Grace Ashiru
SweepSouth, an online home services platform with a presence across Africa, announced today that it had completed an investment round with a total value of US$11 million. The round was led by Alitheia IDF (AIF), which is Africa’s first and largest gender-lens private equity fund.
Since the previous investment round, SweepSouth has seen significant development in its valuation and social effect, which led to an increase in the amount of this funding round, which is SweepSouth’s largest to date.
New investors Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor’s Harvest Fund II, Caruso Ventures, and E4E Africa, as well as current investors Naspers Foundry, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Futuregrowth Asset Management, all, agreed to join this new round.
SweepSouth was started by Aisha Pandor and Alen Ribic in 2014. It is present in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt, four of Africa’s major important tech markets.
The company will be able to further develop and increase its infrastructure and workforce in South Africa thanks to this most recent round of funding. Furthermore, the firm can launch new services in existing markets.
According to Aisha Pandor, “This additional fundraising round is vital for our team as we continue to develop in South Africa and grow our operations in Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt,”
We’re thrilled to carry on SweepSouth’s goal of connecting customers with home service providers across the continent and setting up a platform that helps domestic workers and local tradespeople.
We are very pleased that we were able to secure money from Alitheia IDF, which women run, and that we were able to increase the number of women investors on the cap table by utilizing a female-focused SPV during this round. We’re excited about what this means for us going forward, and we’re thrilled that Polo Leteka from Alitheia IDF is joining the board.
Alitheia IDF (AIF) is Africa’s first women-focused and women-led private equity fund. It 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).
“We are delighted to assist SweepSouth in expanding its platform, which assists domestic workers in Africa, most of whom are women, in both their financial and social life.
In the domestic services market, which is generally informal and exploitative, SweepSouth’s approach addresses autonomy, security, increasing revenue for its service providers, and affordability and flexibility for its end users.
Polo Leteka, Principal Partner, Alitheia IDF Fund, says, “AIF’s investment will allow for the development of infrastructure and operations that will lead to growth for all stakeholders, especially domestic workers and local tradespeople at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”
In addition to its efforts to grow, SweepSouth will step up its current work to improve domestic workers’ economic and legal rights. It will do this through projects like the SweepSouth Report on Pay and Working Conditions for Domestic Workers Across Africa. This report brings attention to the difficulties faced by domestic workers in Africa and calls for increased action on the part of governments and other parties.
Alen Ribic, one of the founders of SweepSouth, says, “We’re excited to have new investors join us in our mission to build technology that helps people connect in meaningful ways.”- providing clients with access to services that are both safe and convenient, while also providing home service providers with access to work possibilities that are both decent and conducted in a dignified manner.
