Omnibiz, a Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform, has closed a $15M Pre-Series A round led by Timon Capital. Ventures Platform, Lofty Inc, Chapel Hill Denham, Chandaria and Musha Ventures also participated in the round, structured as $5M equity and $10M debt.
According to Deepankar Rustagi, Omnibiz CEO and founder, the company will use the funding to double down on winning the loyalty of retail customers and driving their retention.
Founded in 2019, Omnibiz has grown rapidly into a leading B2B e-commerce platform, connecting retailers in Nigeria and Ghana with over 200 brands delivered by a network of more than 70 logistics partners. Beyond simply offering bargain wholesale prices to retailers, Omnibiz is providing its retail customers with the tools to increase their revenues and profitability. Omnibiz’s effectiveness is reflected by the fact that over half of the company’s annual GMV of $130M comes from repeat retail customers. More than 3,000 retailers use Omnibiz every day.
In 2021, the company launched the MyStore app, a bookkeeping solution for retailers to manage their customers and inventory as well as access BNPL services. 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 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 Deepankar Rustagi, Omnibiz CEO and founder.
“We invested in Omnibiz because we believe that it is solving a much-needed problem,” said Nikos Katsaounis, Timon Capital Partner. “The FMCG supply chain is fragmented, inefficient, and opaque. Omnibiz tackles all these problems and addresses them with an efficient software layer that provides much-needed data on this otherwise obscure market and supply chain. Deepankar Rustagi is an excellent operating CEO.”
Source: Business Insider