Grace Ashiru
A robust market intelligence strategy gives startups a constant bird’s-eye view of the market.With a bird’s-eye view of the market, your organization can remain strong in volatile marketplaces, quickly pivoting as necessary.
Most product sales in emerging areas like Africa happen offline. This is because informal trade and cash-based transactions are common in these places.
Because of this, it’s hard to get accurate information about the value of a product on the market. However, local and international brands rely on data like market size and value, consumer profiles and purchasing power, and the penetration of competitors’ products to enter or grow their presence in such markets.
A Techcrunch study says that Rwazi, a market intelligence firm, is filling the void by giving market data backed by information acquired from clients. This keeps brands from going into growing countries without knowing anything about them.
Joseph Rutakangwa, co-founder and CEO of Rwazi, said that, unlike larger research organizations that reach conclusions based on sample data, the business requires unit-level data like the size of products bought, how often they are bought, and where customers live.
The funding round led by Bonfire Ventures, with participation from Newfund Capital and Alumni Ventures, will fund the startup’s expansion and product launch.
The startup started in 2021 and is now growing in emerging areas like Africa, where it says it is present in 40 nations. They are also in South Asia and Latin America markets.
Rutakangwa and Eric Sewankambo started the startup. This year, the company is putting out novel products that can be used in multiple languages. This has been a problem for the company’s expansion in these areas.
The firm argues that multi-language support will help them scale in their current regions while increasing consumer demographic data.
Customers report their purchases on Rwazi’s platform using a website or mobile app and are paid for validated entries.
After trying a few things that didn’t work, like hiring agents and sales teams, the business got data directly from consumers.
In addition, because brands are receiving data directly from the source and can observe the process by which customers choose products to buy, these companies can employ hyperlocal strategies for pricing, message, and packaging.
Rwazi collects data regarding product utilization, consumption frequency, household budgets, and income. The requirements of those who have subscribed to the SaaS product are the primary focus of the data.
According to Rutakangwa, the necessity for current data, in addition to the difficulties the founders encountered in their prior positions while attempting to acquire timely market insights, served as the impetus for the creation of Rwanda.
He says that the most easily accessible data, which state agencies often give, is either outdated or focuses on general patterns instead of the specific data needed to take the right actions. Former students of the African Leadership University in Mauritius set out to address this gap.
He believes that the most accessible data, typically from state agencies, is either out of date or focuses on general patterns instead of the exact data needed to take the proper steps. Ex-students of the African Leadership University in Mauritius decided to do something about this.
Last year, Rwazi took part in the Techstars Los Angeles accelerator program. It now has a network of 50,000 users and 18 multinationals, keeping an eye on more than 200 products in industries like fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, telecommunications, and financial services.
Some firms use its platform to look for new places to grow or to make investments that will make them more competitive.
He says others are looking for growing areas with attractive demographics where they can set up shop and make money in the future.
