The round was led by Ken Njoroge, co-founder and former CEO of Cellulant, through his investment firm PANI, with additional participation from investors such as Plesion Capital, Techstars, Norrsken, Renew Capital, and ViKtoria Ventures. 

Angel investors included Benjamin Fernandes, founder and CEO of NALA, and the co-founders of Workpay, Paul Kimani and Jackson Kibigo.

Founded in 2022 by Tesh Mbaabu, Mesongo Sibuti, Kuria Kevin, and Mark Kiarie, Chpter aims to improve the way businesses engage with customers on social media platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram. 

The platform enables merchants to simplify their sales processes by integrating chat, order management, and payment systems, thereby converting social media from a mere marketing tool into a fully functional sales channel.

The funds raised will be utilised to accelerate product development, expand the platform’s availability across more countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and enhance sales and marketing efforts to meet the growing demand from businesses. 

Chpter’s platform is already operational in Kenya and South Africa, serving a variety of clients including Britam, Kicks Kenya, and Phoneplace.

Social commerce has gained high traction in Africa, with an increasing number of transactions being conducted via social media. This trend is driven by the accessibility and ease of use of these platforms, particularly in emerging markets where digital literacy and data costs can be barriers to traditional e-commerce. 

However, many businesses face challenges in managing customer interactions and converting them into sales, leading to revenue losses due to abandoned carts and inefficient order fulfilment processes.

Chpter addresses these issues by offering an AI-powered platform that automates customer interactions and integrates with popular e-commerce and customer relationship management systems such as Shopify and Woocommerce. 

This improves the efficiency of sales processes and also enhances the overall customer experience by providing personalised engagement across multiple social media platforms.

The startup’s innovative approach and prospect for pan-African success have attracted attention from investors. The participation of firms like PANI and Plesion Capital, as well as the endorsement from well-regarded angel investors, is a result of a strong vote of confidence in Chpter’s business model and leadership team.

In addition to the funding, Chpter has been recognised by several accelerator programs, including the Norrsken Accelerator and the Safaricom Spark Accelerator, which further validates its works in the growing field of conversational commerce.

Chpter further plans to expand its operations into five more markets, including Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, and Morocco, as it continues to pursue its vision of improving social commerce across the African continent.

The post Kenya’s Chpter Bags $1.2M Pre-Seed to Transform Social Media into Sales Channels appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Elia Timotheo from Tanzania, Tesh Mbaabu from Kenya and Nadia Gamal El Din from Egypt were named first, second and third prize winners, respectively. The first prize winner received a $300,000 grant to accelerate his business growth further.

The top three Africa’s Business Heroes for 2022 are:

1st – winning $300,000 – Elia Timotheo, Founder and CEO of East Africa Fruits Co. (Tanzania)

2nd – winning $250,000 – Tesh Mbaabu, Co-Founder and CEO of Marketforce Technologies (Kenya)

3rd – winning $150,000 – Nadia Gamal El Din, Founder and CEO of Rahet Bally (Egypt)

“I’d like to thank the ABH team for working with us along the journey, and my fellow Heroes for being there for me. I especially want to bring this victory back to my team as I would not have been where I am now without them. More significantly, the award is meant to demonstrate to my fellow Tanzanians that entrepreneurship is the way forward and that food sustainability is attainable for all young Africans if we have the courage to make things happen,” says Elia Timotheo, Founder and CEO of East Africa Fruits Co., a food distributor that leverages data and technology to create efficiencies for farmers and consumers while reducing food waste.

Tesh Mbaabu was also chosen as the winner of the “People’s Choice” award, which was newly introduced this year to encourage audiences to support their favorite Hero among the top ten finalists through online voting.

“The winners of the 2022 Africa’s Business Heroes competition embody the incredible entrepreneurial spirit in the region. The judges recognized them for their leadership, passion, and ability to drive positive impact across Africa through their businesses. Despite the unprecedented challenges of the past two years, these entrepreneurs have inspired us all with their resilience and unwavering commitment to their businesses and communities,” said Jason Pau, Executive Director of International Programs, Jack Ma Foundation.

The finalists other than the top three will each receive $100,000 in prize funding, and an additional $10,000 will be allocated to each of the top ten finalists for immersive training program(s) and community gathering activities.

