When Deepankar Rustagi last raised funding for OmniRetail in 2022, investors were bullish on African startups tackling the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector’s operational headaches. Yet as venture capital cooled this year, few companies have managed to prove both scale and profitability—until now.
Today, OmniRetail announced a $20 million Series A equity round co-led by Norfund (Norway’s development finance institution) and Lagos-based Timon Capital, with follow-on from Ventures Platform, Aruwa Capital, Goodwell (via Alitheia), and Flour Mills of Nigeria. This marks Norfund’s first direct African startup equity investment, underscoring the confidence behind OmniRetail’s model of tech-enabled B2B commerce and embedded finance across Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast.
Since its 2019 inception, OmniRetail has built a “network of networks”, linking:
145 manufacturers
5,800+ distributors
150,000+ informal retailers
across 12 major cities. Retailers use the mobile app to order inventory, tap working capital, and pay digitally, while an asset-light logistics network—1,100+ vehicles and 85 local partners—handles delivery.
Rustagi credits this model for OmniRetail’s rapid path to profitability: it went EBITDA-positive in 2023 and net profitable in 2024, even as many competitors struggled to break even.
“The profitability journey was an outcome of our efficiency on utilizing the assets that we aggregated in the network,” Rustagi told TechCrunch. “That’s why we raised capital—to put the pedal to the metal and scale in more geographies and categories.”
A key differentiator is OmniRetail’s focus on embedded finance. Its Omnipay buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) product disbursed ₦19 billion monthly last year—processing ₦1.3 trillion (~$810 million) in FMCG transactions—with near-zero defaults. And after acquiring Traction Apps in 2024, OmniRetail gained full-stack payment capabilities (POS, PSSP, Super Agent licenses) and richer retailer sales data, enabling smarter credit underwriting.
“Every transaction in the FMCG value chain has two sides: movement of goods and movement of funds,” Rustagi explains. “We now aggregate maximum benefits from both sides, maximizing margins.”
Norfund’s Cathrine Conradi: “Embedded finance is one of the most transformative tools for small-business growth in Africa. OmniRetail brings capital where traditional systems haven’t reached.”
Timon Capital: “OmniRetail has hit an inflection point in distribution, payments, and credit—demonstrating how profitable growth can be at scale.”
With $38 million raised in equity and debt to date, OmniRetail plans to deploy the new funds to:
As Rustagi and his team—whose decades of FMCG experience give them deep supply-chain insight—gear up for regional expansion, the focus shifts from growth to operational excellence. OmniRetail reports a 35% increase in net merchandise volume and 40% revenue growth YoY, all while maintaining profitability.
“Once you reach critical mass, layering on services like payments and BNPL becomes seamless,” says head of investments Archit Bagaria. “Our measured approach—waiting for distribution scale before launching credit—has paid off.”
In an industry where many B2B commerce models have stumbled, OmniRetail’s trajectory offers a roadmap for profitable, tech-driven transformation of Africa’s informal retail sector. With fresh capital, seasoned leadership, and a proven playbook, OmniRetail is poised to become the region’s FMCG backbone, one digitally enabled transaction at a time.
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Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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