Lagos-based B2B e-commerce platform Omnibiz has secured $15 million in a pre-Series A round led by Timon Capital. The latest funding comes in a combination of $5 million in equity and a debt of $10 million. Other participants of the funding round include Ventures Platform, Lofty Inc, Chapel Hill Denham, Chandaria, and Musha Ventures.
The last time Omnibiz was on our radar, the B2B e-commerce and retail platform which connects manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) to retailers had just raised $3 million in seed funding to fuel its plans to expand into new territories.
The new funding will be used to fuel efforts of winning the loyalty of retail customers as well as increasing their retention. The company will also commence its regional expansion into Abidjian, Takoradi, Kimasi and Accra; the cities it mentioned last year during its seed round.
Omnibiz was founded in 2019 by Deepanker Rustagi with the aim of digitalizing the supply chain of retail and e-commerce operations. Its services are available via a mobile app, WhatsApp, and via phone calls.
Commenting on the startup’s growth since it raised $3 million in seed funding, its founder said, “We have expanded in terms of the number of retailers. We’ve expanded in cities, geographically, and we have improved the overall system; the retention of the retailer, even with growing competition, has been phenomenal. And I think that’s what equips us for the next race.”
Omnibiz helps retailers access goods cheaper, faster, and more conveniently. “If a retailer has to buy groceries for the week or month, and one of the products is cheaper on a platform, they wouldn’t want to increase their workload of buying from multiple places, procuring, and delivery. They want all the prominent milk brands, for instance, [to] always be available. A retailer that rests assured that everything he buys is available can ignore a little bit here and there on the pricing. That’s, I think, what we feel about how to build retailer loyalty,” Deepanker Rustagi explained.
He went on to explain that Omnibiz has increased loyalty among its retailer by showing an interest in their growth, offering working capital as well as managing their stores and customers.
The startup also provides a bookkeeping solution called MyStore app. This allows retailers to manage their customers as well as their inventory and access buy-now-pay-later services. Omnibiz’s MyStore app was introduced last year in July and currently has over 3,000 retailers using it.
The company’s annual GMV of 4130 million is generated from its repeat retail customers. Omnibiz plans to increase the number of its daily active retailers on its platform to 10,000 by next year.
“The FMCG 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. Deepankar Rustagi is an excellent operating CEO,” Nikos Katsaounis, a partner at emerging markets VC Timon Capital, said explaining that his firm invested in Omnibiz because it believes the company is solving a much-needed problem
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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