KENYA – MarketForce, a Kenyan retail-tech startup had added an additional US$100,000 in funding from the Harambeans Prosperity Fund to the US$2 million pre-Series A round it announced in July 2021.
Co-founded in 2018 by Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, MarketForce enables consumer brands to optimise how they deliver essential goods and services to retailers and consumers by bridging the information gap in last-mile distribution, while maximizing efficiency across the sales and distribution value chain.
The start-up’s platform leverages mobile devices by enabling field agents to record all customer interactions as they happen in the field, and then aggregates this data and presents it through live web dashboards.
In July 2021, MarketForce, which is a Y Combinator alumni, had raised a US$2 million pre-Series A round to launch in Nigeria and scale its RejaReja platform, which is aimed at manufacturers, retailers, and sales agents operating across East Africa’s informal marketplaces.
It has now added an additional US$100,000 in funding, taking its total secured capital to US$2.6 million.
The cash comes from the Harambeans Prosperity Fund, a donor-advised investment vehicle formed through the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance’s network of prominent families and corporations.
The fund is a rules-based co-investment vehicle that leverages investment networks to increase capital flow to Harambean-led ventures and has been specifically designed to build coalitions of investors and entrepreneurs bringing scalable and affordable market-creating innovations to Africa. Mbaabu is a Harambean.
“We are delighted by this recent investment from the Harambeans Prosperity Fund. It was an honor for me to be inducted into the Alliance’s 2020 cohort, and to become part of this dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem that is driving transformation on the African continent. We are passionate about delivering digital solutions like RejaReja to solve challenges and empower African businesses to prosper, create livelihoods and more effectively provide goods and services that enhance the lives of their consumers,” he said.
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