Jendaya raises funding to scale its Africa-focused luxury e-commerce platform
Summary
Jendaya, a one-year-old startup that acts as a gateway for global luxury brands to the African continent and for consumers in the rest of the world to discover African brands, is coming out stealth, having raised \xa31 million (~$1.2 million) in pre-seed funding.The London-based but Africa-focused platform was founded by CEO Ayotunde Rufai, who had the idea to start Jendaya after repeatedly acting as a personal shopper for luxury items in the U.K. for relatives back in Nigeria. According to the statement shared by the company, it wants to shine a light on the abundance of talent and storytelling emanating from the region by positioning African names seamlessly in the same league as seasoned western labels such as Issey Miyake, Lanvin and Givenchy.Jendaya is a luxury e-commerce platform for the Global Citizen Africa included being the most important part because the African citizen is also very global, theyre very metropolitan, well traveled and exposed, theyre tastemakers, said Rufai of the regular Jendaya shopper. So far, Jendaya has seen the most traction from the U.K., Nigeria, Ghana, and the U.S., markets representing the most affluent black and diasporan neighborhoods.The year-old e-commerce startup has processed about 300 orders since its launch 13 months ago. And Jendaya Labs, the startups creative agency that counts the likes of Casablanca, Ozwald Boateng, Paul Smith and Burberry, to name a few, as clients. The startup has also received financing from Ada VC, Culture Capital, actress Maisie Williams and music celebrities Bizzle Osikoya and Asa Asika.