Maad, a B2B e-commerce startup based in Senegal, has secured $ 3.2 million debt-equity funding to bolster its growth in the western Africa country and to explore fresh opportunities in the wider Francophone region. The seed round was led by Ventures Platform, with participation from Seedstars International Ventures, Reflect Ventures, Oui Capital, Launch Africa, Voltron […]
Amazon finally puts down e-commerce roots in Africa
Amazon’s highly awaited entry into Africa has come to fruition, with the tech giant announcing the launch of its e-commerce marketplace in South Africa on Tuesday. The e-commerce giant revealed in a statement that its localized platform, Amazon.co.za, will provide customers with access to a wide array of local and international brands spanning 20 product […]
MarketForce winds down its B2B e-commerce arm
Kenyan B2B e-commerce company MarketForce is winding down its B2B e-commerce business that served informal merchants (mom-and-pop stores) after a turbulent two-year period that saw it scale down operations severely. The shutdown of the B2B e-commerce arm dubbed RejaReja comes months after MarketForce withdrew the service from all its markets, including Nigeria and Kenya, save […]
African B2B e-commerce giant Wasoko marked down to $260M after VC halves stake
VNV Global, a Swedish investment firm that backs startups in mobility, health and marketplaces, slashed the value of its holding in Wasoko, an African B2B e-commerce startup, by 48%, according to its annual report for 2023. In its annual report, VNV set Wasoko’s fair value at around $ 260 million as of December 2023, the month […]
Meet Uzbekistan’s first unicorn: e-commerce startup Uzum
Uzum, an e-commerce startup offering online shopping, fintech and food deliveries to millions of customers in Uzbekistan, has raised $ 114 million in funding, becoming the country’s first unicorn with a valuation of $ 1.16 billion. Uzbekistan is fertile ground for startups, given the fact that people aged below 30 constitute about 60% of its […]