Klasha secures $2.1 million additional seed to enable cross-border commerce in Africa
Klasha has secured an additional $2.1 million to complete its $4.5 million seed round.
Four days after the launch of Klasha 2.0, Klasha announced that it has secured $2.1 million to complete its $4.5 million seed round.
This additional seed is an investment from a group of international investors co-led by American Express (AMEX) Ventures, the strategic investment group of American Express. AMEX is making its African investment debut with this investment. Meanwhile, investors from the first seed tranche such as Greycroft, Seedcamp, Plug and Play, Berrywood Capital and Breega reinvested.
Founded in 2018, the Techstars backed company started as a fashion e-commerce company. It later transitioned into a company that builds payment integration for retailers. The payment API allows African consumers to buy from global retailers online in their local currencies and get their items shipped quickly to the continent. Now, Klasha is focused on Africa's cross-border payment.
In 2020, the revenue generated by online shopping in Africa was estimated to be around 27.97 billion U.S dollars, an increase of over 6 billion since 2019. According to estimates made by Statista, the e-commerce revenue in Africa will keep increasing between 2021 and 2025. In 2025, the whole e-commerce sector in Africa might reach a value of over 46.1 billion U.S. dollars.
Per TechCrunch, Klasha is growing 20% month-on-month in merchant acquisitions and 17.5% in transaction volume. So far, the company has processed more than 210,000 transactions—10x its figure from last October—from over 1,700 merchants.
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"Given the rising figure of digital buyers in the continent, it is important that consumers in Africa have the same access to the global e-commerce economy experienced in other continents," Jess Anuna, Founder and CEO of Klasha, said.
Anuna added that "the core mission of Klasha is to streamline cross border commerce from Africa to the rest of the world. And in turn, give the rest of the world access to African consumers on the ground who want and need these goods globally."
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