MarketForce scores $40m in Series A raise

February 22, 2022

Kenyan B2B platform for consumers goods and digital financial services MarketForce has snagged $40m from a Series A financing haul.

The round was headed by V8 Capital Partners and saw participation from Ten13 VC, SOSV Select Fund, VU Ventures, Uncovered Fund, Reflect Ventures, Vastly Valuable Ventures, Greenhouse Capital, Remapped Ventures and Century Oak Capital.

Founded in 2018, MarketForce is a B2B commerce and FinTech marketplace that claims it empowers informal merchants in Africa to order, pay and receive inventory digitally and conveniently, access financing, collect digital payments and make extra money by reselling digital financial services.

Currently, approximately 90% of household retail transactions in sub-Saharan Africa are in cash and are delivered through a network of around 100 million MSMEs. Retail payments on the continent are expected to top $2.1 trillion by 2025, and MarketForce said it aims to digitise a large portion of these offline transactions.

MarketForce serves more than 100,000 merchants and processes 6,000 daily transactions, with the average transaction size tripling and revenue growing 27x over the same period.

MarketForce intends to use this funding to scale merchant inventory financing through a BNPL offering, grow deeper in existing markets and avail more digital financial and banking services through its extensive merchant network.

The company – which already has a team of 400 – is intending to double this number before the end of this year.

MarketForce CEO and co-founder Tesh Mbaabu said, “Our goal is be the ultimate partner for informal merchants, empowering them to maximise their profits and grow in a digital age by getting better service, assortment, and access to new revenue opportunities, outfitting them with the technology and support they need to transform themselves from simple FMCG outlets to comprehensive financial service hubs for the continent’s last-mile communities. We are targeting to serve over 1 million active merchants on our platform in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2025.”