By Adedapo Adesanya
As part of efforts to further spread financial technology solutions to other parts of the country, Chooya, an Aba-based e-commerce startup digitising word-of-mouth marketing for African businesses and consumers, has announced funding of $950,000 in cash and program support from Entrepreneurship World Cup.
As one of the top 100 EWC finalists chosen from 200,000 participants spread across 200 countries, Chooya will benefit from the over $75 million service support from Misk Global Forum, Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), and other world-class partners.
With the injection of funds, Chooya will be tapping into product development, marketing and human resources to reach businesses (local and online) struggling with new customer acquisition to help them digitize word-of-mouth marketing and grow their sales.
According to the company, for any business to reach new customers and grow their sales they have to engage in marketing.
However, currently available channels do not provide an easy or budget-friendly way to automate word-of-mouth marketing which by research is the most effective type of marketing.
Chooya’s word-of-mouth mobile solution called “addds” plans to target 5,000 businesses by the third quarter of 2022 and help them boost sales by 300 per cent.
Speaking on this, Mr Igwe Uguru, founder and CEO of Chooya said, “I was inspired to digitize word-of-mouth marketing by my experience helping my 72-year-old father at his local business.
“Without any form of paid commercial or social media ads, I watched the customers grow every single month through word-of-mouth marketing and helped my father train all his five children in the high institution. We are very excited about Chooya’s future and the impact we are set to make considering the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, especially on small businesses.”
On his part, Mr Jonathan Ortmans, President, Global Entrepreneurship Network — “As one of the top 100 EWC finalists chosen from 200,000 participants spread across 200 countries, we are excited to have Chooya join this community of promising founders.
“Through the Club, GEN Starters access global connections with experienced entrepreneurs, mentors and investors within the Global Entrepreneurship Network and our partners – as well as year-round opportunities for additional support and visibility through curated networking opportunities at special events and learning experiences through GEN Accelerates – our training platform.”
Chooya was founded in 2019 as a search engine for African traditional markets. It has been bootstrapped since its inception. It has previously received recognition and awards from Alibaba Business School and African Leadership University (2020).
The Entrepreneurship World Cup is more than just a pitch competition. It gives everyone who enters access to the knowledge, networks and for some, the capital they need to start and scale a company.
Chooya received a $100,000 national and $850,000 global prize from the EWC.
