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Ivorian e-commerce startup Afrikrea raises $6.2m pre-Series A round and Rebrands to “ANKA” to Export Africa

Afrikrea, an e-commerce platform based in the Ivory Coast, has rebranded to ANKA after completing a US$6.2 million pre-Series A round led by Investisseurs & Partenaires .

The new capital will be used to expand the mobile infrastructure of ANKA’s e-commerce SaaS, allowing its retailers to use the platform from anywhere in the world, as well as invest in product development. The funding will also be used to hire additional remote developers and increase talent acquisition across the company’s product, sales, and finance teams.

Alibaba’s Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai, BESTSELLER Foundation, VestedWorld, Enigmo, Groupe Prunay, and Rising Tide Africa are all part of the new investment. They join existing investors SAVIU Ventures, Lofty Inc, Kepple Africa, Consonance, id4 Ventures, and Thierry Petit, who are also investing in the round.

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The additional funding takes the company’s total investment since its inception in 2016 to US$8.1 million.

ANKA’s retailer base has grown to include vendors from 47 of Africa’s 54 countries, and the company has executed over $35 million in transactions in 174 countries around the world. Since joining the ANKA community, more than 80% of the members have increased their revenue by 50% on average.

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The platform currently generates over 700,000 monthly visits, with the majority of users hailing from Europe and North America. Afrikrea.com retailers will continue to have access to the ANKA platform and its increased services, content, and support to help them build their businesses.

Afrikrea, which began as an online marketplace for selling and buying African-inspired clothing, accessories, and arts and crafts, has grown by 250 percent year over year since its inception in 2016. 

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ANKA, the first-of-its-kind all-in-one SaaS solution to provide a seamless e-commerce service for African micro-retailers, was introduced in 2021 to better assist its sellers and the quick growing of the business. ANKA (which means “Ours” in Bambara and Djoula) aims at building an infrastructure dedicated to enabling e-commerce for its 13,000+ vendors who export “all things manufactured in Africa” to a global audience.

“We have recorded unprecedented growth since the launch of ANKA last year; since then our subscribers tripled and volume on the newest services has multiplied by eight just over the last six months,” said Moulaye Taboure, CEO and co-founder of ANKA.

“As our vision and clients’ needs had outgrown the singular purpose of the Afrikrea marketplace, operating under ANKA provides a more holistic description of our mission as a pan-African company. Through the ANKA platform, which integrates every aspect of business, we now serve sellers, not just in fashion, but in what will be a variety of sectors in over 80 per cent of the African countries.”

Sebastien Boye, co-CEO of Investisseurs & Partenaires, said he was delighted to have led ANKA’s funding round. 

“This company is at the heart of IPAE2’s investment strategy: a talented and ambitious African founders team, a significant growth and value creation potential and a compelling impact thesis. Indeed, ANKA aims to give micro entrepreneurs in Africa all the tools to access the potentialities of the global ecommerce market. The company has the potential to create a full entrepreneurial ecosystem, around its comprehensive platform. We are very impressed with the growth of ANKA since it launched and are confident in their ability to drive digital and financial inclusion for African entrepreneurs,” he said.

ANKA is expanding its fully remote team of 30 on 4 continents and recruiting for a number of roles including product management, sales, finance and remote developers. Available opportunities can be found here: https://anka.breezy.hr/

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Weddy Thuranira
Weddy Thuranira
Weddy profiles new startups and innovators across Africa and announces funding rounds, mergers, acquisitions and startup partnerships across Africa. She is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Reach her and the entire news desk at [email protected]

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