B2B E-commerce Company targeting informal retailers, Sokowatch has secured a seed investment of $2Mn led by 4DX Ventures alongside other investment firms including Village Global, Lynett Capital, Golden Palm Investments and Outlierz Ventures.
Sokowatch enables informal retailers to order products at any time via SMS or the mobile app with same day delivery to their store. Leveraging historic purchasing data of retailers the company is able to provide them with access to credit and other financial services.
“With both manufacturers and the small shops, we’re becoming the connective layer between them, where previously you had multiple layers of middle-men from distributors, sub-distributors, to wholesalers,” Sokowatch founder and CEO Daniel Yu told ‘TechCrunch’.
“We estimate we’re cutting that cost by about 20 percent for these shopkeepers, ”he added
In February the company had revealed plans to expand to Mombasa in the third quarter and other East African markets in the fourth quarter and early 2019 after strong revenue growth in 2017.
Peter Orth, Co-Founder and Managing Partner and lead investor 4DX Ventures, will join Sokowatch’s board of directors.
Leveraging on data analytics
Aside from delivering goods on a touch of a button when needed, Sokowatch’s systems track real time sales and orders across thousands of stores. The firm is able to track market trends and purchasing habits hence enabling manufacturers to tailor their marketing strategies allowing Sokowatch to offer personalized promotions and business insights to individual retailers.
