$1.8 M raised by Nigerian e-commerce fulfilment startup Sendbox in seed funding round
Sendbox, a Nigerian e-commerce fulfilment firm, has secured US $1.8 million in initial investment to assist small-scale merchants to get access to new markets and developing West Africa’s e-commerce operating system.
Sendbox is an e-commerce fulfilment platform for African merchants that provides inexpensive local and international deliveries for small-scale enterprises that sell online and on social media platforms but lack delivery skills. It was launched in 2018. Over 10,000 merchants sell on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, and the firm has made over 200,000 deliveries.
The firm also provides a solution for merchants that lack the huge volume necessary to qualify for lower delivery rates through its delivery management platform, which combines logistics providers and allows tracking. The company’s next stage of development will focus on finance and payments, followed by e-commerce and marketplace integrations across West Africa and beyond.
This will be financed by a US $1.8 million seed round led by 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs, Golden Palm Investments, Flexport, and Y Combinator, with the latter coming after the business participated in the Winter 2021 batch of the accelerator. Following a pre-seed round from Microtraction and 4DX Ventures in 2018, Sendbox’s total financing has now surpassed US $2 million.
The fresh funds will be used to extend the company’s activities in other West African nations, enhance product development, and recruit new personnel.
“No matter where in the world customers are, we want African SMEs to be able to reach them,” said Emotu Balogun, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Sendbox.
“Deliveries in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan have made up a large proportion of business for our domestic merchants. On top of that, affordable access to the UK, EU, US and Canada has created an opportunity to sell products to hundreds of millions of previously unreachable buyers. With this fundraise our aim is to support more and more SMEs and help them grow both locally and internationally, scaling alongside them as we connect African merchants with a global community of consumers.”
African e-commerce is expanding faster than anybody could have predicted a decade ago, according to Walter Baddoo, co-founder and general partner at 4DX Ventures, and innovative solutions are needed to ensure that logistics and fulfilment capacity do not fall behind.
“Not only were we impressed by Sendbox’s 300 percent year-on-year growth since launch, but we’re seeing the market potential balloon with over 40 million Nigerian SMEs and a projected industry value for social and e-commerce reaching US $45 billion on the continent by 2025,” he said.
