Nigerian Startup TradeDepot Raises $110M To Foster Growth Across Africa
Dec. 8, 2021, 6:25 p.m.
TradeDepot is a Nigerian B2B e-commerce and embedded finance platform that connects consumer goods brands in Africa directly to thousands of retailers and helps with distribution.
Founded in 2016, its ShopTopUp platform offers a broad range of consumer goods to SME retailers within its network. It provides credit lines to enable these retailers to access inventory and pay in instalments as they sell to their customers.
TradeDepot, to foster its growth, has raised $110M in equity and debt funding as it looks to bring in more retail stores and expand its buy now, pay later service across the continent. TradeDepot’s Series B round is the largest for any B2B e-commerce platform in Africa at the moment, both in equity and debt.
IFC led the round while Novastar, Sahel Capital, CDC Group, Endeavor Catalyst and existing investors Partech and MSA Capital participated. The debt funding was led by Arcadia Funds, a lender that specialises in P2P and marketplace lending and insurance-linked securities.
As part of the round, Wale Ayeni, the head of Africa Venture Capital Investment for IFC and Brian Odhiambo, the West Africa director of Novastar Ventures, will join TradeDepot’s board.
With active operations in 12 cities across Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, the funding will expedite the delivery of its buy-now-pay-later service to more retailers, increasing penetration for consumer goods brands and driving prosperity in one of the continent’s most critical sectors.
“Four or five years ago, if you were having a conversation with an investor, there was a lot of education required to convince them why this was an opportunity and why they should come on board,” said the CEO Onyekachi Izukann.
Submit your news stories, articles or press releases to editor@digitaltimes.africa
Or
“I think what we’re seeing is that the market is now awake to that opportunity. You have more parties, especially several serious ones coming in and trying to help build this. There’s a lot of iteration required to figure out the models that work. And more parties that you find hacking at this kind of speeds up innovation within the space, so that’s super useful.
“We remain super focused on making digital commerce and financing both accessible and affordable to neighbourhood retailers across key cities in Africa. We are delighted to be joined by an elite group of new investors and have IFC’s Wale Ayeni and Brian Odhambo of Novastar joining our board of directors to support us on this journey to drive growth and prosperity across the continent.”
“The informal sector is a large and critical part of Africa’s economy, accounting for around 80 per cent of jobs in the region,” said Makhtar Diop, IFC’s managing director. “We are excited to work with TradeDepot to leverage technology to help small businesses across the continent, particularly the many retailers led by women, access the resources they need to grow and scale.”
tag: Africa, Funding, Series B, Startup, Nigeria, b2b,
Verny Joy Author
Verny loves to write poetry, fiction and quotes. Her love for writing landed her in journalism. She loves gadgets and travelling to explore new places.