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Months after a big round, African fintech startup Jumo has pulled in a fresh $12.5 million to add more fuel for its expansion into Asia Pacific.

The new investment comes from London-based investment fund Odey Asset Management, and it is an extension to a $52 million round that closed back in September. The deal takes Jumo, which recently moved its headquarters to Singapore, to $103 million raised from investors. Its backers include Goldman Sachs, Proparco — which is attached to the French Development Agency — and Finnfund, and it was part of Google’s Launchpad accelerator last year.

Founded in 2014, Jumo specializes in social impact financial products, such as microloans, savings and insurance. It started in Tanzania, and today claims to have originated more than $1 billion in loans. Since September, when it announced a first expansion into Asia via Pakistan, it claims it has grown to 10 million people saving or borrowing from its platform (from a previous nine million). The company has some 350 staff across 10 offices in Africa, Europe and Asia.

Over the last year, the company said it has doubled the number of financial service providers and telcos on its platform. Of those deals, one of its highest profile is a digital finance product for Uber drivers that’s live in Kenya. That collaboration is likely to expand in Africa and potentially beyond, Jumo said.

Expansion is very much the name of the game all round for the company. Jumo CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball told TechCrunch in September that there are plans to expand to more Asian markets next year but, for now, the company isn’t saying which ones.

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Months after a big round, African fintech startup Jumo has pulled in a fresh $12.5 million to add more fuel for its expansion into Asia Pacific.

The new investment comes from London-based investment fund Odey Asset Management, and it is an extension to a $52 million round that closed back in September. The deal takes Jumo, which recently moved its headquarters to Singapore, to $103 million raised from investors. Its backers include Goldman Sachs, Proparco — which is attached to the French Development Agency — and Finnfund, and it was part of Google’s Launchpad accelerator last year.

Founded in 2014, Jumo specializes in social impact financial products, such as microloans, savings and insurance. It started in Tanzania, and today claims to have originated more than $1 billion in loans. Since September, when it announced a first expansion into Asia via Pakistan, it claims it has grown to 10 million people saving or borrowing from its platform (from a previous nine million). The company has some 350 staff across 10 offices in Africa, Europe and Asia.

Over the last year, the company said it has doubled the number of financial service providers and telcos on its platform. Of those deals, one of its highest profile is a digital finance product for Uber drivers that’s live in Kenya. That collaboration is likely to expand in Africa and potentially beyond, Jumo said.

Expansion is very much the name of the game all round for the company. Jumo CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball told TechCrunch in September that there are plans to expand to more Asian markets next year but, for now, the company isn’t saying which ones.

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Months after a big round, African fintech startup Jumo has pulled in a fresh $12.5 million to add more fuel for its expansion into Asia Pacific.

The new investment comes from London-based investment fund Odey Asset Management, and it is an extension to a $52 million round that closed back in September. The deal takes Jumo, which recently moved its headquarters to Singapore, to $103 million raised from investors. Its backers include Goldman Sachs, Proparco — which is attached to the French Development Agency — and Finnfund, and it was part of Google’s Launchpad accelerator last year.

Founded in 2014, Jumo specializes in social impact financial products, such as microloans, savings and insurance. It started in Tanzania, and today claims to have originated more than $1 billion in loans. Since September, when it announced a first expansion into Asia via Pakistan, it claims it has grown to 10 million people saving or borrowing from its platform (from a previous nine million). The company has some 350 staff across 10 offices in Africa, Europe and Asia.

Over the last year, the company said it has doubled the number of financial service providers and telcos on its platform. Of those deals, one of its highest profile is a digital finance product for Uber drivers that’s live in Kenya. That collaboration is likely to expand in Africa and potentially beyond, Jumo said.

Expansion is very much the name of the game all round for the company. Jumo CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball told TechCrunch in September that there are plans to expand to more Asian markets next year but, for now, the company isn’t saying which ones.

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Procore Technologies, a provider of software to manage construction projects, is now worth $3 billion thanks to a new $75 million round of funding led by Tiger Global Management.

The new funding shows just how completely software has eaten the world. Once considered an industry that was too analog to ever reap the benefits of technology’s management tools, software and services for the construction industry have seen some big exits and big money come in over the past three years.

Unicorns abound among the companies that are trying to serve various aspects of the construction industry. SoftBank kicked off 2018 by investing $865 million in Katerra — one of many early mega-deals from the firm’s giant Vision Fund — which touts itself as a one-stop shop for everything from planning to permitting to filling new building construction. In November, another software developer that was contending for the construction market, PlanGrid, was acquired by Autodesk in an $875 million transaction.

Taking new money from Tiger Global to expand makes sense, given the competitive advantage that PlanGrid gained in the market by tying up with a $30 billion powerhouse in software development for the architecture, design and construction industry. Autodesk is the maker of AutoCAD — one of the fundamental tools that architects, designers and construction companies use for two and three-dimensional renderings of buildings. By integrating the design management and construction planning toolkits, Autodesk created a more integrated offering for customers.

