Nigerian B2B ecommerce startup, Betastore, announced that it has raised $2.5 million to expand to 3 new countries – Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cameroon – before the end of this year.
The pre-series funding round has 500 Global, VestedWorld, and Loyal VC as key investors. To date, the startup has raised $3 million.
Founded in 2020 by CEO, Steve Dakayi-Kamga and Leo-Armel Tchoudjang, Betastore adds value by providing informal retail outlets access to to the widest assortment of FMCG goods at wholesale price. It estimates that there are more than 10 million informal retail outlets representing more than 90% of the total trade of essential goods and in Nigeria alone, there are more than 1,500,000 outlets selling more than $12 billion worth of FMCG goods.
Betastore also delivers to the retailers’ stores so they don’t need to close their shops to go to the open markets and visit tens of suppliers to source for basic goods.
Other players in the same industry include Marketforce who recently secured $40million in a Series A funding round and just recently Namibian JABU who recently announced that it raised $15million in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global.
Betastore has attended to over 20,000 orders and distributed over 140,000 essential goods. It prides itself in which keeping the prices of the products competitive by eliminating interactions with sales agents and working with logistics partners to ensure the delivery of goods within 24 hours.
Apart from the new markets it plans to enter before the end of the year, Betastore intends to expand to 100 cities across Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal. It is also planning to reinforce its technology and leadership teams, and to bring in new products and to improve existing ones.
According to Amit Bhatti, a principal at 500 Global, “We believe Betastore’s talented team is creating market efficiencies that have the potential to boost the growth of Africa’s retailers. With Betastore, merchants can get greater transparency into wholesaler inventories and price points.”
