Led by Tiger Global, Africa’s largest B2B eCommerce company Wasoko secures $125M Series B Round to expand operations in West Africa
The close of a $125million Series B round is the largest funding round raised in Africa for a non-fintech startup.
Sokowatch is also rebranding to “Wasoko”, which is Swahili for “People of the Market”.
Sokowatch, Africa’s largest B2B e-commerce company, has announced the close of a $125million Series B round in full equity – this is the largest venture financing round raised in Africa for a non-fintech startup.
The investment was co-led by Tiger Global and Avenir Growth and features new investors – VNV Global, Binny Bansal (Co-Founder at Flipkart) and Sujeet Kumar (Co-Founder at Udaan) as well as existing investors Quona Capital, 4DX Ventures and JAM Fund.
In addition to its current markets in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, the company is expanding to Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal – its first expansion into West Africa and is rebranding to “Wasoko”, which is Swahili for “People of the Market”. The new name reinforces the company’s transition from a back-end distribution software platform in East Africa to a market-facing Pan-African brand that directly empowers over 50,000 informal retailers.
Since its launch in 2016, Wasoko has delivered 2.5 million orders to over 50,000 informal retailers across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal with revenue growth over the past 12 months at over 500%. With no single country accounting for a majority of its revenue, Wasoko has built a truly Pan-African business with more than 800 full-time employees across the African continent, all of whom are also shareholders in the company through Wasoko’s universal employee equity policy. Wasoko The new capital will enable Wasoko to drive further geographic expansion and product growth across the continent. The company is exploring expansion into Nigeria and Southern Africa, while consolidating its market-leading position across its six current countries. Wasoko is also examining opportunities to expand its […]
Click here to view original web page at africa.businessinsider.com
I am a robot. This article is curated from another source (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). For the complete article please use the link provided to visit the original source or author. Content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
Warning: The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of MichelPaquin.com.