Jumba, Kenya’s B2B Construction Startup Completes $1M Pre-Seed Funding Round for Expansion

Jumba, a B2B construction technology platform located in Kenya, has raised $1 million in a pre-seed fundraising round to fine-tune its technology and expand its reach to capture markets in Kenya’s main towns.

Seedstars International Ventures, Chandaria Capital, Future Africa, Logos Ventures, First Check Africa, and a number of angel investors participated in the pre-seed round, which was led by Enza Capital.

“We have started to expand our products according to regional demands and the needs of hardware stores,” said Jumba CEO Kagure Wamunyu. The goal is to make Jumba the go-to place for all building products in Kenya and, as we expand, beyond.”

The company was founded in April of this year with the goal of assisting hardware shop (building materials retailer) owners in restocking their stores in a smooth manner. CEO Kagure Wamunyu and Miano Njoka co-founded the company.

“Africa’s populations are fast growing and increasingly urbanizing, and the construction industry is a vital economic engine supporting sustainable growth across Africa,” said Enza Capital managing partner Mike Mompi. We are happy to be financing Kagure and the great team constructing Jumba in a $10 trillion market that has yet to be altered by technology.”

Jumba was inspired by Wamunyu’s experiences as a real estate entrepreneur, where she had to deal with inefficiencies in purchasing building supplies owing to shifting costs and occasional stockouts. Wamunyu, a construction engineer and contractor who assisted Uber in launching its services in Kenya, was also part of the team that helped Kobo360, a logistics tech startup, expand across Africa. Her co-founder, Njoka, is a software developer who had previously partnered with her in real estate ventures.

Wamunyu stated that because Jumba connects manufacturers and retailers, the firm will also ensure that tiny hardware stores are connected to medium-sized ones within their regions, allowing them to readily update their stock and alleviating the need for spatial growth.

“Rather of working with a warehouse model, we will partner with different stores in different neighborhoods who will then be able to support the smaller ones.” “We’ll supply these big companies, and smaller hardware stores will get their products from these sites,” she explained.

Jumba works with manufacturers to negotiate product prices. Resellers can also pay for orders when they are delivered. Wamunyu also plans to introduce the buy now, pay later (BNPL) option, which would allow their top-performing clients to diversify their shares and boost their earnings.

“BNPL can help them stock more,” Wamunyu said. “It is a product that will be presented, but it will be created on the basis of the reseller’s order history.”

Peace Osangir has been hired as Jumba’s CFO to oversee the startup’s finance and risk management. Osangir was previously the COO of payments startup Kopo Kopo and the first finance manager of Mshwari, Kenya’s first mobile lender, which is supported by East Africa’s largest telco Safaricom and regional bank NCBA.