Bumpa, an online-based commercial platform that seeks to assist African businesses to grow startups using their mobile devices, closed pre-seed funding of $200k today.
Business setups that took part in this pre-seed funding include Greencap Equity, Whogohost Venture Arm, Rizq Investment Group, Microtraction, and DFS Labs. Furthermore, some investors also wrote check for the round, with Oo Nwoye and Prosper Otemuyiwa being the notable investors.
Recall that Bumpa receives financial backing from two prominent Nigerian tech aficionados — Kelvin Umechukwu and Adetunji Opaleye. Mr. Kelvin is the Chief Executive Officer of the startup while Mr. Adetunji is the Chief Technology Officer. Bumpa is an online platform that enables customers to open an online store using simple devices like their mobile phones, without needing any coding knowledge.
Bumpa was birthed eight years ago from the ideas of its CEO and CTO, these two tech enthusiasts met as students in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife. Kelvin was a mechanical engineering student while Adetunji studied law.
They became popular on campus for developing student-friendly apps that enabled students to access academic information online without any difficulties. They had a common passion for creating solutions to technical issues on the internet, and it was this common interest that brought them together — eventually leading to the creation of Bumpa.
“We looked for ways to help business startups without much knowledge about internet technology create a platform where they can advertise their business without having problems — that was how Bumpa was formed,” Opaleye disclosed in an interview with TechCabal.
Business owners today are constantly switching their businesses from offline to online. This is because more people are now purchasing products online than ever before.
Bumpa is trying to bridge the increasing gap between online and offline business activities by allowing users to own a one-stop store for their dealings. With Bumpa, traders can make offline or online transactions, manage inventory, enhance customer service, and many others.
How Much Growth Has Bumpa Had?
Since it was founded in February this year, the startup has said it has over seven thousand businesses in its ranks and more than thirty thousand product listings. It also claims to have recorded over $500,000 worth of transactions.
Opeyemi Awoyemi — founder of Whogohost — disclosed that it is always challenging to develop a “Shopify” that functions well for African business start-ups. He believes the creators of Bumpa understand this problem and have created a long-lasting solution. According to him, he set up his shop on the platform in less than sixty seconds.
Although based in Nigeria, Bumper has numerous customers from other African and European countries.
The company’s Chief Technology Officer also disclosed a plan of the company expanding into other business markets in the next few years, targeting the Asian and Latin American continents particularly.
