Nigerian Startup, ShopEX snaps $400,000 Pre-seed from HAVAIC
Nigeria based multi-channel retail startup, ShopEX, has raised a pre-seed funding of $400,000 from Cape Town venture capital firm, HAVAÍC.
The investment forms part of a US$635,000 convertible notes round alongside existing angel investors. This brings the total investment raised by the startup to $885,000, with previous participation from EchoVC and Expert Media Partners.
Founded in 2018 by Isi Abebe (CEO) and advised by Expert Media Partners (EMP), The company mobilizes a combination of traditional and digital channels to market, sell, and distribute some of the world’s most successful ‘As Seen On TV’ brands in Nigeria and other African markets, including Nutri-Bullet, Copper Chef, Power XL, Dream by Genie, Myfit Jeans, and Contour Pillow.
ShopEx digitises and integrates the customer journey across numerous channels or platforms, from television to Instagram, to improve customer engagement and sales conversions.
Integrations with leading last-mile partners optimise the fulfilment process via a nationwide, 24-hour delivery service. Across the board, the technology monitors revenue, media spend, sales agent data, inventory, customer engagement, transactions, fulfilment, and logistics in real-time to optimise success.
To date, the CEO disclosed that the company has done nearly $2.5 million in sales. With this new funding, the startup plans to expand across Africa and increase the range of products while launching a dedicated channel on DSTV.
“The launch of ShopEx perfectly coincides with rising e-commerce and maturing logistics and payment platforms across Africa. These are vital components for creating a truly omnichannel experience,” said Abebe. “We look forward to rolling out an exciting pipeline of new products and bolstering our technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience and expand our offering into other markets.”
Already, the company has scheduled a launch in Ghana before the end of this year. It also plans to launch a buy now pay later option to provide its customers with more payment options.
Going forward, ShopEx is poised to capture Africa’s fast-growing e-commerce market buoyed by high mobile phone penetration rates and social media growth. The company aims to become the QVC of Africa and go beyond transactional ecommerce or traditional brick-and-mortar stores to create engaging live shopping experiences for customers.
According to ShopEX Country Manager and ex Jumia Chief Marketing Officer, Olajumoke Kujero, customers can expect exciting initiatives in the near future.
“We are delighted to receive this funding from HAVAÍC, it’s a vote of confidence that gives us an extra boost in our journey to delivering Africa’s first truly omni-channel shopping experience across digital and traditional media.
With exciting initiatives like our soon to launch ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ scheme and the various ongoing retail and affiliate partnership conversations in the works, our customers can expect to get the absolute best value for money spent on the quality globally acclaimed products we have in our offering.”
This latest funding round will enable ShopEx to continue growing its team, brand, product agreements, inventory, and operations into new markets with Ghana already underway.