JABU: Our first (of hopefully many!) investment in Africa

It’s not very often that in the first meeting you learn about how the founder was kidnapped at gunpoint when he was 11! Meet David Akinin, the fearless leader of JABU, our first pre-seed investment in the continent of Africa.

The African startup landscape provides a compelling opportunity for VC investment; the continent’s 1.35B population is characterized by young, educated populations who are eager to lean into a digital transformation.

One major market opportunity lies in the informal retail economy, which lacks the tech infrastructure needed to effectively scale and serve communities. In southern Africa, 67% of commerce and 80% of jobs are attributed to the informal retail sector; this accounts for a $200B market. In the same region, however, local merchants are still reliant on taxis as transportation to far-away markets, where they stock up on whatever goods they can carry. It’s difficult for them to keep track of their inventory needs and provide sufficient stock to meet local demand. Merchants are also often making razor-thin margins as they struggle to finance this burdensome method of procurement.

Enter JABU — a last-mile B2B e-Commerce and distribution marketplace serving the informal retail sector in Africa. The company recently launched in both Namibia and Zambia with the mission to address the most common obstacles faced by the countries’ informal retailers. JABU partners with major brands like Coca-Cola to purchase wholesale products that they resell at affordable prices to local merchants via an eCommerce marketplace. The goods are delivered by JABU drivers on-demand, for free, to shops, bars, restaurants, and market stands across the country. By digitally mapping the urban landscape, JABU is reinventing the way retailers order, stock, and receive supplies for their shops in southern Africa.

Since Afore invested in early 2021, JABU has grown 45X in monthly GMV while increasing average transaction volume by 5X.