Indeed, Procore said it would use the cash to ramp up its partner expansion and to continue to invest in new products and services and hiring new talent.

Based in Carpinteria, Calif., Procore already has more than 1,300 employees working in 12 offices around the world and is working with more than 5,000 different customers on projects.

Additional investors in Procore include Bessemer Venture Partners, Iconiq Capital and Lumia Partners.

Tooey Courtemanche, founder and CEO of Procore, photographed in front of Procore’s headquarters, Carpinteria, CA, 9/7/18.

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Procore Technologies, a provider of software to manage construction projects, is now worth $3 billion thanks to a new $75 million round of funding led by Tiger Global Management.

The new funding shows just how completely software has eaten the world. Once considered an industry that was too analog to ever reap the benefits of technology’s management tools, software and services for the construction industry have seen some big exits and big money come in over the past three years.

Unicorns abound among the companies that are trying to serve various aspects of the construction industry. SoftBank kicked off 2018 by investing $865 million in Katerra — one of many early mega-deals from the firm’s giant Vision Fund — which touts itself as a one-stop shop for everything from planning to permitting to filling new building construction. In November, another software developer that was contending for the construction market, PlanGrid, was acquired by Autodesk in an $875 million transaction.

Taking new money from Tiger Global to expand makes sense, given the competitive advantage that PlanGrid gained in the market by tying up with a $30 billion powerhouse in software development for the architecture, design and construction industry. Autodesk is the maker of AutoCAD — one of the fundamental tools that architects, designers and construction companies use for two and three-dimensional renderings of buildings. By integrating the design management and construction planning toolkits, Autodesk created a more integrated offering for customers.

Indeed, Procore said it would use the cash to ramp up its partner expansion and to continue to invest in new products and services and hiring new talent.

Based in Carpinteria, Calif., Procore already has more than 1,300 employees working in 12 offices around the world and is working with more than 5,000 different customers on projects.

Additional investors in Procore include Bessemer Venture Partners, Iconiq Capital and Lumia Partners.

Tooey Courtemanche, founder and CEO of Procore, photographed in front of Procore’s headquarters, Carpinteria, CA, 9/7/18.

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Procore Technologies, a provider of software to manage construction projects, is now worth $3 billion thanks to a new $75 million round of funding led by Tiger Global Management.

The new funding shows just how completely software has eaten the world. Once considered an industry that was too analog to ever reap the benefits of technology’s management tools, software and services for the construction industry have seen some big exits and big money come in over the past three years.

Unicorns abound among the companies that are trying to serve various aspects of the construction industry. SoftBank kicked off 2018 by investing $865 million in Katerra — one of many early mega-deals from the firm’s giant Vision Fund — which touts itself as a one-stop shop for everything from planning to permitting to filling new building construction. In November, another software developer that was contending for the construction market, PlanGrid, was acquired by Autodesk in an $875 million transaction.

Taking new money from Tiger Global to expand makes sense, given the competitive advantage that PlanGrid gained in the market by tying up with a $30 billion powerhouse in software development for the architecture, design and construction industry. Autodesk is the maker of AutoCAD — one of the fundamental tools that architects, designers and construction companies use for two and three-dimensional renderings of buildings. By integrating the design management and construction planning toolkits, Autodesk created a more integrated offering for customers.

Indeed, Procore said it would use the cash to ramp up its partner expansion and to continue to invest in new products and services and hiring new talent.

Based in Carpinteria, Calif., Procore already has more than 1,300 employees working in 12 offices around the world and is working with more than 5,000 different customers on projects.

Additional investors in Procore include Bessemer Venture Partners, Iconiq Capital and Lumia Partners.

Tooey Courtemanche, founder and CEO of Procore, photographed in front of Procore’s headquarters, Carpinteria, CA, 9/7/18.

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Social media has lately been linked to mental health issues, with a recent study showing a causal relationship between the use of social media and depression and loneliness. Wisdo, which just raised $11 million in seed funding from Intel Capital and a handful of angel investors, aims to connect and support people in some of their toughest moments.

Communities on Wisdo focus on topics around physical health, mental health, self-growth, sexuality, identity and family. The app works by connecting people seeking help with those who can offer help — often those who have been through similar experiences.

“Wisdo grew out of my own personal experience when my father was diagnosed with cancer – I had no experience with cancer and there was no ‘map’ for what I should do next, no one to give me direction,” Wisdo CEO Boaz Gaon said in a statement. “I also understood that this could not possibly be true: there had to be many millions of people who had lived through this exact situation and who could help guide me – I just needed to find them. This was the seed of Wisdo – connecting people around these experiences, finding the everyday wisdom that we all need, sharing the earned wisdom that we all have, building a map for life’s emotional challenges, and giving people insight into what happens next.”

Wisdo’s timeline feature enables people to lay out their experiences in the form of steps. Based on those steps, Wisdo develops an outline for each life experience. From there, users can engage with each other in one-on-one conversations. In beta, Wisdo grew to 500,000 users.

