Nigerian retail-tech startup Omnibiz has secured a US$15 million pre-Series A round of funding to accelerate retailer growth and retention, and boost its revenues four-fold.
Founded in June 2019 by Deepankar Rustagi, Omnibiz allows retailers to place orders at their convenience and have goods delivered to their doorstep with zero delivery costs. Retailers can stock up their shops using the company’s mobile apps, WhatsApp channel, or a dedicated care number.
The startup, which raised a US$3 million seed funding round last August, has now closed a US$15 million pre-Series A round, led by Timon Capital. Ventures Platform, LoftyInc Capital Management, Chapel Hill Denham, Chandaria Capital and Musha Ventures also participated in the round, which was structured as US$5 million equity and US$10 million debt.
Omnibiz will use the funding to double down on winning the loyalty of retail customers and driving their retention. Employing its holistic strategy to become the primary B2B operating system for retailers – helping with last mile delivery, procurement, working capital, inventory management and operational tools for tracking sales, cost, prices and profit – Omnibiz projects a 4x revenue increase for its retailers. The company will begin its regional expansion this month.
The company has grown rapidly into a leading B2B e-commerce platform, connecting retailers in Nigeria and Ghana with over 200 brands delivered by a network of more than 70 logistics partners. Utilising the insights provided by the platform, retailers can view inventory stock in real-time and avoid purchasing SKUs that they may struggle to sell. More than 3,000 retailers use Omnibiz every day.
“We believe the smart informal retailer – not shopping malls – is the future of modern retail in Africa. By providing the capital, tools and logistics, we will enable retailers to offer great merchandising at an affordable price point to win their customers’ trust. This funding will allow us to quadruple the profitability of our retailers, build a scalable and profitable business, and take us one step closer to transforming African retail,” said Rustagi.
“We invested in Omnibiz because we believe that it is solving a much needed problem,” said Nikos Katsaounis, Timon Capital partner. “The FMCG supply chain is fragmented, inefficient, and opaque. Omnibiz tackles all of these problems and addresses them with an efficient software layer that provides much needed data on this otherwise obscure market and supply chain. Deepankar Rustagi is an excellent operating CEO.”
