Badili, a Kenyan smartphone re-commerce startup, has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding to scale its operations within Africa.
The investment came from Venture Catalysts, V&R Africa, Grenfell holdings and SOSV as well as family offices and angel investors from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and India.
With the new funding, Badili plans to explore new growth opportunities in West Africa. It hopes to tap an increasing demand for affordable second-hand smartphones, even as it scales its operations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Badili buys the phones through its platform, and a network of shops and agents spread across the country. It uses its price estimation algorithm, which takes into account various factors, including the age of the phone and its model, to calculate the value of the phone. The phones are revamped, repackaged and resold with a one-year warranty.
The startup takes details, including ID and mugshot, of the sellers, and also requires them to sign an affidavit stating that they are the rightful owners of the devices. It carries out trade-ins and buybacks on behalf of major OEMs and phone dealers, and has, so far, signed partnerships with key brands like Samsung. It buys devices from individuals too.
Currently, the startup is setting up and scaling technology, systems, partnerships and networks needed to build Africa’s most trusted and biggest consumer electronics re-commerce marketplace.
Affordability remains a crucial barrier to smartphone penetration, which is key to powering Africa’s digital economy in most countries across Africa, including Kenya, where feature phones still dominate the handset market. Recent data from the Communications Authority of Kenya indicates that while smartphone penetration is deepening, the feature phones market share currently stands at 55.1%.
Across Africa, the latest data from International Data Corporation (IDC) also shows that consumers opted for cheaper options as feature phones shipments grew by 10.6%, while smartphone consignments dropped by 7.9% in the second quarter of the year owing to growing inflation and the toughening economic outlook.
While the report predicted that smartphone shipments would recover, affordability and consumers’ buying power will continue to play a huge role in smartphone penetration in the continent.
Besides, Badili is tapping the growing refurbished and used mobile phones market, which is expected to hit $146 billion by 2030, growing at CAGR of 11%, partly driven by smartphone adoption in emerging nations.
“We are launching in Uganda and Tanzania and have established strong partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Within the next six months, we will be expanding to a few West African markets to get our foot in the door of some of the major markets in Africa,” said Rishabh Lawania (CEO), who co-founded the startup with Keshu Dubey (CTO) early this year.
