Sendbox, a Nigerian e-commerce fulfillment startup, has raised US$1.8 million in seed funding to help small-scale merchants get access to new markets and develop West Africa’s e-commerce operating system.
Sendbox received the new funding from 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs, Golden Palm Investments, Flexport, and Y Combinator, the latter after the firm participated in the Winter 2021 cohort of the accelerator. Sendbox has already raised a total of $2 million in funding.
Sendbox is an e-commerce fulfillment platform for African merchants that provides affordable local and international deliveries for small-scale enterprises that sell online and on social media platforms but lack delivery skills. It was launched in 2018. Over 10,000 merchants sell on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, and the company has made over 200,000 deliveries.
The company also provides a solution for merchants who lack the huge volume required to qualify for cheap delivery prices through its delivery management platform, which aggregates logistics providers and allows tracking.
“We want African SMEs to be able to reach their consumers no matter where they are in the world,” said Emotu Balogun, CEO, and co-founder of Sendbox.
“Deliveries in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Ibadan have accounted for a significant amount of our domestic merchants’ business.” Furthermore, affordable access to the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States, and Canada has opened the door to selling items to hundreds of millions of previously untapped customers. Our goal with this fundraise is to help more SMEs expand both locally and globally by scaling alongside them as we connect African merchants with a global network of consumers.”
African e-commerce is developing faster than anyone could have predicted a decade ago, according to Walter Baddoo, co-founder and general partner at 4DX Ventures, and innovative solutions are needed to ensure that logistics and fulfillment capacity do not fall behind.
The new funds will be used to expand the company’s operations in other West African countries, improve product development, and recruit additional personnel.
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