Kenyan retail startup Cartnshop raises $400k in angel funding to expand operations 

Kenyan e-commerce startup Cartnshop has raised $400,000 in its first funding round to accelerate commercialization operations in the coming months.

Cartnshop is a tech-enabled platform that allows retail businesses in Africa to expand their sales, using online sales channels. Cartnshop uses a SaaS model to enable African SMEs to set up online stores efficiently.

Founded by Joe Wambugu in 2018, Cartnshop allows enterprises to attract new customers, inquiries, and sales orders, using an end-to-end e-store enabler engine. With its B2B and B2C channels, it is able to incorporate payment gateways, delivery and fulfillment centers, marketing and marketplace cross-listings, and business management capabilities.

Wambugu commented, “The Cartnshop ecosystem brings stakeholders including manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, service providers and e-commerce enablers into the channels, enabling a complete model of B2B2C.”

On the Cartnshop platform, merchants can create a personalized store from any digital device. Merchants can manage orders, invoices, and payments through its Merchant Admin panel. They could also manage catalogs and inventory, as well as delivery with various logistics platforms.

The platform also offers promotions options and a marketing toolkit where users to share promotional and marketing content with their customers.

Cartnshop released its first engine in late 2019 and on-board 50 merchants. Afterward, it released the second engine with over 300 merchants. It went into a market proof of concept with Safaricom and EABL in 2020 and has since gathered enough feedback to launch engine three. It would now launch engine three to accommodate over one million merchants.

The platform has been released to shops in Botswana and Tanzania in addition to Kenya.