MarketForce, a Nairobi-based B2B platform for consumer goods retail distribution and digital financial services in Africa, has announced the completion of a $40 million Series A investment, the largest of its kind in East and Central Africa. The funding comes seven months after the company completed a pre-Series A financing.
“Our goal is be the ultimate partner for informal merchants, empowering them to maximize their profits and grow in a digital age by getting better service, assortment, and access to new revenue opportunities, outfitting them with the technology and support they need to transform themselves from simple FMCG outlets to comprehensive financial service hubs for the continent’s last-mile communities,” said Tesh Mbaabu, Cofounder and CEO of MarketForce. “We are targeting to serve over 1 million active merchants on our platform in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2025.”
Ten13 VC, SOSV Select Fund, Vu Ventures, Vastly Valuable Ventures, Uncovered Fund, and a number of existing investors, including Reflect Ventures, Greenhouse Capital, Century Oak Capital, and Remapped Ventures, participated in the round, which was led by V8 Capital Partners, a London and Lagos-based African-focused investment vehicle.
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Ken Njoroge, the cofounder and previous CEO of Cellulant, was also a part of the round and will serve as Chairman of the board. There was a mix of equity and debt in the oversubscribed round.
MarketForce intends to use this round of funding to scale merchant inventory financing via a BNPL offering, expand deeper into existing markets, and provide more digital financial and banking services through its broad merchant network. MarketForce already employs 400 people and plans to quadruple that number by the end of the year.
Why The Investors Invested
The startup has generated considerable traction since its last funding. MarketForce had roughly 5,000 customers a year ago; currently, it has more than twenty-folded to 100,000 merchants, executing 6,000 daily transactions, with the average transaction size tripling and revenue increasing 27x.
“Marketforce demonstrates what we see as a triple threat with regards to returns. A strong executive team with an amazing track record, an expansive untapped market of informal retailers across the continent and a business model that scales extremely quickly. We are proud to partner with Tesh and Mesongo in accelerating the digitization of the African retail ecosystem which will help improve the lives of millions of informal african merchants,” said Tobi Oke, General Partner at V8 Capital and member of the MarketForce board.
A Look At What The Startup Does
MarketForce is a leading B2B Commerce and Fintech marketplace that enables informal merchants in Africa to order, pay, and receive inventory digitally and conveniently, access financing, collect digital payments, and make extra money by reselling digital financial services such as airtime, electricity tokens, and bill payments. It was co-founded in 2018 by Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti.
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MarketForce uses an asset-light operating strategy and is now active in five markets (Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda) with the RejaReja merchant super app, which provides informal merchants with next-day delivery for hundreds of SKUs from big FMCG brands.
MarketForce monetizes on the supplier side by providing FMCGs with real-time market research dashboards. Nestle, Pepsi, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Bidco Africa, Chandaria Industries, Kapa Oil, Safaricom, Cellulant, Lami, and Pezesha are just a few of the leading consumer brands and financial service providers MarketForce works with.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer