South Africa’s “Uber of cleaning services” SweepSouth has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from asset manager Futuregrowth, making the investment firm SweepSouth’s newest investor, after the startup raised $2 million from Africa’s largest company Naspers, and another $3.3m from Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, musician and venture capitalist Black Coffee and from existing investors Naspers Foundry, Smollan, Vumela, CRE VC (previously Africa Angels Network) in 2019.
“We are uplifted each time we see our SweepStars referred to in this way, as it represents how a positive idea can take shape and can change the negative language that has been so deeply entrenched,” Aisha Pandor, co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth said.
Here Is What You Need To Know
- The latest investment from Futuregrowth adds to Futuregrowth’s portfolio of innovative, early-stage growth companies.
- The investment would further help SweepSouth achieve its strategic goals going forward.
- Earlier this year Futuregrowth invested in Lifecheq, a digitised private wealth management business. In late 2018, the asset manager also made another venture capital investment in Yoco, the innovative technology-driven point-of-sale payments provider
Why The Investor Invested
SweepSouth’s latest investment appears probably easier given that the startup had previously been backed by investors such as Naspers, and CRE VC.
“SweepSouth is an early-stage business disruptor that, instead of solving a Silicon Valley problem, is solving South African-specific problems. The company has taken a large segment of the informal sector, which is one of the biggest employers in South Africa, and formalised it, giving people protection and security in their working environments,” Amrish Narrandes, head of unlisted equity transactions at Futuregrowth, said.
Futuregrowth makes investments from its Futuregrowth Development Equity Fund, a venture capital fund devoted to supporting disruptive businesses and propositions that show strong high growth potential. .
“SweepSouth has played a material role in empowering previously vulnerable informal workers by giving them a voice and the ability to control their destiny because they have flexibility and control over their own time,” Amrish added.
Read also: COVID-19: What SweepSouth Is Teaching Other African Startups About Workers’ Welfare
A Look At What The Startup Does
Founded in 2014 by Aisha Pandor and Alen Ribic, SweepSouth is a South Africa-based online platform for booking, managing and paying for home cleaning. The startup has also expanded its offering to gardening and pool cleaning, heavy lifting, fixing and maintenance, and most recently, to commercial sanitation.
SweepSouth’s services are currently available in South Africa’s four major metropolitan areas: Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban.
“We went from the two of us working around our dining-room table — both of us sitting all day and working on this business plan — to going from a few domestic workers we were interviewing ourselves,” Pandor said, “ and even went from cleaning houses ourselves to having 11,000 domestic workers on the platform”.
In 2018, the startup reportedly reached $7 million (R100 million) in revenues.
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 write