Tech in Africa
Cartona has announced a $4.5 million pre-Series A funding round connecting retailers and manufacturers through an application. Cartona is working to play a bigger role in e-commerce and retail play. The round was led by Global Ventures with participation from Kepple Africa, T5 Capital, and several other angel investors.
Cartona was founded in 2020 when working to solve the supply-chain and operational challenges faced by players operating in the FCMG industry while helping buyers access products from sellers through a single platform.
Cartona operates an asset-light marketplace where even grocery retailers must receive orders from a curated network of sellers. FMCGs and suppliers can optimize their go-to-market execution through the use of data and analytics. Cartona earns by taking a commission on orders made through these processes and charges suppliers running adverts to merchants.
TechCrunch reports that Cartona has over 30,000 merchants on its platform. Cumulatively, the platform has processed over 400,000 orders resulting in an annualized GMV of over $64 million. The startup works with over 1,000 distributors, wholesalers, and a score of FMCG companies. Thus far over 10,000 products are available for consumers.
Source: TechCrunch
