 million gender-lens fund co-founded and managed by two women-led firms – Alitheia Capital (Lagos, Nigeria) and IDF Capital (Johannesburg, South Africa).
- The fund, which announced its final close in 2021 to become the largest gender-lens private equity fund in Africa, identifies, invests in, and grows SMEs led by gender-diverse teams in six African countries: Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
