Namibian business to business e-commerce startup JABU has confirmed that it has raised a N$50.6 million (U$3.2 million) financing round.
The seed round, which was closed last year, welcomed new investors such as Afore Capital, Pareto Capital and unnamed angels.
As a last-mile distribution e-commerce company, JABU joins a list of startups across the continent that help small retailers order and stock their products and, at the same time, provide data-driven services to suppliers and manufacturers.
CEO David Akinin founded JABU in mid-2020 to fix Namibia’s inefficient and almost nonexistent supply chain and distribution.
Its platform connects over 6,000 retailers to local and multinational suppliers such as Namibia Breweries Limited, Bokomo, Coca-Cola, Namibmills and digitizes orders, payments and logistics.
The Namibian startup has its fleet of vehicles along with eight distribution centers. Suppliers using the platform have dashboards to see where their products are being delivered, check key performance indicators and book merchandising. They can also make advertising and marketing campaigns at shops, perform product giveaways and tap into merchandising revenue.
The company operates in three cities in Namibia and recently expanded into two Zambian cities. Its monthly gross merchandise value has grown 25 times and the average growth of delivered stock keeping unit stands at nearly 53% monthly since March. The company said that revenue has also seen a 35 times growth within the same time frame.
As with most African countries, Namibia is heavily reliant on cash. And JABU profiting from owning its supply chain is making efforts to digitize its physical cash collection processes via wallets.
When the money from retailers arrives at JABU distribution centers, it typically takes 48 hours to settle into the banks. Instead of going through this mundane process, JABU’s wallets will allow merchants to deposit and withdraw money immediately in sync with these centers.
“Our volumes growth grew so much and we’ve picked up so much money in physical currency, the banks and others have sat down and said, ‘How can we fix this?’ I mean, we went from having a couple R100,000 (rands) a week to having millions of Namibian dollars. And we realized there’s something better and bigger than we originally tapped into,” Akinin said about why the company is creating wallets for its merchants.
Akinin said the next stage of JABU’s wallet system would see merchants offering other services to consumers on top of their digitized cash.
“The only way to do that is by partnering with the merchants, and they go through a [know your customer] process, we make sure the merchants have the right space and the right account to back their float. And then they transact with their customers. So we’re entering the business to business to consumer space through the merchants that we work with,” he said.
JABU’s revenue largely comes from distribution it carries out itself or via third-party fleets. Merchandising and targeted marketing and advertising also bring in bucks for the company. It will take commissions from transactions performed on merchants’ wallets in the future.
Akinin, who had a stint at Google as a sales and goods analyst, also spent parts of his professional career as an investment banker at Credit Suisse. He would later make a series of visits to top African cities like Johannesburg, Lagos and Addis Ababa, but it was in Windhoek that he found the spark to try something new.
JABU, with more than 200 employees, is gearing for a Series A fundraising this quarter, Akinin said. The startup will use the seed round and subsequent growth round to expand into Botswana and South Africa, grow its tech and operations team, and train its field agents.-TechCrunch
