Nigeria’s B2B Marketplace Sabi Raises $6 Million in Funding

Africa’s leading B2B marketplace serving the informal sector, Sabi, has raised a US$6 million bridge round led by CRE Venture Capital to support its continued fast-paced growth in Nigeria and beyond.

Sabi which began operations in Nigeria over a year ago and recently expanded to Kenya serves Nigeria’s $244 billion informal trade sector by providing the digital infrastructure to help SMEs grow their businesses.

The platform which announced it has reached 150, 000 small businesses in August now has more than 175,000 merchants using its platform to manage their businesses and make B2B transactions. Merchants are transacting at over a US$100 million GMV annualized rate on Sabi’s platform.

The company has more than 10,000 agents who interact with merchants across all 36 Nigerian states, delivering the online and offline support needed to properly service the over 41 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in Nigeria alone that can benefit from the Sabi platform.

Sabi’s bridge round follows the company’s seed round closed in mid-2020 which also attracted leading international investors including Janngo Capital, Atlantica Ventures, and Waarde Capital. This bridge round financing will help fuel the company’s rapid growth as it eyes new markets including South Africa, which is also home to a multi-billion dollar informal sector.

Anu Adasolum, CEO of Sabi said, “we are excited to have closed this bridge round as Sabi continues to grow at an incredible pace. Our merchant users are taking advantage of every part of our platform, and the quality of the B2B partners we have brought onto the market is clear from the ever-increasing transaction volume.”

Pardon Makumbe, Co-founder & Managing Partner of CRE Venture Capital, added, “CRE Venture Capital is proud to support Sabi’s continued growth across Nigeria and expansion into Kenya and South Africa.

Sabi’s online/offline approach to serving informal businesses, combined with the quality of its platform and service provider curation, has clearly taken root in Nigeria.

Sabi is showing no signs of slowing down as it is on the verge of becoming one of the fastest-growing African companies of 2021.

Ademola Adesina, co-founder of Sabi, while commenting said, “now that Sabi is operational all across Nigeria, we look forward to bringing our solution into new markets with similar informal sector challenges, starting with Kenya and then South Africa. Sabi’s team, platform, and investors are ready to continue scaling Sabi into Africa’s leading B2B marketplace.”