Grace Ashiru
Kenyan social commerce startup Sukhiba Connect has successfully raised a $1.55 million seed extension round, almost a year after initially securing $1.5 million in seed funding aimed at expanding beyond the East African region. The recent round was led by EQ2 Ventures, with further investments coming from Accion Venture Lab, Musha Ventures, Quona Capital, and existing backer CRE Ventures. Sukhiba Connect plans to utilize this new influx of capital to accelerate its growth across Africa and into other emerging markets.
Founded by Ananth Raj Gudipati and Abhinav Reddy in 2021, Sukhiba Connect is a conversational commerce and CRM platform that operates on WhatsApp. Aimed at emerging markets, the platform assists medium and large enterprises in boosting their sales and customer retention through WhatsApp.
Sukhiba Connect has introduced a B2B conversational commerce tool designed to help businesses connect with and sell directly to customers via WhatsApp. According to the Global Web Index’s 2020 Social Media User Trends Report, a staggering 97% of internet users in Kenya use WhatsApp monthly. By January 2024, a survey revealed that WhatsApp and TikTok were the most popular social media platforms in Kenya.
Capitalizing on these trends, Sukhiba Connect’s conversational commerce and CRM platform uses WhatsApp as its primary operating system, tailoring its offerings—such as sales, marketing, customer service, and payment solutions—around the WhatsApp framework.
Sukhiba Connect offers a comprehensive solution for sellers, allowing them to efficiently manage orders, accept payments through local methods like M-Pesa, send notifications, and organize customer groups. Meanwhile, buyers benefit from the convenience of browsing product catalogs, adding or removing items from their shopping carts, and completing purchases, all directly through WhatsApp.
The platform, according to the company, scales seamlessly by integrating with multiple payment providers and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, including SAP, ERPNext, Shopify, and WooCommerce.
“SUKHIBA is designed to bridge the gap between brands, manufacturers, distributors, and their customers in emerging markets by leveraging the ubiquitous nature of WhatsApp,” the company states.
“This seed extension represents a pivotal moment for us, enabling the expansion of our operations and the enhancement of our SaaS platform to better serve our growing customer base, which includes manufacturers, distributors, and D2C brands,” says Gudipati.
Following its initial seed round in 2023, Sukhiba Connect reports substantial growth, now operating across eight markets in Africa and India. The company has established collaborations with leading manufacturers, distributors, major retail chains, and direct-to-consumer brands.
Over 35,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use the platform to buy products and services through its network of merchant partners. In 2023, the startup also supported WhatsApp commerce for more than 30 prominent companies, including some of the top manufacturers and distributors. These companies, in turn, cater to nearly 15,000 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), encompassing various retailers.
Furthermore, Sukhiba Connect is striving to become the leading customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation solution in emerging markets. It aims to compete with other social commerce platforms like Kapu and MarketForce’s Chpter.
