The company says its system replaces traditional marketing agencies with a network of AI agents that manage SEO, paid advertising, GEO and website optimisation end-to-end, helping businesses grow without the cost and complexity of agency support.

The funding round was led by Goodwater Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides, SignalFire and Kearny Jackson. The round also drew backing from WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Plum and Nneka Ogwumike.

Brooklyn-based Mega says it is targeting a long-standing problem faced by smaller businesses trying to compete in the digital marketplace.

Many SMB owners rely on marketing agencies but usually find it hard to see clear returns. Agencies can be expensive, results vary widely, and campaigns typically require manual execution and long turnaround times.

At the same time, the rapid growth of AI marketing tools has created another challenge, where many platforms still require business owners to learn complex software before they can see results.

Mega says its platform is designed to remove that limitation by delivering marketing execution directly through software.

The company’s core product is an AI-powered growth engine built for businesses generating between $500,000 and $20 million in annual revenue. It operates through a network of specialised AI agents that handle SEO, paid advertising, generative engine optimisation (GEO) and website management.

According to the company, the system plans, executes and continuously optimises campaigns while generating performance reports automatically. In practice, Mega says a business can sign up and still see its marketing run in the background even if the owner never logs into the platform.

The company’s entry into the marketing technology space happened almost by accident. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the founding team had been building a video game company. When ChatGPT launched, they began experimenting with AI tools to improve their own marketing efforts.

The results were striking. Organic traffic to their projects increased more than 100-fold, while paid customer acquisition costs dropped by around 80%.

When co-founder Lucas Pellan shared the tools with other founders, demand quickly followed.

“We realised early that business owners do not want another AI chat tool that requires hours of prompting,” Pellan said. “What they want are customers. So we built a system that actually does the work. Our AI agents execute marketing tasks end-to-end and continuously improve performance so SMBs can achieve predictable growth.”

Mega says about 55% of its marketing work is fully automated, while 35% is mostly automated with human oversight and the remaining 10% handled entirely by human specialists. The company says this hybrid approach allows it to scale operations while maintaining quality control.

Each campaign also feeds data back into the system, allowing the platform to improve ad targeting, creative generation, bidding strategies and optimisation across its entire customer base.

The company’s own growth has been fast. Mega says it expanded from zero to $10 million in revenue within 10 months. Its customers include home services companies, law firms, healthcare providers, ecommerce brands and software businesses.

In one case, Mega helped a Texas-based medical spa increase search traffic by 174 times, while a personal injury law firm saw its search visibility grow 243 times, pushing several key terms into the top three search rankings.

A direct-to-consumer health brand using the platform generated $120,000 in website revenue and surpassed its sales performance on Amazon without increasing advertising spend.

Darin Chase, a home services business owner who uses the platform, said the system has simplified his company’s marketing operations.

“Since working with Mega we finally have a predictable flow of leads,” he said. “We’re also able to focus on other projects because Mega handles the marketing side.”

Mega believes the opportunity in the SMB market is huge. Tens of thousands of marketing agencies currently serve smaller businesses across North America, however, many companies still see difficulty with inconsistent lead generation, limited transparency on results and weak returns on marketing spend.

With digital marketing channels becoming more competitive and expensive, the company argues that AI-driven automation can help narrow the gap between small businesses and large enterprises.

“Mega represents a fundamental shift in how SMBs approach marketing, moving from paying for effort to paying for measurable, repeatable growth,” said Vivek Subramanian, partner and chief product officer at Goodwater Capital.

“We’re excited to support Lucas and the team as they build an AI-native growth engine that businesses can deploy easily.”

With the funding, Mega plans to expand its platform beyond SEO, paid advertising and websites. The company is developing tools to manage the full revenue engine for SMBs, including email marketing, outbound campaigns, organic social media, lead qualification, sales operations and reporting.

Its long-term goal is to provide a fully automated growth infrastructure that allows small and mid-sized businesses to compete with enterprise-level marketing capabilities without the associated cost and complexity.

SimCare AI has raised $2 million in seed funding to rethink clinical training from first principles: using AI patients to bypass regulatory constraints and certify clinical skills with far fewer patient interactions.

The funding round was led by Y Combinator and Drive Capital, with participation from Harper Court Ventures Fund, Singularity Capital, Triple S Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Asymmetry Ventures, Sand Hill North, and Transpose Platform. 

