Tech in Africa
In a sign of startups cooperating across Africa to solve the last mile challenges in distribution and sales efficiency across the value chain, Pezesha will provide affordable inventory options and wholesale distribution financing to merchants on the MarketForce platform.
MarketForce is a Kenya retailtech automation startup offering end-to-end mobile-based innovations for consumer brands to deliver essential goods and services to both retailers and consumers. Companies can also benefit from the real-time market insights boosting their efficiency and product delivery. Pezesha on the other hand is a digital financial enabler ecosystem targeting small and medium-sized businesses.
We earlier covered how Pezesha won the AFI Inclusive fintech showcase. Given their focus on underserved African communities, they make a perfect duo to capture the small-scale and informal market segment where MarketForce is equally invested into. The two will further provide value-added services such as digital tools and financial literacy that help the retailers adopt the best record-keeping practices while building digital transactions that boost their creditworthiness over time.
According to the PWC, Africa is home to over a billion people, a figure that could rise past 2 billion by the year 2050. The continent’s huge young population is a key driver of growth with over 226 million people aged between 15 and 25 years as per 2016 World Bank estimates. Informal trade dominates Africa’s largely rural population. 90% of retail sales take part through informal channels, an area several innovative retailtech startups are looking to exploit. MarketForce looks to tackle this problem by offering merchants solutions that help them grow financially.
Hilda Moraa, the CEO at Pezesha described the partnership as “timely” allowing them to embed credit cost-effectively via existing distribution processes.
Tesh Mbaabu, the CEO at MarketForce expressed excitement in the partnership with Pezesha, pointing out the newly designed credit product that ensures “retailers never run out of stock.”
