$11 M secured by SA online home services startup SweepSouth for expansion
SweepSouth, a South African business and online marketplace for home services with a presence across Africa, has acquired US $11 million in investment as it plans to continue expanding and growing.
Aisha Pandor and Alen Ribic co-founded SweepSouth in 2014, an online platform that offers on-demand house cleaning services in a number of South African cities as well as in Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt.
The US $11 million round of investment will enable the business, which is already well-capitalized, to expand its infrastructure and team in South Africa, provide new services in current markets, and seek both greenfield expansions and acquisitions across the African continent and beyond.
“This new funding round is an important one for our team as we continue to scale in South Africa, and further grow our operations in Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt,” said Pandor. “We’re excited to continue SweepSouth’s work in connecting customers with home service providers across the continent, building a platform that empowers domestic workers and local tradespeople.”
The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Naspers Foundry, and Futuregrowth Asset Management are all existing investors in the round, which was headed by the gender-lens private equity firm Alitheia IDF. The round also saw the addition of new investors Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor’s Harvest Fund II, Caruso Ventures, and E4E Africa.
“We are proud to support SweepSouth’s growth as it expands its platform that substantially improves the financial and social outcomes for domestic workers across Africa, most of which are women,” said Polo Leteka, principal partner at Alitheia IDF.
“In the domestic services industry, which is notoriously informal and exploitative, SweepSouth’s model solves autonomy, security, and increasing income for its service providers, and affordability and flexibility for its end users. AIF’s investment will enable the development of infrastructure and operations that will deliver growth for stakeholders – particularly domestic workers and local tradespeople at the base of the economic pyramid.”