The story began with a problem: when founder Vrishank Saini failed a critical clinical communications exam and couldn’t afford the $9,000 tutor fee, he got together with Tigran Bdoyan and built an AI solution instead. 

The tool worked so well that it attracted 2,500 users and reached $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue within three weeks. 

After an initial rejection from Y Combinator’s S24 batch, Saini and his co-founder Bdoyan dropped out of college with no funding, moved to San Francisco, and – when told they couldn’t reapply to the same batch – created new email accounts and applied again. 

Y Combinator caught them but, impressed by their determination, gave them $500,000 to build SimCare AI.

“We took a risk to prove our point,” said Vrishank Saini, CEO and Co-founder of SimCare AI. “By using AI patients, we’ve set a clinical benchmark for how training should be measured – efficient, reliable, and cost-effective. Current training methods excel at teaching acute conditions but fall short with chronic diseases that develop over months and years. A medication change today might not show its impact for months, and missed interventions might not reveal their consequences for years. SimCare AI’s simulations compress these timelines dramatically, allowing clinicians to witness disease progression patterns that would traditionally take years to experience.”

The SimCare AI platform can be customized for different specialities and use cases, from residency programs preparing trainees for complex patient scenarios to social work programs practising family interventions. 

Telehealth companies, for example, screen job applicants by testing their skills with SimCare AI patients, enabling faster and more cost-effective hiring. 

The platform also supports their onboarding, training, upskilling, and remediation without the prolonged timelines and high expenses of traditional training. 

For healthcare organizations, being able to benchmark and predict performance of their workforce will offer employers an advantage. Currently, SimCare AI has already closed 30 pilots with institutions including the University of Pennsylvania.

The innovation comes at a crucial moment. As seasoned physicians leave the profession while less experienced clinicians backfill positions, the clinical experience gap is widening. 

Traditional training methods – role-playing, in-person evaluations, and one-on-one interviews – cost institutions hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in faculty time and administrative overhead, while still failing to provide comprehensive exposure to complex patient cases.

Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Douglas A. Drossman MD, President at DrossmanCare commented: “I have been extremely impressed with our collaboration with SimCare AI. At DrossmanCare, in partnership with the Rome Foundation, we develop educational programs designed to enhance healthcare providers’ communication skills with patients. SimCare AI has seamlessly integrated our vast library of publications and videos on communication into an innovative program that allows providers to engage in advanced, simulated patient interviews with a virtual avatar. 

“This approach enables providers to gain valuable insights into complex psychosocial issues through the use of sophisticated interview techniques. Additionally, the program provides real-time feedback, allowing providers to continuously refine their skills. I’ve never encountered a company with such a refined ability to replicate the nuances of a clinical encounter, offering a truly remarkable training experience.”

SimCare AI’s technology offers a radical solution: proving clinical competency with just 20 patient encounters instead of 200. The system’s sophisticated AI maps decision trees for each patient interaction, creating dynamic, realistic conversations that align with accreditation standards. 

This precision helps institutions track, assess, and verify student competencies according to regulatory requirements – allowing students and professionals to practice and be evaluated anytime, anywhere. This standardized approach not only reduces faculty burden and costs but also accelerates the pace at which new clinicians can enter the workforce. 

Molly Bonakdarpour, Partner at Drive Capital, commented: “SimCare AI is addressing a clear need in healthcare training. In just four months, they’ve demonstrated strong early impact, delivering measurable ROI for customers. We’re impressed with their vision and execution and look forward to supporting their continued growth in AI-driven healthcare solutions.”

The platform’s impact extends across the healthcare education landscape. While medical schools use SimCare AI to teach patient interactions and clinical reasoning, therapy programs employ it for counselling practice, and telehealth companies leverage it for hiring and upskilling. 

SimCare AI’s precision helps institutions track, assess, and verify student competencies according to regulatory requirements – a crucial feature for medical schools, nursing programs, and continuing medical education.

Vrishank Saini added: “Looking ahead, SimCare AI plans to integrate more detailed clinical data – from transcripts to diagnostic workups – into its evaluation system. The company’s goal is to standardize clinical training and evaluation across healthcare, enabling competency to be measured quickly and reliably. For risk-bearing organizations, this provides a clear, consistent method to train clinicians in the specific skills that drive quality metrics.”

Founded in 2021 by Femi Aluko, Olumide Ojo, and Lanre Yusuf, Chowdeck makes swift deliveries within an average of 30 minutes. Aluko’s experience in Dubai, where he encountered exceptional customer service and prompt deliveries, was the inspiration for launching the company.

