Kenya’s Sukhiba, an innovative conversational commerce and CRM platform, has completed a US$1.55 million seed extension round to expand across Africa and other emerging markets.
Founded in 2021 by Ananth Raj Gudipati and Abhinav Reddy, Sukhiba is built on top of WhatsApp, and helps medium and large enterprises extend their sales and retention by customising its services of sales, marketing, customer service, payments and more around the WhatsApp infrastructure.
The startup has achieved significant growth since 2023, and today operates in eight markets across Africa and India, working with top-tier manufacturers, distributors, leading retail chains, and D2C brands. More than 35,000 SMEs are already purchasing products and services through its merchant partners.
Sukhiba now plans further growth following its US$1.55 million seed extension round, which was led by EQ2 Ventures. Other top-tier investors participating in the round include
Accion Venture Lab, Musha Ventures, and Quona Capital, as well as existing investors CRE Ventures.
The newly-secured funds will be pivotal in accelerating Sukhiba’s expansion across Africa and other emerging markets. The company’s vision is supported by marquee customers and investors, reflecting confidence in its potential to become the default CRM and sales force automation tool for emerging markets.
“Sukhiba is designed to bridge the gap between brands, manufacturers, distributors, and their customers in emerging markets by leveraging the ubiquitous nature of WhatsApp. This seed extension marks a significant milestone for us, enabling us to scale our operations and enhance our SaaS platform to better serve our growing customer base of manufacturers, distributors and D2C brands,” said Gudipati.
Manish Phulwani, associate director at EQ2 Ventures, said his team’s follow-on investment in Sukhiba was a “strong vote of confidence”, having witnessed the team’s consistent execution since the early days.
“Their exceptional product mindset is rare, positioning them to lead the transition of business and consumer transactions to WhatsApp across emerging markets. We look forward to continuing this journey with the team,” he said.
