The social commerce platform plans for national expansion starting with the capital of Kenya, Nairobi
Kenya-based social commerce platform, Tushop is all set for expanding operations across Nairobi with the recently raised $3 million in pre-seed funding round spearheaded by 4DX Ventures.
The funding round also involved participants including Chandaria Capital, JAM Fund, TO Ventures, FirstCheck Africa, Breyer Capital, Golden Palm Investments, and DFS Lab, while Wasoko – formerly known as Sokowatch – made its first strategic institutional investment in the start-up.
Additionally, a group of angel investors – Logos Ventures founder Raja Kaul; Eli Pollak CEO of Apollo Agriculture; Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Aboola; and Ida Mannoh, Director of Growth at Chipper Cash — also participated in the pre-seed round.
Speaking on the expansion goal, Cathy Chepkemboi, Founder and CEO of Tushop, mentioned that the platform plans to ramp up business in Nairobi necessitating more warehouses and delivery trucks, since it is an operationally intensive business.
Chepkemboi added that the platform is also scaling up hiring, technology improvements, and modified channels for a better overall experience for agents.
Peter Orth, Managing Partner of 4DX Ventures, quoted that Tushop is well-positioned to display greater potential for growth, with Cathy Chepkemboi as the right founder for providing her deep expertise in the market.
The venture capital firm is betting on the existing team of strong investors and advisors to direct Tushop in the right direction of becoming a dominant player in the group-buying segment in Africa.
Founded in 2021, Tushop enables group buying of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) using community leaders, who facilitate last-mile deliveries and collect orders from neighbors.
Typically, neighbors can drop their orders at the virtual shop of each community leader, after which Tushop aggregates it into bulk orders and connects with relevant manufacturers or other FMCG producers like farmers.
Tushop claims that it helps shoppers save up to 60% without compromising on the sales commissions earned by agents.
Source Credit: https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/31/social-commerce-platform-tushop-set-for-kenya-growth-after-raising-3-million-pre-seed-funding/