Acasia Ventures and Ventures Platform, two early-stage venture capital firms, have co-led the pre-seed fundraising for Lengo AI, a Senegalese artificial intelligence-driven FMCG intelligence platform.
P1 Ventures, Launch Africa, and Voltron Capital, as well as several additional VCs and angel investors, participated in the round.
Lengo AI will use the funding to grow its tech and sales teams, advance the AI component of its solution, and enter new African markets.
Lengo AI, the first data-driven operating system for informal retail in Africa, was launched in 2022 by Max Smith (CEO), Roger Xavier Macia (CCO, formerly CCO of Jumia in Senegal), and Ismaila Seck (CTO).
It seeks to provide FMCG businesses with intelligence and highly actionable insights from the tens of thousands of corner stores that account for 90% of all purchases in Africa.
The software-as-a-service platform connects retailers and FMCG corporations with real-time performance statistics on the sales of items using a hybrid method combining Lengo Eagles (field agents) and AI.
Lengo was just selected for the Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First program’s first cohort. On the corporate front, it aids regional FMCG firms in making the most of their resources and offers information on consumer trends to foreign firms looking to expand into Africa.
Lengo AI already offers over 2,000 goods near real-time market monitoring from a ground-level perspective. Smith noted that the firm is currently attempting to use AI to connect with corner stores, the final node in the retail network, at scale.
“We’re building a very low friction technology with retailers and actively recruiting for the best AI and Software Engineers. Thanks to the support from Acacia Ventures, we hope to gain expertise in Nigeria and Egypt, and accordingly, make the right connections in both countries to expand our product for shopkeepers and work with brands to stop guessing Africa.”
The company is mapping out an additional six cities. It was the first to map out corner shops selling FMCG products in Dakar. Over 30,000 corner stores were accounted for and plotted out today by Lengo AI.
Aly El Shalakany, Managing Partner of Acasia Ventures said that the partnership with Lengo will implement an ambitious business plan and bring in some of the best VCs active on the continent.
We are delighted to join the board to help the team further develop the strategy and open new and exciting markets for the company,” said Shalakany.
