Omnibiz raises $15 million pre-Series A led by Timon Capital

Omnibiz, a Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform, has closed a $15M  Pre-Series A round, led by Timon Capital. Ventures Platform, Lofty Inc, Chapel Hill Denham, Chandaria and Musha Ventures also participated in the round which was structured as $5M equity and $10M debt.

Omnibiz will use the funding to double down on winning the loyalty of retail customers and driving their retention. Beyond simply offering bargain wholesale prices to retailers, Omnibiz is providing its retail customers with the tools to increase their revenues and profitability.

After fintech, informal retail is turning into one of the hottest sectors in African tech. Despite their small size, they are a mighty force in aggregate, driving 70% of food, beverages, and personal care item sales across the continent. It is estimated that there are 2.5 million small retailers in Africa.

They generate $1TN in sales annually and contribute $2.6 trillion to nominal GDP. The informal sector creates 80% of jobs - of which a large chunk are linked to traditional trade.

Despite their paramount importance in supply chains, retailers are plagued with immense challenges in scaling their businesses. Some of those challenges are procurements, stockouts, inventory, and working capital.

One of the startups helping to fix this challenge is Omnibiz who connects fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) manufacturers to retailers by digitising the supply chain stakeholders.

Omnibiz’s mystore app offers retailers powerful bookkeeping and other business tools to operate their enterprise at peak efficiency and maximise profits. Utilising the insights provided by the platform, retailers can view inventory stock in real-time and avoid purchasing SKUs that they may struggle to sell.

Retailers can purchase and restock conveniently from over 200 product brands through the Omnibiz platform, as well as access credit, buy-now-pay-later options and other financial services through the MyStore app.

Omnibiz’s effectiveness is reflected by the fact that over half of the company’s  annual GMV of $130M comes from repeat retail customers.  More than 3,000 retailers use Omnibiz every day.

Founded in 2019 by Deepankar Rustagi, Omnibiz has grown rapidly into a leading B2B e-commerce platform, connecting retailers in Nigeria and Ghana with over 200 brands delivered by a network of more than 70 logistics partners. The startup had earlier raised $3 million to expand into new markets like Abidjan, Takoradi, Kumasi and Accra.

“We believe the smart informal retailer – not shopping malls - is the future of modern retail in Africa. By providing the capital, tools and logistics, we will enable retailers to offer great merchandising at an affordable price point to win their customers’ trust. This funding will allow us to quadruple the profitability of our retailers, build a scalable and profitable business, and take us one step closer to transforming African retail,” said Deepankar Rustagi, Omnibiz CEO and founder.

The round was led by Timon Capital, a pan-African venture capital firm that funds early and growth stage startups with an impressive portfolio which includes Lori systems, mPharma, Autochek, Nestcoin, Bloc, Thepeer, Wasoko, Decagon.

“We invested in Omnibiz because we believe that it is solving a much needed problem,” said Nikos Katsaounis, Timon Capital Partner.  “The FMCG supply chain is fragmented, inefficient, and opaque. Omnibiz tackles all of these problems and addresses them with an efficient software layer that provides much needed data on this otherwise obscure market and supply chain. Deepankar Rustagi is an excellent operating CEO.”