Rishabh Lawania - Afrikan Heroes

Kenyan Recommerce Startup Badili Raises New Funding From Renew Capital

March 7, 2023

Badili, a recommerce business located in Kenya, has received further financing from Renew Capital.

The number of smartphone connections in Sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to reach over 700 million by 2025, yet adoption rates remain low across the region. Via its recommerce platform, Badili is on a mission to alter this and put a smartphone in the hands of every African.

“We are providing an alternative platform where people can buy used and refurbished smartphones safely and affordably,” says Badili’s CEO Rishabh Lawania. “Most of our devices cost less than half their original price, and all come with a 12-month warranty.”

Rishabh Lawania and Keshu Dubey started Badili in 2021 with the goal of offering a trustworthy platform for buying and selling used cellphones in Kenya. Lawania saw the need for the site after a coworker was arrested for purchasing a stolen phone. Badili demands its vendors to produce ID and photos, as well as sign an affidavit saying that they are the legitimate owners of the equipment, to protect customers. This technique protects purchasers further and helps to guarantee the authenticity of the items.

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“We are thrilled to have Renew Capital Angels as partners in our journey to create a better recommerce experience for everyone in Africa. We want to make it easy, safe and affordable for people to buy and sell pre-owned devices. This investment will help take us one step closer to achieving that goal,” Lawania says.

“Badili is on a mission to create a standardized and affordable parallel economy for consumer electronics across Africa,” says Esther Mwikali, Renew Capital Investment and Project Manager. “Renew Capital Angels are proud to help support this journey.”

Capital Renew Capital is an impact investing organisation based in Africa that backs creative firms with strong growth potential. Renew Capital, which has offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, handles investments made on behalf of the Renew Capital Angels, a global network of angel investors, foundations, and family offices seeking financial rewards as well as long-term social impact. The Angels have been actively investing in the area since the network’s inception in 2012, pushing millions of dollars into Africa’s middle market.

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard

Africa-focused Media Startup Wee Media Secures $400k Seed Funding

November 4, 2020

Media startups in Africa are increasingly getting the attention of VCs too! Following recent investments in Space In Africa and Stears, investors have again gone for Wee Media, the Nairobi-headquartered Africa-focused business and tech publication company and owner of brands like WeeTracker, AfriCo and a consumer electronics media platform Gadgets-Africa. The startup has announced it has raised $400k in a seed funding round.

“With support from our diverse group of investors and a rockstar team, we have been able to pivot the company around in the last six months from an advertising-driven media company to a subscription-led data and intelligence company,” Rishabh Lawania, CEO of Wee Media said.

Here Is What You Need To Know

The latest investment came from Japanese investor Samurai Incubate; Hong Kong’s Grenfell Holdings; Texas-based asset management Knarrs Ventures; and Texas-based private investor Jim Waltrip.
The startup will use the funding to transition from an advertising-driven media company to a subscription-led data and intelligence company.

Why The Investors Invested

Wee Media’s latest fundraise appears to have been inspired by the recent restructuring of the media outfit into a subscription-based digital media platform, away from its previous advertising model.

Again, it also seems the startup leveraged the opportunity furnished 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.

The VC has previously invested in the Nigerian logistics startup, Eden Life; lending platform Evolve Credit, among others. (Startups still interested in checking out Samurai Incubate Africa may follow this link).

“Not many investors look at Africa as a market and there is only a handful of people who think of data and intelligence as an investable space,” said Rishabh Lawania. “We have been lucky enough to attract global investors in the past and the present as we go on to raise our Pre-Series A to further strengthen our technology, expand our team and chase profitability as we enter our third year of operation soon.”

*VC Investments by sectors in African startups, 2019. Source: African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association 2019 VC report*

Wee Media funding Wee Media funding

A Look At What The Startup Does

Founded in 2017 by the duo of Keshu Dubey and Rishabh Lawania, Wee Media is an Africa-focused media company. It currently operates WeeTracker.com, Gadgets-Africa.com and AfriCo.

According to Lawania, Wee Media has attracted global investors in the past, and will strengthen their technology, expand their team and pursue profitability as they raise their Pre-Series A.

“The vision of the company is to fix the broken business journalism in Africa and bridge the data gap,” he said. “For more many years, companies like Dow Jones, Bloomberg, and Pitchbook have been tracking the global private markets but African data and content are considerably ignored. There’s so much happening in the PE/VC and M/A space across the continent and we are trying to be the platform that puts Africa first.”

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