Tokyo-based Wassha, building a retail platform by networking local kiosks in rural Africa, announced on Friday that it has raised $1.14 billion yen (about $8.2 million US) in a series C round. Dai-ichi Life Insurance, Daikin Industries (TSE: 6367), Mistletoe Japan, Yamaha Motor (TSE: 7272), and the University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners (UTEC) participated in this round.
UTEC also participated in Wassha’s series A and series B rounds while Daikin Industries, Mistletoe Japan, and Yamaha Motor follow on their investments from the startup’s series B round. The latest round brought their funding sum up to date to approximately 3.5 billion yen (about $26 million yen).
Wassha was founded in November of 2013
under its previous name of Digital Grid. The company first started its
business with a prepaid solar power delivery service to off-grid areas.
In this service, solar panels and rechargeable batteries are installed
at affiliated kiosks in rural villages without electricity, and LED
lanterns, radios, tablets and other household appliances are provided for rent free of charge. The kiosk rents these appliances to village residents who visit the kiosk and pay fees by mobile to return an empty battery and receive get a charged one on a daily basis.
recharge their
batteries and pay fee the residents by mobile payments.
Our readers may recall that three investors in the latest round – Daikin Industries, Mistletoe Japan, and Yamaha Motor – announced that each of them would collaboratively work with Wassha when they previously announced their participation in the series B round. With Daikin Industries, Wassha has jointly developed a subscription-based air conditioner rental business in developing countries through Baridi Baridi, a joint venture of the two companies; With Yamaha Motor, Wassha will jointly study a logistics business (a distribution network using motorcycles to connect kiosks); and with Mistletoe Japan, Wassha considers to leverage the kiosk network for the investor’s portoflio startups. Dai-ichi Life says this is a part of their impact investment activities.
First started its service in Tanzania, the company
also has now its presence in Uganda and Mozambique, and plans to expand
into the Democratic Republic of the Congo within the year. They have so
far partnered with more than 5,100 local kiosks. LED lanterns, their flagship product, has been rented 100,000 times per day. Going forward, they
plan to leverage their network of the kiosks to provide both social and
business services in finance, logistics, and other various areas.
