Kenyan startup Chpter integrates an AI-powered conversational tool with WhatsApp and Instagram to help consumers and entrepreneurs leverage social selling. The new venture raised $1.2 million in a pre-seed funding round to expand into Egypt and Nigeria. Investors include Ken Njoroge of Nairobi-based investment firm Pani, Techstars, Norrsken, Renew Capital and ViKtoria Ventures.
Chpter enables WhatsApp payment services for businesses to list their products, engage with customers and complete sales online. The partnership makes social commerce “more inclusive and accessible to the underserved mass market, due to its low data and digital literacy requirements, as well as the over 95% usage rate in many emerging markets,” said Chpter’s Mark Kiarie.
Sukhiba, also in Kenya, recently raised $1.6 million for software that helps small businesses transact through WhatsApp.
By 2026, almost half of the African continent will have engaged in e-commerce transactions.
Fresh start
Chpter was spun out of MarketForce, an e-commerce platform serving small and informal businesses that shut down in April amid competition and profit challenges. Before shutting down, MarketForce supported more than 270,000 small retailers in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. The company had set out to digitize supply chains for informal African merchants and raised $40 million. MarketForce deployed “an Uber-like model around aggressive expansion,” which failed because of the pandemic, difficult fundraising environment, and “razor-thin margins.”
