Sokowatch rebrands to Wasoko; raises $125m in a series B round

Sokowatch, an Africa based B2B e-commerce company, announced that it has raised $125 million in a series B funding round led by by Tiger Global, the world’s largest venture capital firm, and Avenir Growth Capital. Other participants include VNV Global, Binny Bansal (Co-Founder of Flipkart) and Sujeet Kumar (Co-Founder of Udaan), as well as existing investors Quona Capital, 4DX Ventures and JAM Fund. 

This founding round is coming two years after it raised $14 million in a series A round from Quona Capital, Amplo, Breyer Capital, Vertex Ventures, Timon Capital and 4DX Ventures.

The company also announced that it has rebranded to Wasoko, which translates to “People of the Market” in Swahili. According to the company, the new brand reinforces the company’s shift from its origins as a backend distribution software platform in East Africa to a public brand providing free delivery of essential goods and working capital financing to informal retailers across opposite ends of the African continent.

The funding round also coincided with the officially launch of its operations in West Africa, specifically in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and Dakar, Senegal.

Since its launch in 2016 by founder and CEO Daniel Yu, Wasoko claims it has delivered 2.5 million orders to over 50,000 informal retailers across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal with revenue growth over the past 12 months at over 500%. It started out as an asset-light platform and a marketplace for distributing fast-moving consumer goods from suppliers to retailers

Wasoko intends to drive further geographic expansion and product growth across the continent with this new funding. The company is exploring expansion into Nigeria and Southern Africa, while continuing to consolidate its market-leading position across its six current countries. Wasoko is also examining opportunities to expand its product offering to verticals such as merchant point-of-sales systems, bill payments, and social commerce through both internal innovation as well as strategic investments and acquisitions of relevant companies.

Daniel Yu, CEO and Founder of Wasoko, said, “After more than six years building and constantly iterating on our operations, we are proud to have demonstrated the traction and quality of business required to raise funding from world-class investors. We’re fully focused on leveraging their strategic support to build one of the biggest e-commerce companies in the world and transform access to goods and services for African citizens across every corner of the continent.” 

Andrew Sugrue, Founding Partner at Avenir Growth Capital, adds “Informal retailers capture the vast majority of consumer spend in Africa, and they are dramatically underserved by existing distribution and financial infrastructure. We’re excited about the category-defining, Pan-African commerce platform Wasoko is building and the efficiencies it brings to these retailers and their suppliers through a combination of superior product selection, logistics, and financial services.”

With the rebrand, Wasoko has appointed Sujeet Kumar, Co-Founder of Udaan – the world’s largest B2B retail e-commerce company – to its Board of Directors to provide strategic guidance for Wasoko’s continued growth. It has also made several transformative appointments to its senior leadership team including Mellany Msengezi (ex Airtel) as Head of Marketing; Aurelien Barreau (ex Carrefour) as Head of Sourcing; and Georges Bejjani (ex Jumia) as Head of Business Intelligence.