MarketForce Completes $40 Million in Series A Funding

MarketForce, a Nairobi-based B2B platform for consumer goods retail distribution and digital financial services in Africa, has closed a $40 million Series A funding round, the largest of its kind in East and Central Africa.

The funding comes seven months after the company closed on a pre-Series A round.

The round was led by V8 Capital Partners, a London-based African-focused investment firm, with Ten13 VC, SOSV Select Fund, Vu Ventures, Vastly Valuable Ventures, and Uncovered Fund joining existing investors Reflect Ventures, Greenhouse Capital, Century Oak Capital, and Remapped Ventures.

Ken Njoroge, Cellulant’s cofounder and former CEO, was also a part of the round and will serve as Chairman of the board.

The oversubscribed round included a mix of equity and debt.

MarketForce is a leading B2B Commerce and Fintech marketplace that enables African informal merchants to order, pay, and receive inventory digitally and conveniently, access financing, collect digital payments, and earn extra money by reselling digital financial services such as airtime, electricity tokens, and bill payments. Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti co-founded it in 2018.

MarketForce employs an asset-light operating strategy and is now present in five markets (Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda) with the RejaReja merchant super app, which offers next-day delivery for hundreds of SKUs from major FMCG brands to informal merchants.

MarketForce had about 5,000 customers a year ago; it has now more than doubled to 100,000, with the average transaction size tripling and revenue increasing 27x in the same time period.

“Our mission is to be the ultimate partner for informal merchants, empowering them to maximize their profits and grow in the digital age by providing better service, assortment, and access to new revenue opportunities, and equipping them with the technology and support they need to transform themselves from simple FMCG outlets to comprehensive financial service hubs for the continent’s last-mile communities,” said MarketForce Cofounder and CEO Tesh Mbaabu. “By 2025, we hope to have over 1 million active merchants on our platform in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

MarketForce plans to use this round of funding to scale merchant inventory financing through a BNPL offering, expand deeper into existing markets, and provide more digital financial and banking services through its extensive merchant network. MarketForce currently employs 400 people and intends to more than double that number by the end of 2022.