Venture capital firms from Japan are gradually proving a force to reckon with on the African startup landscape. Nigerian startup Eden Life, which provides busy city workers with a digital room service platform, has secured a funding round from Samurai Incubate Africa, the Japanese VC, which in January this year, launched a USD 18.250 Mn (JPY 2 Bn) fund that focuses especially on startups based in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
“While building Andela I realized that I needed a lot of help at home … So I thought, if my long-term vision for my life is to improve the quality of life for Nigerians and Africans across the board then this is definitely a good place to start,” wrote Nadayar Enegesi, CEO and co-founder, Eden Life Inc.
Here Is What You Need To Know
- Investment in Eden Life would be Samurai Incubate Africa’s first investment from its new fund. Also participating in this round is the US-based Village Global, an early-stage venture capital firm backed by the likes of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, Abigail Johnson, Magic Johnson and Anne Wojcicki.
- Eden Life is also a beneficiary of an accelerator programme conducted by Village Global.
- With this investment, the startup hopes to expand its operations and build its user base.
Why The Investors Invested
The investors probably invested because of the track records of Eden Life’s co-founder Nadayar Enegesi, who co-founded one of Africa’s leading talent outsourcing startups, Andela.
Again, it also seems the startup leveraged the opportunity brought about by the focus of the Japanese Venture Capital firm Samurai Incubate Africa which in January, 2020 announced the launch of their USD 18.250 Mn (JPY 2 Bn) second Africa focused fund — Samurai Africa Fund 2nd General Partnership with target on startups based in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The ticket size for Samurai’s investments ranges between USD 50 K to 500 K for startups developing solutions for FinTech / insureTech, logistics, Medtech / healthcare, retail & e-commerce, agritech, transport & mobility, and entertainment sectors. (Startups still interested in checking out Samurai Incubate Africa may follow this link).
And then again, Eden Life also leveraged the opportunity afforded by Village Global’s Network Catalyst accelerator programme. Village Global usually invests around $150,000 for 7% ownership stakes in startups through its accelerator programmes.
“We’re thrilled to back the talented team at Eden. We’re impressed with their vision, velocity, and customer-focus,” said Anne Dwane, co-founder and partner at Village Global.
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A Look At Startup Eden Life
Co-founded in April 2019 by Nigerians Nadayar Enegesi, Silm Momoh and Prosper Otemuyiwa, the Lagos-based Eden Life offers users access to a well-trained home concierge, which the startup calls “gardeners”, who handle a variety of chores. It connects users with a variety of service providers who do things like supply meals, handle laundry, and clean homes.
In simple terms, the startup defines its scope of services:
“You tell us about your home needs.
We assign you an Eden Gardener.
Your Gardener takes over all your home’s tasks.
You monitor the status of the chores on your app and leave feedback where necessary.”
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.