“Social networks are based on generalized groups of friends and acquaintances where you can’t share openly and honestly about anything,” Richard Klausner, an investor in Wisdo and founder of Juno Therapeutics, said. “Social networks can be a force for good by rewarding empathy and helpfulness, which is why we believe so much in Wisdo’s mission. We want users to not only be open and honest, but move from that to creating human connections, which can improve users’ lives in the long run.”

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French startup Tempow has been working on software solutions to improve the Bluetooth protocol. The company just unveiled the Tempow True Wireless Bluetooth profile so that anybody can create AirPods clones.

Many companies have tried creating a pair of earbuds with absolutely no wire. But none of them are as good as Apple’s AirPods. Manufacturers can’t quite recreate the same experience because Apple has developed its own chip and software solution.

Putting aside the magical Bluetooth pairing process, AirPods leverage normal Bluetooth audio (A2DP) to communicate with your device. That’s why they work with iPhones, Android phones, old Windows laptops, etc.

But A2DP normally only lets you connect one device with one headphone. And that’s also what’s happening with AirPods. Your phone establishes a link with one of the earbuds. The second earbud then sniffs the first link.

Other manufacturers have tried to create wireless earbuds by establishing a second connection between the second earbud and the main earbud. They often use Near Field Magnetic Induction. This uses a lot of battery and creates latency issues.

Tempow has been rewriting the Bluetooth stack so that manufacturers can use normal Bluetooth chipsets and pair a single device with multiple speakers. Using this solution for wireless earbuds seems like a natural fit.

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Yesterday TechCrunch held its first-ever event in Nigeria — our second in Sub-Saharan Africa. The day was packed with Battlefield presentations from 15 different startups from across the region, along with panels featuring some of Africa’s best known tech entrepreneurs and executives.

It was an incredible day and offered a fascinating peak into an absolutely vibrant tech community. For those unable to make the trek through the standstill Lagos traffic, have no fear. We’ve included footage from the day’s event below. And for those who were lucky enough to join, you can relive the highlights right here.

Expats, Repats and Africans

Kwame Acheampong (Mall for Africa), Eleni Gabre-Madhin (blueMoon) and Lexi Novitske (Singularity Investments) discuss the ups and downs of the influence repatriates and outside investors exert on the African startup community

Fireside Chat with Funke Opeke

Main Street Technologies founder and Main One Cable Company CEO Funke Opeke has led the charge to bring broadband internet to West Africa. She discusses the role of entrepreneurship in helping to scale business.

Investing in African Startups

Kola Aina and other area investors discuss the lessons that can be learned from Silicon Valley VC and which aspects of the model don’t apply to the African tech ecosystem.

Blockchain’s Potential in Africa

Olugbenga Agboola (Flutterwave), Omolara Awoyemi (SureGroup) and Nichole Yembra (Greenhouse Capital) and Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi (SureRemit) discuss the impact crypto has had on the African tech community and the different ways blockchain technology can help build a broad cross section of different categories.

The Winner of Startup Battlefield

The winner of the event was M-SCAN from Uganda, which develops portable mobile ultrasound devices (Ultrasonic probes) that are laptop, tablet and mobile phone compatible. The judges were impressed with its scalability potential to make many other medical access devices affordable for Africa, where mother and infant mortality is unforgivably high.

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Yesterday TechCrunch held its first-ever event in Nigeria — our second in Sub-Saharan Africa. The day was packed with Battlefield presentations from 15 different startups from across the region, along with panels featuring some of Africa’s best known tech entrepreneurs and executives.

It was an incredible day and offered a fascinating peak into an absolutely vibrant tech community. For those unable to make the trek through the standstill Lagos traffic, have no fear. We’ve included footage from the day’s event below. And for those who were lucky enough to join, you can relive the highlights right here.

Expats, Repats and Africans

Kwame Acheampong (Mall for Africa), Eleni Gabre-Madhin (blueMoon) and Lexi Novitske (Singularity Investments) discuss the ups and downs of the influence repatriates and outside investors exert on the African startup community

Fireside Chat with Funke Opeke

Main Street Technologies founder and Main One Cable Company CEO Funke Opeke has led the charge to bring broadband internet to West Africa. She discusses the role of entrepreneurship in helping to scale business.

Investing in African Startups

Kola Aina and other area investors discuss the lessons that can be learned from Silicon Valley VC and which aspects of the model don’t apply to the African tech ecosystem.

Blockchain’s Potential in Africa

Olugbenga Agboola (Flutterwave), Omolara Awoyemi (SureGroup) and Nichole Yembra (Greenhouse Capital) and Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi (SureRemit) discuss the impact crypto has had on the African tech community and the different ways blockchain technology can help build a broad cross section of different categories.

The Winner of Startup Battlefield

The winner of the event was M-SCAN from Uganda, which develops portable mobile ultrasound devices (Ultrasonic probes) that are laptop, tablet and mobile phone compatible. The judges were impressed with its scalability potential to make many other medical access devices affordable for Africa, where mother and infant mortality is unforgivably high.

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