SweepSouth Looking To Grow Its South African Market Share Following Closure Of USD 3.3 Mn Round
Sweepsouth, a South African online platform that provides on-demand domestic cleaning services has raised R 50 Mn (USD 3.3 Mn) in a new investment round.
Investors in this round include Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which has invested USD 1 Mn (R14.5 million). Existing investors Naspers Foundry, Smollan, Vumela, CRE VC and musician turned venture capitalist Black Coffee reportedly participated in this round.
With the closure of this round, the startup is looking to expand its market share in South Africa as well as launch additional services.
“In addition to expanding the markets we operate in, in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent, we are also looking forward to a formal announcement regarding our new platform, SweepSouth Connect, which offers services like handymen, plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, carpet cleaners, and nannies, as well as the growth of our online SweepSouth Shop which sells a range of home products,” CEO Aisha Pandor said
The closure of this deal follows a USD 2 Mn round of funding injected into the startup in June this year, by Naspers Foundry, an investor in South African tech businesses. After this, the startup claims it has seen a 26% growth in its business.
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Prior to that, it had concluded its Series A in May 2017 from investors Smollan, Draper Dark Flow, Identity Development Fund Managers, CRE Venture Capital and Black Coffee. In 2016, Vumela Fund had injected USD 600 K into the startup.
Co-founded in 2014 by Aisha Pandor and Alen Ribic, SweepSouth was the first South African startup to take part in the 500 Startups accelerator programme in 2015. It currently operates within Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban. Its typical clientele are the average South African home owner, although some offices also use its services.
Since its launch, it has provided over 15 000 work opportunities for its domestic workers, ‘Sweepstars’ and has even partnered with insure-tech platform Simply, to give the ‘SweepStars’ access to life insurance and funeral cover. As of 2018, it had over 150 000 app downloads, over 40 000 active users and had cleaned over 100 000 homes.
There’s has been a noted increase in demand for cleaning services, especially in today’s society of workaholism as well as a rise in commercial real estate. Globally, the cleaning services market was valued at USD 40.02 Bn in 2017, with a projection to reach USD 80.50 Bn by 2026, according to Market Watch.
The projected increase in demand in cleaning services could perhaps explain why SweepSouth was allegedly set to record USD 6.6 Mn (R 100 Mn) in revenues, by the end of the 2018/2019 financial year.
Feature photo credits: Heavy Chef
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