Kenya’s Jumba Secures $1M to Facilitate Seamless Restocking of Hardware Stores
Jumba, a Kenyan B2B construction technology startup that allows operators of hardware stores (construction materials retailers), to seamlessly restock through its platform has today secured $1 million pre-seed funding to fine-tune its technology and expand its reach to capture markets in major cities across Kenya.
Enza Capital led the pre-seed round with participation from Seedstars International Ventures, Chandaria Capital, Future Africa, Logos Ventures, First Check Africa, and other angels.
Kagure Wamunyu (CEO) and Miano Njoka (CTO) co-founded Jumbo in April this year. The startup is now set for terrific expansion with these funds.
Jumba was inspired by Wamunyu’s experiences as a real estate entrepreneur, where she consistently encountered inefficiencies in the purchasing of building supplies due to shifting costs and occasional stockouts. Wamunyu, a civil engineer and contractor who assisted Uber with expanding its services in Kenya, was also a member of the team that catapulted Kobo360, a logistics tech startup, to Africa-wide expansion. Her co-founder, Njoka, is a software developer who previously worked with her on real estate ventures.
Jumba connects manufacturers and retailers, as well as ensures that tiny hardware stores are linked to medium-sized ones within their regions, from which they can simply update their stock, alleviating the need for spatial expansion.
“We have started to expand our products according to regional demands and the needs of hardware stores. The idea is to make Jumba the source of all construction materials in Kenya and, when we eventually grow, beyond its borders,” the CEO said.
Mike Mompi, the managing partner of Enza Capital, commented on the pre-seed round, saying, “Africa’s populations are fast growing and progressively urbanizing, and the construction industry is a vital economic engine supporting sustainable growth across Africa.” We are happy to be supporting Kagure and the great team constructing Jumba in a $10 trillion market yet to be revolutionized by technology.”
The B2B building technology platform bargains product pricing with manufacturers. It also enables resellers to pay for purchases at the time of delivery. The business is also thinking about adding the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) option to allow its best-performing clients to diversify their shares and improve their earnings.
“BNPL can be utilized to assist them stock more, and it is a product that will be presented,” Wamunyu revealed.
To expand its pool of suppliers and distributors, the business is actively onboarding manufacturers and hardware stores outside of Nairobi. It has also made a big statement by recruiting Peace Osangir as its CFO to head its finance and risk component. Osangir was the COO of Kopo Kopo, a payments startup, and the first financial manager of Mshwari, Kenya’s first mobile lender, which is supported by East Africa’s largest telco Safaricom and regional bank NCBA.