TradeDepot, a Business to Business (B2B) eCommerce and embedded finance platform in Africa, has raised $110million in an equity and debt funding round to support the delivery of ‘Buy-Now-Pay-Later’ services to 5million Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) retailers across the continent.
The fund also seeks to drive further expansion of StartUp’s merchant platform.
The Series B equity round was led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – a member of the World Bank Group, with participation from Novastar, Sahel Capital, CDC Group, Endeavor Catalyst and existing investors, Partech and MSA Capital. The debt funding was led by Arcadia Funds.
Through its ShopTopUp platform, TradeDepot offers a broad range of consumer goods to SME retailers within its network and provides credit lines to enable the retailers to access inventory and pay in installments as they sell on to their own customers.
Commenting on the new funding, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of TradeDepot, Onyekachi Izukanne pointed out that Africa’s SME retailers generate $1trillion in sales annually and contribute $2.6trillion to the continent’s nominal GDP, but a fragmented distribution network and lack of access to financing have led to inefficiencies in distribution and many missed opportunities across the value chain.
The new funding according to Izukanne will expedite the delivery of the service to more retailers, increasing penetration for consumer goods brands and driving prosperity in one of the continent’s most critical sectors.
With active operations in 12 cities across Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, TradeDepot leverages its data, technology and robust logistics operations to connect retailers with suppliers and unlock financing to fund inventory purchases for retailers, enabling increased sales, higher margins and other value-added services for all parties.
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