Afrimarket started in France with its major focus on French West Africa. It enabled Africans in France to cash tied to good and services back home say shopping, medicine school fees among other things. The platform wanted to cut down on the high costs of sending money back home so it came up with a cash-to-goods model which has seen it drive down remittance fees by using an online system to buy stuff for people back home instead of sending hard cash.

With this € 10 million raise, Afrimarket  has raised a total of € 13 million since its launch three years ago.  Though Afrimarket began as a remittance service for the African community in France, allowing them to send money back home, it has gradually morphed into an eCommerce like giant, allowing senders to buy stuff on its platform for their loved ones back home. Belkahia tells Les Echos this funds will also help it develop its own huge eCommerce platform for the region.

In January 2015, the firm raised $2.3m (EUR 2 million) funding round from Orange and EUR 1 million from BIM investment fund to help scale the 30,000-customer firm to launch in Mali and Cameroon and scale its operations in Orange markets. This latest raise shows the increasing confidence of investors in their business model.