Kenyan startup ZOPA 254 helps African retailers reduce stockouts to maximise revenues, and minimise product expiries and waste, with AI-driven demand forecasting software.
Founded in January 2024 after co-founders Caroline Wong and Kwame Asiago took part in the Antler East Africa venture builder programme, ZOPA 254 takes historical sales data and other real-time data to predict future sales so that pharmacies, supermarkets and F&B retailers know how much quantity of a specific product to procure.
Both founders repeatedly faced a common consumer frustration – churning from one supermarket or pharmacy to the next due to stock-outs. This issue also negatively affects retailers themselves.
“African retailers – pharmacies, supermarkets, and F&B outlets – leave money on the table,” Wong told Disrupt Africa.
“For example, an average Kenyan pharmacy loses KES4 million (US$30,000) every year from expired products. And 30-60 per cent of a pharmacy catalogue is out of stock on average, leading to lower revenues.”
Product expiries and stockouts are driven by manual demand forecasting.
“But human intuition and rolling averages cannot accurately predict how demand will fluctuate for thousands of products,” Wong said.
Enter ZOPA 254, which is on a mission to democratise AI for African retailers by providing fast and affordable demand forecasting software to address stockouts and expiries.
“Existing AI-driven demand forecasting solutions from the US or Europe are time-consuming, requiring 3-6 months to create a customised model, and unaffordable, costing a minimum of US$5,000 per month,” said Wong.
“ZOPA 254 offers a fast plug-and-play solution for AI-driven demand forecasting that is affordable for the modern Kenyan retailer.”
An Antler East Africa portfolio company, the startup has already had strong demand among medium-to-large modern retailers across pharmacies, supermarkets and F&B retailers, and is currently piloting its prototype with four pharmacies. It is focused on rolling out its product in Kenya before expanding into other priority markets in East Africa. ZOPA 254 operates a software-as-a-service business model where it charges per product.
