ETHIOPIA—Kubik, the African sustainable tech startup, has raised a US$5.2 million seed funding round to scale production, grow its team and market presence in Ethiopia, strengthen its technology to trace waste and track environmental impact and deepen its reach to empower female waste collectors.
The round’s investors include leading East African venture capital firm African Renaissance Partners, which is focused on net zero; Endgame Capital, an investor in technologies addressing climate change; and climate and extreme poverty investor King Philanthropies.
The seed round makes Kubik the first Ethiopian company to raise a multi-million dollar investment in climate and sustainability solutions.
Kubik is an environmental technology company that uses plastic waste to make low-carbon, durable, and affordable buildings, removing plastic waste from the environment and promoting greener, cleaner development across Africa.
Kubik’s products cost at least 40% less per square metre than traditional cement-based development, and their low-carbon qualities yield 5x less greenhouse gas emissions.
“We are thrilled to close our US$5.2 million seed funding round and welcome our stellar new investors,” Kidus Asfaw, Co-founder and CEO of Kubik, said.
“They have seen Kubik’s compelling market opportunity, our delivery against our strategy to date, and share our purpose-driven vision – to build sustainably and affordably to a brighter, greener future.”
The latest fundraise follows a growth period for Kubik, during which it has launched a new plastic upcycling factory in Ethiopia’s state-of-the-art Adama Industrial Park and begun to source plastic at scale in collaboration with the City of Addis Ababa and various social enterprises in the waste management sector.
Market drivers for Kubik’s investment case are compelling. Affordable housing is a US$2.2 trillion global business in its own right, with a deficit of over 300 million units considered affordable to the most poor.
With 40%+ of the cost of housing development attributable to materials, Kubik’s business model of turning hard-to-recycle plastic waste into affordable building materials is ideally positioned.
“Today’s fundraising will allow us to keep up with the escalating demand we’re experiencing, scale our operations further with enhanced technology, empower more female waste collectors, and turbo-charge our pan-African growth ambitions. We look forward to the future with great confidence,” Kidus said.
In July 2023, Kubik raised US$3.34 million in an oversubscribed seed round from Plug & Play, BESTSELLER Foundation, GIIG Africa Fund, Satgana, Unruly Capital, Savannah Fund, African Renaissance Partners, KAZANA Fund, Princeton Alumni Angels, and Andav Capital.
The funds raised was to drive the expansion of Kubik’s operations throughout Ethiopia.
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