Aruwa Capital Management, an early-stage growth equity and gender lens fund investing in Nigeria and Ghana, has announced an investment in OmniRetail (the “Company”), a tech-first B2B e-commerce company that aggregates end-to-end retail operations to help manufacturers, distributors, logistic partners, and retailers achieve their business goals through a seamless supply chain framework and embedded finance.
OmniRetail was founded in 2019 as a salesforce automation software company used by brands and distributors in the FMCG sector. However, following the COVID-19 epidemic, the company realized that they were only treating one side of the problem in the retail value chain. They used this to create OmniBiz, an online store that allows retailers to order product and have it delivered within 24 hours.
Today, the Company has onboarded prominent African brands and manufacturers, streamlining their whole distribution processes with technology and robust operations, and providing them with market data. OmniRetail today has over 65,000 merchants on its platform, which provides them with easy access to a wide range of SKUs, order fulfillment, payments and collections, inventory financing, inventory management, and business information.
OmniRetail serves a big and thriving retail sector in Nigeria and Africa, with over 100 million independent and informal shops on the continent and yearly sales in excess of $1 trillion. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), informal channels account for 90% of retail transactions. In Kenya, informal transactions account for 70% of retail sales, 96% in Ghana, and 98% in Nigeria.
Retailers frequently face a broken supply chain because the network of distributors, wholesalers, and logistics is fragmented and disorganized. This decreases the opportunity for producers, distributors, and retailers. OmniRetail is tackling this difficulty by expanding its technology suite and on-the-ground activities, which are assisting it in solving important problems encountered by major distribution value chain partners in Nigeria and Africa.
OmniRetail’s objective of enabling financial inclusion throughout the ecosystem is also underway, and the company has purposefully invested in data and technology to gain visibility into the business and cash flow health of its loyal store base. Because of the Company’s agreements with various banks and POS partners, the OmniPay platform can aid with seamless payments as well as extend working capital credit to merchants based on company information.
OmniRetail has developed a unified payment and credit platform, and the Company’s strategic intelligence, data, and enablement emphasis distinguishes it in the informal retail and trade industry.
OmniRetail has more than quadrupled retailers’ earning potential and increased financial inclusion in Nigeria and Africa. More than 78% of the Company’s retailers and distributors are women, advancing gender equality and economic empowerment across the African continent.
“We are excited to partner with Aruwa Capital on this exciting journey as we approach our next phase of growth,” stated Deepankar Rustagi, CEO of OmniRetail. We feel that having Aruwa as shareholders will be beneficial to our growth because the team at Aruwa Capital has demonstrated their commitment to providing strategic support that will help us become the growth engine of traditional retailers in Africa. This investment will help us reach our market deepening and expansion goals, allowing us to address even more difficulties faced by retail distribution value chain stakeholders. We are appreciative to the Aruwa Capital team for believing in our mission and the impact we are having on the ground in Africa.”
“We are excited to have completed this investment in Omniretail,” said Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Founder & Managing Partner of Aruwa Capital. We admire the Company’s technological stack since it has produced many integrated digital solutions that address real-life difficulties in the African retail value chain. We believe that this technological stack will play a significant role in the Company’s network-effect strategy across the FMCG value chain in Africa in the long run. We are especially pleased by the breadth and strength of the Company’s supply chain activities, which are driving the e-commerce categories.
“We believe that these supply chain capabilities have played a significant influence in the Company’s success over the last three years. We see tremendous prospects for OmniPay since they are obviously customer-focused and devoted to making a significant difference for all stakeholders. OmniRetail is fostering the economic growth of over 50,000 women retailers today and counting, in accordance with Aruwa’s gender lens investing strategy, through increased revenue and inclusion in the digital financial bracket. Furthermore, about half of the Company’s personnel is female, demonstrating our philosophy of women empowerment through our investments.”
OmniRetail is on a mission to empower the African supply chain by digitizing complex supply networks and maximizing revenues for stakeholders. Each OmniRetail service (OmniBiz, OmniPay, and Mplify) serves retailers, distributors, and manufacturers by increasing profit and facilitating business execution.
OmniBiz is a B2B e-commerce startup that focuses on the transformation of traditional retail in Africa. OmniRetail has created a decentralized approach to digitized retail with its embedded finance technology, OmniPay, and Mplify, the Distribution Management Solution.
