The US $32 million Series A fundraising round for Tanzania’s Ramani, which is creating a cloud network of micro-distribution centres for Africa’s US $1 trillion consumer packaged products supply chain, has now come to an end.
Iain Usiri, Calvin Usiri, and Kibet Martin founded Ramani in 2019, with the goal of repairing fragmented consumer products supply chains that are typically hampered by a lack of data visibility and restricted access to financial services.
To help micro-distribution centres (MDCs) overcome these obstacles, the firm offers tech-enabled inventory management systems, procurement, and point-of-sale software. By digitising these operations, MDCs may receive real-time sales data and inventory visibility. Ramani may then use this information to offer goods with postponed payment conditions, allowing them to grow.
In order to expand its client, base this year, the firm obtained a lending licence from the Central Bank of Tanzania, and it has since secured a US $32 million debt and equity investment round to support its expansion.
Jared Schreiber, the founder and CEO of Infoscout, and Flexcap Ventures, a well-known worldwide technology investor, led the round. In addition to the undisclosed amount of seed funding that Ramani received in 2021, which was also supported by Y Combinator, this round of funding was also contributed to by Village Global, Goat Capital, Musha Ventures, Hustle Fund, Future Africa, Launch Africa Ventures, Raba Capital, and angel investor James Beshara.
With this additional financing, Ramani will expand its network of MDCs and provide a new microcredit programme for a subset of MDCs.
“Ultimately, we want to make it easier for businesses to succeed in Africa and this new capital is another brick in that foundation. We’ve leveraged our Silicon Valley relationships and partnered with globally renowned investors, many of whom are successful founders themselves. We’re committed to repaying their faith in us and in Africa,” Usiri said.
Ramani’s enormous aim for a substantially enhanced and more effective supply chain is reported to be methodically transforming the CPG business in Africa, according to Andrew Vigneault, co-founder and general partner of Flexcap Ventures.
“It has been a pleasure to witness Ramani’s success and traction so far and we are certain the company will continue to achieve market-leading growth, fueled by a strong leadership team with exceptional technical expertise,” he said.