The ten finalists of this year’s competition were chosen from an initial pool of over 21,000 applications from all 54 African countries after six months’ rigorous evaluation by over 300 judges.

Over 7,000 viewers from across the globe watched the Grand Finale live online, following the finalists as they pitched their businesses to a final panel of esteemed judges: Ibukun Awosika, Founder and CEO of The Chair Centre Group, Victor Williams, CEO of NBA Africa, and Joe Tsai, Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba Group.

The Grand Finale judges were impressed with the caliber of the finalists and their businesses, commenting:

“Congratulations to all the finalists and winners of this year’s ABH competition. Once again, I am privileged to take part in the judging panel and to be able to put a spotlight on the important work being done by trailblazing entrepreneurs on the African continent. We hope to see the businesses of these outstanding entrepreneurs flourish into bigger and better enterprises that will stimulate socio-economic development beyond their local markets,” said Ibukun Awosika, Founder and CEO of The Chair Centre Group.

“Congratulations to all the finalists and the winners of this year’s ABH competition. Entrepreneurship is more than just building a successful business; it takes true grit and passion to create and seize opportunities where they don’t always exist. These exceptional entrepreneurs are all worthy winners and I’m excited to see how they will continue to drive progress in their respective markets, and across the African continent,” said Victor Williams, CEO of NBA Africa.

“The ABH competition is an incredible opportunity to see the vigorous entrepreneurship taking place on the African continent. This year’s winners are role models of entrepreneurship from the standpoint of changing people’s lives and creating opportunities for people to transform society with the use of technology. We believe their contribution will be huge if they can inspire more entrepreneurialism across the continent,” said Joe Tsai, Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba Group.

The Africa’s Business Heroes Prize Competition aims to help foster an inclusive and vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa. The annual competition, now in its fourth year, shines a spotlight on talented African entrepreneurs working to make a difference in their communities and helping build a more sustainable, inclusive future. The ABH competition is grassroots oriented as well as age, gender and sector agnostic.

This year’s official competition slogan, “It’s African Time,” was a bold call to action for talented African entrepreneurs to redefine stereotypes associated with “African time” as creating local impact and building a better, more inclusive future through their businesses.

The latest edition of Africa’s Business Heroes TV show will air in 2023. The show will follow the finalists in their exciting journey to the 2022 ABH Grand Finale and features their on-stage pitches and behind-the-scenes moments from the Competition. The full video playback of the 2022 ABH Grand Finale is currently available on ABH’s official YouTube channel.

Pre-registration for the 2023 ABH prize will open in December 2022 and the 2023 ABH application will open in early 2023.

The post Top 3 Winners of Africa’s Business Heroes Emerge from Tanzania, Kenya & Egypt appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The Kenya-based digital retail B2B and end-to-end distribution platform, MarketForce, laid off a number of its staff in July and this development was noted to be a part of a reorganisation strategy in Kenya, one of its five markets which include Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

Per TechCrunch, 54 from its 600 staff were laid off, meaning 9% of its workforce was subtracted from its team and these were in departments such as field sales, supply chain and customer experience departments.

“We were at the phase where we were focused on growth, but we’ve gotten to a point where we’re optimizing towards profitability,” said Tesh Mbaabu, CEO of Marketforce.

Despite the relevance of these relieved positions in the past, they are no longer indispensable to the company as it focuses on driving more revenue per merchant.

Via an email sent by the CEO to employees, he said the company’s decision was due to the global economic uncertainties and MarketForce wants to optimise the business for different growth metrics.

“Some roles in the Kenya market will become redundant, and new ones will emerge; all our other markets will not be impacted,” he said. 

Marketforce plans to support affected employees in the following ways: 

• Offer them counseling services on navigating change and managing anxiety during uncertain times
• Offer a training session on revamping their CV, optimising their LinkedIn profile and interview preparation techniques
• Partner with recruiters who will consider them for opportunities within other organisations that are looking to hire
• Offer a certificate of service and letter of recommendation as appropriate
• Pay them in lieu of notice in addition to a severance package of 15 days for every completed year of service and unutilised leave days

The post Kenya’s MarketForce Lays Off 9% of Staff appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.