Informal shops supply over 70% of food, beverages and personal care products in Africa. These small retailers grapple with fragmented supply chains and lack of access to affordable credit.
Lagos-based OmniRetail’s digital infrastructure ensures efficient supply of over 900 consumer goods from manufacturers to these informal retailers. The startup partners with Nigeria’s Bank of Industry to provide collateral-free credit of up to 2 million naira ($1200) via a buy-now-pay-later model to meet working capital needs. Retailers can access digital payment and transfer services and manage their inventory and other sales functions via a mobile app.
OmniRetail has so far served 144,000 retailers across Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, more than three-quarters of whom are women; over half are unbanked.
B2B commerce
Nigerian early-stage venture capital firm Timon Capital and Norfund co-led OmniRetail’s $20 million Series A financing, which had been kickstarted last year by Goodwell Investments and Alitheia Capital’s joint uMunthu II fund. Ventures Platform, Nigerian gender-lens fund Aruwa Capital and Nigerian food processing company Flour Mills of Nigeria also participated in the latest round.
The funding will support OmniRetail’s expansion beyond the dozen cities it operates in and help it diversify its product catalog to include personal care, home care and cold storage.
