JABU, a Namibian B2B e-commerce Startup, Raises $15m in a Series A Funding Round

JABU, a Namibian B2B e-commerce startup, announced that it raised $15m in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global.

JABU says that the new funds will be used to deepen its presence in Southern Africa, expanding to new markets like Botswana and Eswatini later this year.

JABU is powering the way in which shop-owners order, source, and stock their products, and executing the last mile of distribution for FMCG brands. The startup operated in stealth mode for much of last year and became the first Namibian startup to be accepted into the Y Combinator Accelerator for the summer 2021 batch.

The logistics company currently has about 9000 merchants using its platform across Namibia, South Africa and Zambia.

Additionally, they also have a digital wallet based product named Jwallet which allows its merchants to use physical inflows to offer cash withdrawals and deposit services for their customers. This is similar to agency banking services in Nigeria and Moroccan-based Chari also offers a similar product.

“You can offer your end consumers the ability to withdraw and deposit money into their wallets and bank accounts through JABU. So we’re connecting an API to banks into the interchange, literally to allow someone who received money via the wallet to walk up to a JABU merchant who can use their physical float and withdraw money.” David Akin founder and CEO at JABU.

Other investors in this round include Box Group, Knollwood, D Global Ventures, Afore Capital, Oldslip and FJ Labs. This is the second time for some of the investors like Afore Capital, Oldslip and FJ Labs who were involved in the $3.2 million seed financing round some months ago.