Kapu, a social commerce start-up, has secured $8 million in seed funding to ease the financial strain of grocery shopping for Kenyan consumers.
Giant Ventures and Firstminute Capital jointly led the seed round, which also included Founder Collective, Base Capital, Norrsken, and Raven One.
Along with many African family offices, Biz Stone from Twitter, Ilkka Paananen from Supercell, Tom Blomfield from Monzo, and serial entrepreneur Alexander Rittweger, they join the early investors of Kapu, which also included the co-founders of Meesho in Brazil and Meesho in India, as well as a number of early family offices.
Sam Chappatte started the company, which is growing its network of regional sales representatives via which customers can place orders.
Soon, WhatsApp orders will be supported as well. Kapu, which facilitates group bulk grocery purchases by sourcing directly from growers and manufacturers, claims to help customers save up to 30% on the cost of fresh produce and packaged items.
“People spending between 40 and 50 percent of their household income on groceries is a wonderful potential for society, but it’s also a big concern,” We founded Kapu because we believe that a more applicable e-commerce model can be developed to focus on the grocery basket, which represents the largest percentage of spend for the vast majority of customers. And if we can increase productivity through the use of technology, we can have a huge impact on society for both businesses and consumers, added Chappate.
According to Kapu, there are 1,500 agent-collecting centers spread out around Nairobi. In its next phase of growth, the company plans to aim to thoroughly permeate Kenya’s metropolis before pursuing additional markets.
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