Despite entering a market already occupied by established players like Jumia Food and Bolt Food, Chowdeck has achieved commendable growth. 

The company attributes this success partly to its focus on profitability from the outset. Unlike competitors who relied heavily on discounts, Chowdeck prioritizes sustainable business practices by minimizing discounts and offering them strategically on behalf of partner restaurants.

“We figured out the right economic model for our delivery business,” said Aluko, a former engineer at Stripe subsidiary Paystack. “We target the right customers who prioritize convenience and are willing to pay for fast deliveries, rather than trying to capture everyone with unsustainable discounts.”

The exits of Jumia Food and Bolt Food from the Nigerian market in late 2023 further enhanced Chowdeck’s user base, which has nearly doubled in the past six months.

Chowdeck emphasizes convenience as its key selling point. The platform utilizes geotagging to optimize delivery routes and offers varying vehicle options like bicycles and motorbikes. Additionally, strict timeframes are enforced on both vendors and riders to ensure prompt service.

Beyond food deliveries, Chowdeck has expanded its services to include grocery and pharmacy deliveries through partnerships with supermarkets like ShopRite and pharmacies. This multi-vertical approach has seen Chowdeck’s annual gross merchandise value (GMV) surpass ₦7 billion ($5.8 million) in 2023. The company currently operates in eight Nigerian cities, with Lagos generating 80% of its business.

The newly acquired capital will enable Chowdeck to improve operational efficiency and expand to more Nigerian cities. The company also plans to invest in enhancing the experience for its customers, vendors, and especially its delivery riders, whose earnings currently exceed three to five times the national minimum wage.

“We saw the potential impact we could have on the delivery landscape in Nigeria, particularly around rider earnings,” said Aluko. “Many of our riders consistently earn between ₦100,000-200,000 ($83-$170) monthly.”

Chowdeck’s seed round attracted investors, including Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, and prominent founders like Simon Borrero and Juan Pablo Ortega of Rappi, and Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi of Paystack.

Today, it is the first car-sharing marketplace in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda created to serve more than 26 million vehicle owners in Africa.

Since 2019, Treepz has moved over 2.5m passengers with its bus-hailing platform across Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya.

With the launching of its car-sharing marketplace in Africa, starting today May 3, 2023, Treepz innovative platform allows car owners to rent out their vehicles for short to long-term periods, providing a more affordable and sustainable option for mobility in Africa.

This is a huge relief for over 600 million Africans living in urban areas and less than 44 cars per 1,000 people, who have the demand for affordable transportation options.

Treepz’s car-sharing platform addresses this need by allowing people to rent a car only when they need it and for flexible rental periods.

This helps reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions, leading to a more sustainable transportation system.

The car-sharing market in Africa is expected to grow at an annual rate of 20% from 2020 to 2030, with a projected market value of $500 million.

Treepz, as Africa’s largest car-sharing marketplace by market size of their operations, is well-positioned to take advantage of this growth and provide an affordable and sustainable transportation option for people across the continent.

The marketplace is available on iOS and Android and offers a variety of vehicles, including sedans, SUVs, vans, and buses. Renters can search for vehicles by inputting their location and duration and choose from a list of several car owners, makes, and models.

Car owners can set their prices, availability, and long-term booking discounts, among other functionalities.

Notable businesses such as Wakanow and Tekexperts in Nigeria, Twiga Foods and Diamond Trust Bank in Kenya and many more organizations in Africa have already been using the Treepz solution for their staff, but now, Treepz is rolling out the consumer side of the service to make access to vehicles for rent easier.

Treepz is backed by notable investors such as Google, SOSV, Goodwater Capital, Techstars and GIIG Africa Fund, among others, which adds credibility to the company and its new marketplace.

Commenting on the development, Onyeka Akumah, Treepz’s CEO, said:

“The new Treepz is an exciting innovation for transportation in Africa. We are making better use of more than 26 million vehicles available on the continent to provide commuters with enjoyable and fun transportation service as they travel for work or simply enjoy a smooth ride across the safaris in the continent. Today we are regarded as the largest car-sharing marketplace in Africa and we have seized that opportunity with the technology we’ve built for hosts (vehicle owners or rental companies) to manage their inventory, reach new customers and track their growth. While guests who book from these host have the luxury to select their dream car for work, pleasure or exploration with a vetted driver. 

