Denis Opudo
We can categorically state that the current tech revolution is of much help to Africa. Most African startups are now in a position to get funding from all over the world. Furthermore, African startups have gained the trust of international investors.Kenya’s Sky.Garden was launched back in 2017. The startup is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for mobile e-commerce. It was built with the idea of African businesses in mind. Since the launch, the platform has been able to register more than 3,000 first time sellers. The sellers can now access their personal Sky.Garden web shops. The owners of the shops have above 23,000 unique items. Moreover, items are uploaded to 30 different categories.
The Kenyan based e-commerce platform closed its funding round worth $1.2 million. The round was led by Futuristic.vc from Dutch, The Katapult Accelerator Follow-up Fund. There were also Jesper Drescher and TRK Group from Norway. The startup was happy to receive such support from prominent investors. The competitiveness of the e-commerce market makes it hard to get funding. However, positive influence that the startup has had on small and medium businesses is an encouragement to them. That gives them the zeal to keep on pressing higher. This is according to Daniel Maison the startup’s chief executive officer (CEO).
The Kenyan e-commerce market is receiving more participants in 2018. Moreover small and medium scale businesses are shifting to e-commerce. They are doing that to increase their sales volume. Sky.Garden says that there is a huge opportunity in the country. This is because of the higher penetration of smartphones. Reliable internet across the country also plays an important role. Every seller possesses a smartphone. Moreover, they command a huge following on social media platforms. They also have good items for sale. Sky.Garden is only putting all the factors together to assist them to sell and gain much profit.
Sky.Garden’s has a strong team with vast experience in venture building, large retail, local markets and tech. this was the reasons why investors got attracted to it. The startup’s ability to influence the country’s economic growth was also considered by the investors. They did that by getting too small and medium businesses also played a major role. Sky.Garden is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Kenya and possibly in Africa.
