By Ghanaian startup KudiGO, which builds solutions for the consumer retail industry, is opening its Nigerian office this month, while it is also making inroads in East African markets.
Launched in November 2018, KudiGO provides an integrated, mobile-based retail, payments, accounting and analytics engine for the consumer retail industry in Ghana and Nigeria, helping over 1,000 businesses receive payments, track inventories and build sound financial models based on past trends.
Selected by Disrupt Africa as one of its “12 African startups to watch in 2019”, KudiGO duly had a very busy year indeed, closing a US$450,000 seed funding round back in April to expand its customer base and launch new products. The investment came from Founders Factory Africa, with KudiGo one of five African startups selected to take part in its first six-month African accelerator, and three angel investors from Ghana, the United States (US) and Nigeria.
KudiGO’s “chief enabler” Kingsley Abrokwah said the startup had since grown its user base substantially, from 800 stores in March to over 4,000 as of today. Average orders processed monthly has grown to over 20,000, while it has processed over US$2.4 million in transaction value so far.
Expanding this customer base means launching in new markets, and KudiGo will open an office in Nigeria this month. Meanwhile, it is making inroads in Kenya and Uganda.
“We are working with an FMCG company in East Africa to deploy our storefront solution to 10,000 merchants in Q1 2020,” Abrokwah said.
The startup is also launching a second product for suppliers and distributors, named RapidGate.
“It’s a web and mobile based distribution management system designed for consumer retail distributors, aimed that connecting them with their retailers and enabling value chain accessibility,” said Abrokwah.
To finance all of this growth, KudiGO is currently in the process of closing a bridge pre-Series A round worth US$500,000, which Abrokwah said it hoped to finalise on in the first three months of 2020
