Sam Chappatte - Afrikan Heroes

Kenyan Social Commerce Startup Kapu, Emerges From Stealth With $8M Funding

December 6, 2022

With $8 million in venture funding, Kapu, a social commerce business that just came out of stealth, aims to make buying food easier for Kenyan consumers, many of whom are struggling with skyrocketing food prices.

Giant Ventures and Firstminute Capital jointly led the seed round, which also included Founder Collective, Base Capital, Norrsken (co-founder of Klarna Niklas Adalberth’s fund), and Raven One. They join Kapu’s original backers, which also included the co-founders of the Indian startup Meesho and the Brazilian startup Facily, many African family offices, Twitter’s Biz Stone, Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen, Monzo’s Tom Blomfield, and serial entrepreneur Alexander Rittweger.

Sam Endacott, partner at Firstminute Capital, said in a statement: “Sam is deeply experienced in both the e-commerce and logistics category and we are thrilled to partner with him and the entire Kapu team to help alleviate the cost of living crisis on the Continent for consumers, unlock social mobility and drive growth for SMEs in the region.”

A Look At What The Startup Does

Sam Chappatte, the founder of Kapu and a former executive vice president of Jumia Group, claimed that since the company’s launch in January of this year, it has been developing a B2C e-commerce service that allows customers to purchase groceries at lower prices through both online and offline channels.

The firm is currently growing the number of regional representatives with whom customers may place purchases. Soon, WhatsApp orders will be supported as well. Kapu, which facilitates group bulk grocery purchases by sourcing directly from growers and manufacturers, claims to help consumers save 30% on the cost of fresh produce and packaged items.

“People spending like 40 to 50% of their household income on the grocery basket is a big problem for society, but it is also a huge opportunity … The reason we started Kapu is that we think that there is a more relevant model of e-commerce that can be built to target the grocery basket, which is the biggest portion of spend for the vast majority of consumers. And if by using technology we can bring efficiency then we can have a tremendous impact on society for consumers and businesses,” Chappate said.

According to Kapu, there are 1,500 agent collection centres spread out across Nairobi. In its next phase of growth, the company plans to work to fully penetrate Kenya’s capital before pursuing new markets.

Customers place orders with Kapu’s agents, who are typically stationed in residential areas, and deliveries are made the following day.

“Customers receive a notification from Kapu and also from the agents, to go pick up their goods. Many agents also deliver to consumers’ homes,” said Chappate.

The physical channel (via agents) and online direct to consumer (through WhatsApp) formats, according to Kapu, are tailored to the Kenyan market where social commerce is showing promise but e-commerce has not yet taken off.

According to Global Web Index’s 2020 Social Media User Trends Report, Kenya has one of the highest percentages of monthly WhatsApp users in the world. This is occurring as the popularity of the social commerce sector soars in the region as the shift toward online buying follows the Covid pandemic.

Kapu has joined the increasing group of businesses, such as Tushop, which debuted a year ago, that are digitising Kenya’s unorganised retail market. Through agents and WhatsApp, Kapu and Tushop both support group food supply purchases.

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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. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh

COVID-19: Twiga Foods Partners With Jumia To Deliver Kenyan Online Shoppers Fresh Produce

April 25, 2020

Sam Chappatte, Jumia Kenya’s chief executive

Twiga Foods, the Kenyan startup that delivers fruits and vegetable to customers is obviously trying to squeeze out every business opportunity occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic. It has partnered with African e-commerce giant Jumia Kenya to further expand their distribution capacities in the wake of movement restrictions as part of measures taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

“Our partnership with Twiga will allow customers to shop on Jumia for the fruits and vegetables they need. We are offering same-day free delivery on the platform in Nairobi. And will save customers money as Twiga cuts out the middlemen by buying directly from smallholder farmers across the country,” said Sam Chappatte, Jumia Kenya’s chief executive.

Here Is All You Need To Know

The distribution deal will allow online shoppers to order for fresh farm produce and processed foodstuffs from Twiga Foods on Jumia’s platform.
Pre-packed bundles will cost between Sh1,230 to Sh3,180 ($12 to $30) and consist of items such as watermelon, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, bananas, maize meal and processed milk.
The partnership will leverage on Twiga’s existing infrastructure and Jumia’s extensive e-commerce platform and logistics network to make home deliveries across Nairobi’s suburbs.
Twiga has depots in Dagoretti, Donholm, Embakasi, Thome, Ruaka, Kaloleni, Nairobi West, Syokimau, Waiyaki Way and Kilimani.
Twiga Foods sources farm produce from more than 15,000 producers and delivers to over 5,000 retailers a day.
The firms said that by bringing their capabilities together, they aim to offer an unrivalled delivery service for food, providing fresh, high quality products directly to people’s homes across Nairobi.

“Our vision as a company has been to lower the amount of money consumers are spending on food. Through this partnership, we will pass on to consumers the price benefit of sourcing directly from farmers and food manufacturers. Case in point is our Twiga Fresh bundle that offers a 50 percent discount to the prevailing market prices,” said Twiga Food Chief Executive Officer Mr Peter Njonjo.

A Look At What Twiga Foods Does

Twiga Foods is going after the Kenyan food sector to break the jinx of inefficiencies presently in the sector, and to ensure that the limited resources available in Kenya’s agricultural sector are well-utilised.

Its simple business model is to aggregate all food retailers and dealers, from the banana vendors buying in bulk to the avocado retailers selling in stock, and then connecting them to Kenyan farmers producing quality farm produce. This is a classic example of a business-to-business (B2B) model, so that vendors looking to purchase agricultural produce don’t have to travel miles to meet local producers of the produce, thereby saving them the transportation and logistics cost, increasing the productivity and demand for the produce of the farmers, at the same time reducing food waste.

These metrics are what TLCom Capital looked out for when it invested in Twiga Foods.

“TLcom’s general investment thesis for Africa is that given the high penetration of mobile, there are very large markets where demand is already proven and technology can play a true role in offering a superior value proposition over existing solutions,” said Ido Sum, partner at TLCom Capital which syndicated Twiga Foods’ recent $30 million fund raising led by Goldman Sachs.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

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.