With operations spread across Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast, BetaStore, a tech-enabled B2B retail startup, has closed a $2.5 million pre-series A funding round.
The fund will enable BetaStore’s expansion into Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon by the end of this year, decentralizing its products and services to serve more informal retailers.
The fund was received from 500 Global, VestedWorld, and Loyal VC, bringing the investment raised by BetaStore to $3 million to date.
BetaStore makes it possible for small businesses to seamlessly source their inventory and access capital to scale their business growth.
The startup is on a goal to reach the over 10 million informal retail outlets representing more than 90% of the total trade of essential goods; where in Nigeria alone, more than 1,500,000 outlets are selling way beyond $12 billion worth of FMCG goods.
Through the platform co-founded by Steve Dakayi-Kamga and Leo-Armel Tchoudjang, informal retailers can order products via AI-powered channels using SMS, WhatsApp chat and other Apps, after which they would have their goods delivered to their stores. The company provides smart financing to these informal retailers and using the BetaStore wallet, they can repay loans, deposit money for operations, send, receive and save money.
Also, BetaStore helps manufacturers make data-driven informed decisions to scale up their businesses efficiently. It is set to fully launch its financing in July, following a pilot program carried out last year, involving 200 retailers.
BetaStore affirms that its customer base has grown 10 times compared to what it was at the beginning, with revenue also increasing at a commendable rate; its new growth plan will ensure the increase of these, including the rollout of its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) product.