Eden Life, a Lagos-based home services firm, isn’t waiting for competitors to bite into its hard-won market share. The Nigerian startup has raised $1.4 million in a seed round to increase its market footprint, strategically position itself as the go-to platform for home service needs, and compete with newcomers like SweepSouth from South Africa, which recently launched to Nigeria.
The financing was led by LocalGlobe, a venture capital firm based in the United Kingdom. Samurai Incubate, Future Africa, Village Global, Rising Tide Africa, and Enza Capital, all focused on Africa, took part.
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“Our strength is operational complexity because solving one of these things is not going to create that experience we want for our customers,” CEO Nadayar Enegesi said. “It is important that we build a full-suite home experience for people, and does it mean that it might take longer than other things? Sure, but it also means that it will be tough for people to compete against us. As I said, it’s personal, and something like this must exist. And fortunately, we are the ones that get to do it.”
The company intends to use the money to expand its in-house technologies, expand its personnel, and establish food production facilities and distribution hubs (presenting an opportunity to explore the dark kitchen model).
Since inception, Eden Life has provided over 60,000 services in Lagos alone.
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.
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Investment by Samurai Incubate also re-affirms the VC’s previous investment in the startup. Eden Life, first, tapped into 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).
The same goes for Village Global, one of the investors in this round. Eden Life was part of Village Global’s recent Network Catalyst accelerator programme. Village Global usually invests around $150,000 for 7% ownership stakes in startups through its accelerator programmes.
But then, the traction the startup has achieved since its last funding proved helpful in attracting the latest funding. Eden claims to have over 600 users, with a monthly retention rate of 92 percent and over 70 percent of new users coming from recommendations. Since its inception, the startup claims to have delivered over 60,000 services.
A Look At What Eden Life Does
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.”
Eden isn’t the only one working in the field in Nigeria. Some regional players, like SweepSouth, a home cleaning service, are expanding their operations in the West African country.
Enegesi, on the other hand, is unconcerned because the models are so dissimilar. Eden has a horizontal approach to home cleaning, combining meals, laundry, and cleaning services, whereas SweepSouth takes a vertical method.
Eden Life Nigeria Eden Life Nigeria
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