The funds will help build customer loyalty and boost retention. It will also help launch regional expansion. 

Nigerian B2B platform Omnibiz announced, Friday (August 19), it completed its pre-series A round, raising US$15 million. The platform will use those funds to accelerate its growth, win customer loyalty and retention for more revenue.  

The round, led by Timon Capital, had Ventures Platform, LoftyInc Capital Management, Chapel Hill Denham, Chandaria Capital, and Musha Ventures as participating investors. It consisted of US$5 million as equity participation and US$10 million as debt investment. 

“We believe the smart informal retailer – not shopping malls - is the future of modern retail in Africa. By providing the capital, tools and logistics, we will enable retailers to offer great merchandising at an affordable price point to win their customers’ trust. This funding will allow us to quadruple the profitability of our retailers, build a scalable and profitable business, and take us one step closer to transforming African retail,” said Omnibiz co-founder and CEO, Deepankar Rustagi.

According to Techcrunch, Omnibiz will use the funding to double down on winning the loyalty of its retail customers and drive client retention. 

Meanwhile, Disrupt Africa explains that by “employing its holistic strategy to become the primary B2B operating system for retailers – helping with last mile delivery, procurement, working capital, inventory management and operational tools for tracking sales, cost, prices and profit – Omnibiz projects a 4x revenue increase for its retailers.” 

The company will begin its regional expansion this month, we learn. 

Omnibiz was founded in June 2019. It allows retailers to place orders and have those orders delivered to their doorsteps free of charge. Retailers can place their orders via the company’s mobile apps, by chatting on Whatsapp or by calling a dedicated support number. 

To date, the e-commerce platform connects retailers in Nigeria and Ghana to more than 200 brands while the goods are delivered by its network of over 70 logistics partners. More than 3,000 retailers use its platform daily, Omnibiz claims. With the information provided by the platform, retaillers can view inventory in real-time and avoid buying products that may prove difficult to resell. 

For Nikos Katsaounis, Timpon Capital Partner, the Fast-moving consumer goods “ supply chain is fragmented, inefficient, and opaque. Omnibiz tackles all of these problems and addresses them with an efficient software layer that provides much-needed data on this otherwise obscure market and supply chain.” 

Samira Njoya