SweepSouth, South Africa’s On-demand Home Cleaning and Services Platform Raises $11 Million
SweepSouth, a South African platform for on-demand home cleaning and services, has raised US$11 million in finance, lead by the private equity fund Alitheia IDF, with the goal of growing its current business and entering new markets.
A $100 million “gender-lens fund” called Alitheia IDF is co-founded and run by two women-led companies, Alitheia Capital in Lagos and IDF Capital (Johannesburg). “The fund discovers, invests in, and grows SMEs headed by gender-diverse teams in six African countries: Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The fund announced its ultimate close in 2021 to become the largest gender-lens private equity fund in Africa.
“We are very pleased to have received money from the female-led Alitheia IDF and to have increased the number of female investors on the cap table through the usage of a female-focused special purpose vehicle in this round. Polo Leteka from the Alitheia IDF has joined the board, and we are happy about what this implies for us moving forward, said Pandor in the release.
Nine months after purchasing the Egyptian home services platform FilKhedma, the company received money. The latest round, SweepSouth’s largest to far, comes in the wake of a sharp increase in the company’s worth.
In addition to new investors including Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor’s Harvest Fund II, Caruso Ventures, and E4E Africa, the company’s current backers Naspers Foundry, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Futuregrowth Asset Management have also committed to taking part in the new round.
Aisha Pandor and her husband Alen Ribic started SweepSouth in 2014; it is active in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt.
“We are very pleased to have received money from the female-led Alitheia IDF and to have increased the number of female investors on the cap table through the usage of a female-focused special purpose vehicle in this round. Polo Leteka from the Alitheia IDF has joined the board, and we are happy about what this implies for us moving forward, said Pandor in the release.