“We have spent the last 5 months building this solution and we are excited to introduce you to this in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya. Treepz is at the forefront of this important movement with guest and host enjoying their commute on the continent. Our goal to listen to our customers and keep making them happy with every trip they make with us at Treepz.”

Treepz which was founded in September 2019 in Nigeria, has announced today that it has further expanded its operations in East Africa, with a focus on Kenya, just over a year after launching in Uganda and Ghana.

With the launch of Treepz Kenya, it is the company’s 4th country where it operates from in 3 years.

This new expansion follows  investments made in Treepz in the last couple of months led by GIIG Africa Fund along with MoAngels, Roselake VC, Unpopular VC, Goodwater Capital and BKR Capital.

There were also follow on investments from Treepz current investors including ShockVentures, Winston Limited led by the Lynch Brothers, Aston Investments and Novum Actus led by Clara Ogunsemi.

With the launch of its Kenyan service in Nairobi and later in Mombasa, the team at Treepz is also excited to welcome Mr. Samar Patel as its new Country Manager for Treepz Kenya.

Mr. Patel brings on 18 years wealth of sales, transportation and technology experience to the role, having most recently held a similar position with SWVL Kenya.

Under his leadership, it is expected that Treepz Kenya will continue to grow and innovate in the region.

In recent times, Treepz has had a strong focus on vehicle rental service or what the company refers to as Business Treepz. This move has also led to Treepz Kenya signing up a couple of high-profile companies to provide commuting service for their employees or students.

ALSO READ: Treepz Nigeria to Deploy Eco-friendly Buses, Targets 10,000 Passengers within First Month

These companies includes reputable firms like Twiga Foods, Abacus Schools, OAK House School, Diamond Trust Bank, with 20 big-name deals across Kenya in the pipeline.

These partnerships demonstrate the growing demand for Treepz’s innovative solutions especially with vehicle rental services for businesses, and the company is confident that this trend will continue as it expands its reach.

Commenting on the announcement, Co-Founder and CEO of Treepz, Onyeka Akumah, says: “We are thrilled by the addition of Samar to our team and the launch of Treepz Kenya in Nairobi today. This was made possible with the support we received from our current investors amid a turbulent 2022. Also, after winning the GSA African Award in Cape Town last year, we received funding from its funding arm – GIIG Africa Fund and that was also very timely for us. Today, our efforts are focused on building a centralised solution across the 4 countries we operate in and to provide Africans with excellent mobility services, for their personal and business needs. We hope this will be the experience Kenyans will enjoy with our service and remember, as we build a world-class mobility business for Africans and the rest of the world”.

GIIG Africa’s investment into Treepz comes as the startup was named the Africa Winner in the ‘IndustrialTech’ category at the 2022 African Startup Awards – the largest independent startup ecosystem competition on the continent and exclusive vehicle for the GIIG Africa Fund to find, fund and scale Africa’s most innovative startups with Sustainable Development Goal-aligned solutions.

In doing so, GIIG Africa now joins the long list of Treepz’s investment partners, which include the likes of Techstars, Google, Orbit Startups, LoftyInc, Niche Capital, ODBA, Microtraction, Crossfund, Uncovered Funds and Jedar Capital, among others.

While not as widely regarded as sectors such as fintech, mobility tech has attracted significant attention from investors in recent years.

According to the latest ‘Africa Tech Venture Capital’ report by Partech, the vertical accounted for US$ 195 million (or 4%) of total funding for African startups in 2022 – putting it on-par with health-tech (US$181-million) and ahead of the ed-tech and agri-tech sectors (US$97-million and US$86-million respectively).

This figure is expected to grow as demand for transportation increases amid Africa’s booming population growth and rising rates of urbanization.

“You’ve also got to factor in trans-national developments such as the African Continental Free Trade Area,” says Jo Griffiths, Co-Founder of GIIG Africa. “These policies will result in a significant increase in the movement of people, goods and services – and as such – there’s going to be an even greater demand in the coming years for mobility solutions built for the African context. As investors, we’re excited to be working with the team behind Treepz because we see mobility-tech as a key enabling factor for Africa’s socio-economic growth. For now, we look forward to supporting their efforts aimed at empowering Kenyan commuters.”

In a bid to fast-track the impact of technology on African growth, Griffiths adds that applications to the next round of the African Startup Awards are now open, with innovators from across the continent encouraged to apply before 26 February 2023, for their chance to receive funding from the GIIG Africa Fund.