Nigeria’s B2B Marketplace Sabi Concludes Seed Funding Round At 150k Merchant Mark

Nigerian firm Sabi, a business-to-business company digitizing informal trade in Africa, has secured a seed funding round as it announces the milestone of over 150,000 small business users on its platform. The amount raised in the round was undisclosed and participants in the seed round were CRE Ventures, Janngo Capital, Atlantica Ventures, and Waarde Capital.

Sabi deals in various business categories, such as agriculture, fast-moving commercial goods, electronics, and financial services, and supports merchants and service providers across Nigeria by providing essential business tools and services that help them connect with their customers, improve cash flow and streamline logistics. Sabi achieves this through its 10,000 agents across the country, who interface with new merchants and service providers across multiple business categories.

Sabi was developed and operated under Rensource and has been scaling in stealth mode since mid-2020, silently acquiring users and providing values. Stealth mode allows businesses to temporarily conceal their product, brand, or any aspect of the business, helping them to be at the top of their game and also prevent competition.

While the firm has only been operational in Nigeria for under a year, its merchants have recorded over US$1.2 billion worth of sales via MyShop, its ERP tool, and are on track to transact over US$80 million annualized on MerchBuy, its B2B marketplace, in 2021.

Fatoumata Ba, managing partner at Janngo Capital commended Sabi for its consistency and uniqueness towards the African informal sector and attributed the firm’s impressive growth to its deep understanding of the unique network dynamics of Africa’s informal trade sector. “Sabi has taken off in Nigeria and we look forward to supporting the company as it continues to platform informal merchants and agents to help them accelerate their business growth,” she said. More remarkably, she commended Sabi for its ability to serve the sector at scale without losing the advantage of its decentralized nature.

The latest funding will be targeted at broadening its reach and expanding its network across Nigeria, which includes hiring more merchants and service providers. Recently, the company expanded its financial services to include new offerings such as savings accounts and other complementary risk-mitigating financial products.

Sabi has achieved an impressive level of growth, and it continues to scale rapidly. According to Sabi CEO and co-founder Any Adasolum, “Sabi is reaching an underserved yet vibrant market segment and is scaling quickly. The convenience, trust, and quality of our platform have been validated by our merchants and we look forward to onboarding more businesses as we continue to grow.”

Now that Sabi is leaving stealth mode and going public, there is no doubt that it make greater accomplishments.