Sabi, a Nigerian B2B marketplace serving the informal sector, has received a $6 million bridge round led by CRE Venture Capital to support its continued fast-paced growth in Nigeria and beyond.
The funding round was joined by international investors including Janngo Capital, Atlantica Ventures, and Waarde Capital. This bridge round financing will help accelerate the company’s rapid growth as it eyes new markets including South Africa and Kenya.
Founded in 2020, Sabi is digitising Nigeria’s $244 billion informal trade sector by enabling agents, merchants, wholesalers, aggregators, distributors and manufacturers to grow their businesses using Sabi’s technology rails. These rails facilitate access to fulfillment, logistics, ERP tools, data insights, a B2B marketplace, and financial services.
According to the startup, it has over 175,000 merchants using its category agnostic platform to manage their businesses and make B2B transactions. Merchants are transacting at over a US$100 million GMV annualized rate on Sabi’s platform.
Sabi’s network of over 10,000 agents now interacts with merchants across all 36 Nigerian states, delivering the online and offline support needed to properly service the over 41 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in Nigeria alone that can benefit from the Sabi platform.
Anu Adasolum, CEO of Sabi, commented, “We are excited to have closed this bridge round as Sabi continues to grow at an incredible pace. Our merchant users are taking advantage of every part of our platform, and the quality of the B2B partners we have brought onto the market is clear from the ever-increasing transaction volume.”
Pardon Makumbe, Co-founder & Managing Partner of CRE Venture Capital, added, “CRE Venture Capital is proud to support Sabi’s continued growth across Nigeria and expansion into Kenya and South Africa.
Sabi’s online/offline approach to serving informal businesses, combined with the quality of its platform and service provider curation, has clearly taken root in Nigeria. The company is on track to be one of the fastest-growing African companies of 2021 and is showing no signs of slowing down.”
Ademola Adesina, co-founder of Sabi, added, “now that Sabi is operational all across Nigeria, we look forward to bringing our solution into new markets with similar informal sector challenges, starting with Kenya and then South Africa. Sabi’s team, platform, and investors are ready to continue scaling Sabi into Africa’s leading B2B marketplace.”
