By Adedapo Adesanya
Sabi, Africa’s leading provider of commerce infrastructure for the distribution of goods and services, has appointed four new advisory group members whose experience and networks will support its mission to resource and grow small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the informal sector.
Those hired by the organisation are Mr Vidit Aatrey, founder/CEO of Meesho; Mr Ian Black, Managing Director of Shopify; Mrs Sapna Goyal, Corporate Development Director of Udaan; and Mr Bame Pule, founder of Africa Lighthouse Capital.
Mr Aatrey, one of the leading Indian entrepreneurs of his generation, is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and embarked on the journey of creating Meesho back in 2015 together with his college batchmate and friend, Mr Sanjeev Barnwal, with an aim to build an e-commerce start-up for small businesses at a time when everyone told them that e-commerce was saturated.
Seven years later, they have today built India’s largest social commerce platform at Meesho, which has already empowered 2 million+ entrepreneurs, mostly women, and is on its way to creating more.
Through its platform, it enables entrepreneurs to start an online business with zero investment and provides them with the resources, tools, logistics and payment capabilities to run their business. Prior to Meesho, Mr Aatrey worked with ITC and Inmobi.
Mr Black, who heads Shopify Canada, has managed the business and go-to-market strategy for Shopify Retail in Toronto by overseeing sales, solutions, partnerships, and operations, working alongside marketing and R&D leadership.
Prior to joining Shopify, he was head of UberEATS’ American and Canadian divisions. He was also a management consultant with Bain & Company in Toronto and New York where he advised companies and private equity funds on strategy and growth.
Mrs Goyal, on her part, has an investing experience in early and growth-stage internet start-ups in India. Prior to Udaan, she worked with Goldman Sachs Investment Partners VC & Growth Equity Fund and was responsible for investments in the Indian internet space.
Mrs Goyal also has investing experience in Indian Public Markets as part of a hedge fund at Goldman Sachs. She is passionate about the power of digital transformation on the Indian economy and how it is a great leveller. She is an active angel investor.
Mr Pule founded Africa Lighthouse Capital, an independent private equity firm in 2012 to invest in and nurture businesses into African champions.
The firm has a particular focus on helping investee companies adopt global best practices regardless of sector, attain benchmarks equivalent to those of global peers, and expand into multiple key African markets. Prior to founding Africa Lighthouse Capital, Mr Pule worked at Actis Capital, ShoreView Capital, Goldman Sachs & Credit Suisse in New York and Salomon Brothers/Citigroup in Los Angeles.
Commenting on the appointments, Mrs Anu Adasolum, co-founder/CEO of Sabi: said “Our goal has always been to build and establish a robust team of experts – from our leadership team right down to our agent network – that lives and breathes our core values and mission to transform the B2B commerce industry in Africa.
“We’re extremely pleased to announce that the four members are talented and strategic business leaders whose broad experience will further strengthen our commitment to enable financial inclusion within the B2B community in Africa’s growing informal economy while providing world-class solutions for our merchants. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive forward the next phase of growth.”
