Nigerian eCommerce startup Omnibiz secures $3m seed

Nigerian B2B eCommerce firm Omnibiz has publicly confirmed the completion of a US$3m seed round. With the new funding, the firm will expand its presence into many more key cities in West Africa. Omnibiz also plans to take part in Seed Stars’ accelerator program.

The round was led by V&R Africa, Timon Capital, and Tangerine Insurance. Also part of the effort was LoftyInc, Launch Africa, Musha Ventures, Rising Tide Africa, and Sunu Capital.

Launched in 2019 by CEO Deepankar Rustagi, Omnibiz serves as a connecting platform between manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) with local retailers. This makes it easy for both parties to connect via a mobile app, a phone number, and WhatsApp.

“We’ve been growing 30% month-on-month for the last 12 months,” said Rustagi.

Rustagi believes that the firm’s asset-light business model will make the growth of the firm swifter and more seamless. He also cited that the firm’s tech-centered approach allows sufficient control over most of the variables.

According to him, “if you have to scale in 20, 24 cities in a country like Nigeria or Ghana, or Ivory Coast or East Africa, the investment required will be very high, so we think without significant investment in assets, we will be able to scale much faster.”