MarketForce

What they do:

MarketForce is a B2B ecommerce app that empowers neighbourhood merchants to source, order and pay for inventory, access financing and earn more by reselling financial services in their communities. Launched in 2018, the company has grown to reach more than 275,000 merchants across five African markets with over $500 million in transactions processed. 

In 2023, they launched Chpter to extend the offering to online merchants, who also lose a lot of revenue because of lack of relevant digital tools to manage their customers, orders and payments. E-commerce in Africa is mostly conversational and estimated to grow to $46Bn by 2025, with over 500 million shoppers turning to social platforms like SMS, WhatsApp and Instagram to find and buy products.

Why we invested:

The majority of shopkeepers in Africa are single merchants who are unbanked and restock inventory on a fixed monthly or weekly basis meaning that they are unable to restock with agility. MarketForce provides inventory management, working capital and fulfilment.

The Founding Team:

Tesh Mbaabu is an African serial technology entrepreneur who lives to blend commerce and technology. Prior to co-founding MarketForce with Mesongo Sibuti, they built Mesozi, an information technology holding company offering and investing in tech-enabled solutions across several industries and markets in Africa. As avid adventure seekers, they also co-founded Cloud9xp, an African leisure experience booking platform (Exited to HotelOnline in 2020). Tesh and Mesongo are both graduates of Computer Science from the University of Nairobi.

Active in:

Kenya (through a 20% stake in Chpter), Uganda