By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian-based e-commerce merchant platform, Sendbox, has raised a $1.8 million seed round from investors comprising 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs and Golden Palm Investments.
With participation from Flexport and YC Combinator as part of its 2021 winter cohort, Sendbox’s total investment raised has now reached $2 million following a pre-seed round from Microtraction and 4DX Ventures in 2018.
The injection of the new fund will allow the platform to further digitise deliveries for African small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) through its delivery management platform, which aggregates logistics providers and enables tracking.
The next stage of the company’s growth will see a move towards financing and payments, followed by e-commerce and marketplace integrations across West Africa and further afield.
The company will also be able to offer a solution for merchants who lack the high volumes required to attract discounted delivery fees.
To date, over 10,000 Nigerian SMEs have sent 200,000 products through Sendbox, saving on average 30-40 per cent per item by eliminating the need to work with separate logistics providers.
According to the company, the new funding will be used to expand the company’s operations in other countries across West Africa, bolster the development of its product range, and hire new talent.
Commenting on Sendbox’s fundraise and growth ambitions, Mr Emotu Balogun, CEO and co-founder of Sendbox said, “No matter where in the world customers are, we want African SMEs to be able to reach them.
“Deliveries in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan have made up a large proportion of business for our domestic merchants. On top of that, affordable access to the UK, EU, US, and Canada has created an opportunity to sell products to hundreds of millions of previously unreachable buyers.
“With this fundraise, we aim to support more and more SMEs and help them grow both locally and internationally, scaling alongside them as we connect African merchants with a global community of consumers.”
On his part, Mr Walter Baddoo, co-founder and General Partner at 4DX Ventures said, “African e-commerce is accelerating faster than anybody could have imagined a decade ago, and it needs smart solutions to ensure that logistics and fulfilment capacity doesn’t lag behind.
“Not only were we impressed by Sendbox’s 300 per cent year-on-year growth since launch, but we’re seeing the market potential balloon with over 40 million Nigerian SMEs and a projected industry value for social and e-commerce reaching $45 billion on the continent by 2025.”
With 200 million Instagram users and one million Instagram businesses in Nigeria alone, Sendbox is well-positioned to serve this growing market and multiply its merchant count over the coming months, adding that it is planning on banking on mobile penetration on the continent.
Launched in 2018, the company provides affordable access to local and international delivery options for small-scale merchants selling on e-commerce and social media platforms.
Accessible to iOS and Android users, via a web application, on Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram and other e-commerce platforms, and through developer APIs, Sendbox is providing a single location to manage both local deliveries and international shipments to the European Union, UK, US and Canada.
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