Jumba, a Kenyan B2B construction tech startup which allows construction material sellers (known as hardware stores in the area) to replenish and real estate developers to acquire the resources they need for their projects, has received $4.5 million in seed capital.
LocalGlobe led the investment, which also included Enza Capital, which led a $1 million pre-seed round last year, Foundamental, Seedstars International Ventures, Logos Ventures, SpeedInvest, First Check Africa, and Alumni Angel Network.
Jumba, has gained clients in major areas of the East African country less than a year after its inception, demonstrating the company’s rapid development over the previous ten months.
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A Look At What The Startup Does
Jumba, which Wamunyu co-founded with Miano Njoka (CTO), began by servicing shops but later began distributing building supplies to developers, which Wamunyu believes was influenced by demand.
“We realized that the need is not only with the hardware stores, it’s also with the developers because they were also requesting the products from us,” she said.
Jumba streamlines the acquisition of building materials for merchants and developers by providing a centralised marketplace that eliminates the hassle of dealing with different vendors.
Consumers access items through its web platform, but its network of sales professionals in several countries also assists with client sourcing. Jumba then bargains with manufacturers for reduced costs (plus their markup).
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“Ours is a one stop shop, we manage the sourcing, and logistics headache. By using our platform, they also have access to their documents and invoices, for them to reconcile,” said Wamunyu, a civil engineer and contractor, who in the past also helped Uber and Kobo360 scale their services in Africa.
“We run in-house logistics as one of the ways we create efficiencies to deliver for people in a way that is not so expensive for them to access goods.”
The business is also addressing the issue of store financing with short-term financing supported by its bank partners, with ambitions to extend long-term loans to developers as well.
“Retailers can access financing through services like buy-now-pay-later from our bank partners. Construction sites will also have the ability to get the materials to complete the works in the near future,” said Wamunyu adding that, “We put a lot of emphasis on understanding the customer, and what they need, their pain points, and then tailor our products to fit them. We are doing this so that we can unlock access, and cash flow.”
Jumba is targeting Kenya’s construction industry, which is likely to develop further due to big infrastructure projects. Moreover, Wamunyu says she is encouraged to keep tackling the sector’s issues in the goal of closing Kenya’s 80% housing shortfall.
“With our B2B marketplace our vision still remains verticalization in construction, and solving the problems in the sector. Kenya will remain our core market, the opportunity is massive here. We plan to scale in this market to acquire more customers before we explore the next market,” she said.
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Kagure Wamunyu, co-founder and CEO, stated that the firm, which presently covers 60% of Kenya’s 47 counties, is expanding its operations across the country to meet the rising need for building supplies.
“We are growing very fast, and our problem has always been that we have way more demand than we can meet,” said Wamunyu. “Most of our customers are in counties beyond the capital, Nairobi, and the reason is that manufacturing is centralized in Nairobi, but customers are located throughout the country, and that is where we come in because we help with distribution,” she said.
By the end of last year, the firm claimed three times quarterly growth.
Jumba construction Kenya Jumba construction Kenya
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard