Partech Ventures Pours USD 3 Mn Into Nigeria’s TradeDepot To Boost Retail Distribution In Africa

TradeDepot, the SaaS platform for FMCG distribution has received a USD 3 million funding boost in a series A round. This comes as the first investment from Partech Venture‘s Africa Fund that was launched earlier this year.

The Lagos-based company’s platform offers a full product suite for FMCG companies, distributors and retailers, delivering visibility and control over the route-to-market for manufacturers, inventory and logistics optimization for distributors and on-demand ordering and delivery for informal retailers.

The startup currently works with six consumer packaged-goods companies in Nigeria including Promasidor, Coca Cola and Population Sciences International. This investment will enable the team to drive aggressive product development and further deployment of the solution among newer FMCG companies and their existing customers.

TradeDepot co-founder and CEO Onyekachi Izukanne reckons that “This first external funding round was critical for us: we have proven that there is a strong demand for such a distribution platform among consumer goods companies and retailers in emerging markets, and we now wish to use these funds to support our growth strategy”.

“In Nigeria alone, this USD340 billion market loses more than USD4 billion every year due to a lack of visibility and the resulting waste in logistics, making retailers in African countries subject to some of the highest product distribution costs in the world.” he adds.