Sky.Garden, a Kenyan eCommerce marketplace, raises $4m to accelerate growth

Sky.Garden, a Kenyan-based eCommerce marketplace, announced that it has raised $4m to accelerate growth. The Series A funding round featured SANAD Fund for MSME, Aavishkaar, UNCOVERED FUND and KSK Angel Fund. With the $1.8m raised in 2017, it has now raised a total of $5.8 million.

Founded in 2017 by Christian Grubak and Martin Majlund, Sky.Garden is SaaS ecommerce platform that helps retail stores digitize offline and online sales.

Sky.Garden believes it is solving two fundamental problems in Kenya –

• Many businesses running in informal marketplaces don’t have a sophisticated eCommerce platform that they can use to expand their geographic reach;
• The high cost of distribution

So Sky.Garden is positioned to address these issues to bring in as many businesses – formal and informal – into the digital age. It gives them the power to manage their online inventory just as they would in their physical store. With the Sky.Garden app, business owners can upload as much inventory as they want, specify how many of each is in stock, adjust prices as they wish, change photos and even add product variations. All under one application.

According to Martin Majlund, chief executive officer (CEO) of Sky.Garden, “Sky.Garden’s sole focus is to provide African sellers with best-in-class technology to access and reap the benefits of online commerce. This investment round will allow Sky.Garden to drive impact at scale. I’m looking forward to an exciting new chapter with these great partners pioneering e-commerce with the African entrepreneur in mind.”

“The pandemic has underscored the importance of digital solutions in ensuring flexible, sustainable operations for entrepreneurs. We are very pleased to be joining forces with Sky.Garden, an impactful company expanding access to the benefits of e-commerce to the locally owned businesses that drive the engine of the economy and are at the core of SANAD’s mission. With an investment into Sky.Garden, we will also enable technology transfer for the benefit of entrepreneurs in the region,” said SANAD board chairperson Dr Daniela Beckmann.