Namibian B2B e-commerce retail platform JABU raises $15M led by Tiger Global – TechCrunch
Summary
Some backers from its seed round: Afore Capital, Oldslip and FJ Labs also doubled down.For many years, merchants who own small to medium-sized kiosks and shops across Africa have dealt with logistics issues when ordering their products from wholesalers and distributors. So were connecting an API to banks into the interchange, literally to allow someone who received money via the wallet to walk up to a JABU merchant who can use their physical float and withdraw money.There are other working parts of Jwallet. More on the latter, Akinin said hes betting that the wallet system can provide a more sustainable alternative to the popular BNPL model that other platforms are offering to merchants.I think buy now, pay later is an optical illusion. This process also helps merchants build up their transaction histories while they make enough revenue from providing financial services to end customers to pay back.Much of what were doing with our Java wallet is creating an ecosystem around the community and the shop rather than around our balance sheet. Were excited about that as a product because were trying to prove as we scale that there is a different way to engage with shops.The Series A round will see JABU deepen its presence in Southern Africa and expand to new markets like Botswana and Eswatini later this year.