Namibian startup Jabu, which has expanded its operations in barely two years into South Africa and Zambia, has announced plans to enter the Botswana market before year end.
“We are in six towns in Namibia, while also rolled out operations in Johannesburg, South Africa and Lusaka, Zambia, growing to full scale. While further plans are underway to have a branch in Botswana. Currently our Botswana operations are being setup, with training underway; so in a couple of weeks or so, we should be able to do a soft launch,” Jabu Founder David Akinin told The Brief in an exclusive interview.
Akinin said the Botswana venture was made possible through engagements at the World Economic Forum in Geneva as well as the World Investment Conference, where the team was invited by the Namibian government, through the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board to promote and attract investors.
“It is at these platforms where we engaged in fruitful conversations with various governments, including that of Lesotho, Zambia and Botswana. However, there is a lot more to do in South Africa still, and in Namibia, which remains our stronghold and diverse client reserve,” he said, adding the company has continued to grow both operations and workforce, now boasting a 300-employee base.
Akinin says the company is working on centralising its operations in Namibia, upon finalisation of policy and compliance issues, such as visas for its diverse employees.
“The completion of such matters will allow our employees to travel in the country and contribute meaningly to the economy for the duration of their stay. The question is how many of those staff members currently working abroad are able to come to Namibia to invest part of their remuneration? So, that is the big question to look at when talking about centralisation.
“Once things are off the ground and moving definitely that is the aim. We are going to do our part in continuum to boost the Namibian economy,” stressed Akinin whose company deals with product procurement and delivery for SMEs.
He said despite its ongoing aggressive expansion plans, the company had no listing plans.
“No way! We have not started dreams of going public, neither exiting nor selling. We are building a massive company, we are still able to raise a significant amount of capital in the private markets in the next couple of rounds, so I don’t see the need at all to be listed anytime soon. Anyway, it will depend on our growth, for now we are committed to raising our series B and hopefully a series C, as we shall continue capitalising our company,” Akinin told The Brief.
“Usually, companies list in order to raise capital. We do raise capital, but in the private markets with investors who are thoughtful about our business strategy. We will continue doing so until that pool of capital runs out, thus the private market is our solution for the next two to three years. As we speak, we are well capitalised, yet thoughtful. We are thoughtful in a sense that we don’t want to spend money anyhow, for the sake of growth and investment. We are growing very fast, and we think that there is no need for a capital raise anytime soon, but surely we will be raising another round, in order to continue scaling our products and stretching our footprint. But it is no way near this year.”
Jabu’s Director of Product Kevin Hassan Abadi said the startup was in the process of transcending into digital trading as part of its business expansion, in which it will introduce J-Wallet as a form of trading between its customers, developments which are subject to prior obtaining regulatory approval from the Bank of Namibia and Bank of Zambia.
“J-Wallet will be a wallet for all, if you feel you want your credit transferred into your personal account at any of the banks, that will be done. We have realised customers have a lot of hard cash on them, which sometimes leaves them in vulnerable states of using the funds unnecessarily, therefore the sooner they digitise the money the more chances of using it wisely. Hence it is our goal to reduce the amount of hard cash,” Hassan said.
“So far we have done market research, where we are receiving feedback from the public as we identify all the bottlenecks- it is a development that is widely welcomed. We have a good relationship with the banks who we shall be closely working together with, including Multichoice and MTC services, such as paying for GoTv, DSTV and Airtime service, respectively.”
