Sabi, a B2B marketplace serving Africa’s informal economy, has announced the appointment of two new Advisory Board members who will work with the company, bolstering its network and knowledge to help improve the infrastructure for informal business.
The new Advisory Board members are: Sapna Goyal, Head of M&A, Udaan, India and Bame Pule, Founder, Africa Lighthouse Capital.
Commenting on the appointments, Anu Adasolum the Co-Founder & CEO said “I am delighted to welcome our new advisory members to the Board. Both are highly talented and strategic business leaders whose broad experience in technology-led sectors will bring fresh insights and perspective to Sabi’s Board. Their expertise and track record in driving value will be critical for Sabi in our quest to serve the informal economy. We look forward to working together as we maintain our exceptional growth.”
Sapna is the Corporate Development Director (strategic investments, partnerships and M&A) at udaan.com, the leading B2B e-commerce platform in India. Over 9 years, she has investing experience in early and growth stage internet start-ups in India.
Prior to udaan, Sapna worked with Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP) VC & Growth Equity Fund by being responsible for investments in the Indian internet space. She also has investing experience in Indian Public Markets as part of a hedge fund at GS. She is passionate about the change internet can bring to India and how it is a great leveller. She is an active angel investor.
Bame Pule is the founder of Africa Lighthouse Capital (“ALC”), an independent Mauritius-based private equity firm founded in 2012 to invest in and nurture businesses into African champions. The firm has a particular focus on helping investee companies adopt global best practices regardless of sector, attain benchmarks equivalent to those of global peers, and expand into multiple key African markets.
Prior to founding Africa Lighthouse Capital, Mr. Pule worked at Actis Capital, ShoreView Capital, Goldman Sachs in New York, Credit Suisse in New York and Salomon Brothers/Citigroup in Los Angeles. Mr. Pule pursued a bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Political Science (double major) from Pomona College in Claremont, California and was awarded the Pomona Scholar
prize for superior academic achievement in 1997 and 1999. Mr. Pule also pursued a master’s in business administration (MBA) degree from Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sabi is focused on accelerating the velocity of commerce by enabling stakeholders in the informal sector to access and offer value amongst each other.
At Sabi we pride ourselves in arming the rebels, providing a dynamic, interoperable technology platform that enables and empowers the most underserved merchants in the world.
The platform enables agents, merchants, wholesalers, aggregators, distributors and manufacturers to level up their capabilities and grow their businesses using Sabi’s technology rails. These rails facilitate access to fulfillment, logistics, ERP tools, a B2B marketplace, data insights and financial services.
Nigeria’s informal trade sector, worth over $244 billion, has more than 40 million micro, small and medium businesses.
Most of these businesses operated offline until businesses like Sabi brought about digitization by providing infrastructure and access to e-commerce and financial services.