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In a move that is expected to reorganize the supply chain market for informal African retailers, the Kenyan B2B eCommerce company, Sokowatch has obtained an initial investment of $ 2 million .
4DX Ventures are the major players in the latest round of financing as they would be the leaders of recent start-up investment, alongside other investment companies such as Global Village Lynett Capital [19659002] Golden Palm Investments and Outlierz Ventures .
The Kenyan startup prides itself on serving as a true platform through which informal African outlets can connect to major players (local and multinational suppliers), including family names such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble . Sokowatch's business model and model support and facilitate transactions between the two ends of the supply chain by digitizing orders, deliveries and payments to reduce costs and maximize profits for informal retailers African. By virtue of its ideals that incorporate both price and productivity advantages, Sokowatch seems poised to inspire something of a revolution in the structure of the existing African supply chain. As pointed out Daniel Yu founder and CEO of Sokowatch, in an interview with TechCrunch ; "With manufacturers and small stores, we are becoming the connecting layer between them, where previously you had multiple layers of distributors, sub-distributors, wholesalers." The CEO also indicated that "with the current business model and Sokowatch is well placed to reduce the cost of supply of goods by about 20% for these traders.
Yu asserted the uncertainty surrounding the number of small shops on the continent citing a possible lack of reliable information on the subject. However, he anchored the premise of KPMG's 2016 study which estimated that fast-growing spending on consumer goods in Nigeria was worth about $ 41 billion a year, while recalling that part of these goods were being transported. "There are millions of informal shops across African cities that sell hundreds of billions of consumer goods every year," Yu said. The Sokowatch mobile app can be leveraged by these stores to ease the process purchase merchandise directly from major suppliers, as well as to take care of other details that revolve around transportation and payments. According to Yu, the platform even has a feature that allows free and timely delivery of products ordered by SMS or Android.
The CEO also revealed that Sokowatch generates revenue in the form of margins on products sold to merchants. They also benefit on the front of the offer to bundle requests and bundles on distributed products. As stated by Yu, Sokowatch boasts up to 100,000 completed deliveries to its customers in "a few thousand stores" since its inception. As part of its retailer-friendly initiatives, the company also claims to have recently launched a line of credit product that makes working capital available to some of its customers. The latest capital investment of US $ 2 million is expected to support the plans of the B2B e-commerce platform to expand its business to other markets in East Africa from its current bases in Kenya and Tanzania. In the judgment of the Chief Executive Officer, funds will also be channeled towards the introduction of its additional value-added services to retailers.
As part of the funding agreement, Peter Orth co-founder and managing partner at 4DX; Major investors in the seed round should join Sokowatch's board of directors.
Note: This development has been reported for the first time by TechCrunch. Image credit: Sokowatch
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