OmniRetail, a Nigeria-based B2B ecommerce marketplace digitising order management and embedded financial services for retailers, distributors, and manufacturers has raised $20 million to expand across Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast.
The $20 million was co-led by Norfund and Timon Capital with participation of Ventures Platform, Aruwa Capital, Goodwell Investments (via it Alitheia Capital), and Flour Mills of Nigeria putting its total funds raised at $38 million in both equity and debt combined.
“We went ahead and raised the capital to finally put the metal on the pedal and scale in more geographies and more categories. We’re expanding now not just to grow, but to optimise,” said Rustagi who attributed the success to efficient asset use within their network model.
Founded in 2019 by Deepankar Rustagi, OmniRetail platform connects 145 manufacturers, over 5,800 distributors, and over 150,000 informal retailers across 12 cities via its app to place orders, get working capital, and process digital payments. OmniReail also works with a logistics network of over 1,100 vehicles and 85 warehouse partners and has been profitable since 2023.
“The profitability journey was an outcome of our efficiency on utilising the assets that we aggregated in the network, and this has proven that the model that we put together as a ‘network of networks’ is profitable and is highly scalable,” Rustagi said.
The $20 million will help OmniRetail expand into new product lines like personal care, home care, and cold storage and additionally improve its infrastructure, offer credit underwriting and strategic partnerships and acquisitions like the acquisition of Nigerian Traction Apps, a merchant solution platform with payment capabilities, POS terminals, payment licenses, and granular sales data from retailers as well as financial profiles of individual retailers to offer customised credit solutions.
Norfund’s Investor Director, Cathrine Conradi, said, “Embedded finance is one of the most transformative tools for small business growth in Africa. OmniRetail’s model brings capital to areas where traditional systems haven’t reached.”
In 2024, OmniRetail processed transactions worth over $810 million and now disburses $12 million monthly in inventory credit via its BNPL service, Omnipay.
“Every transaction in the FMCG value chain has two sides: the movement of goods and the movement of funds. Today, we are in a position to aggregate maximum benefits from every transaction in the value chain. Our plan is to dive deep into the value chain and maximise margins. International players have done well in their markets, and we’re bringing that model to Nigeria today,” Rustagi said.
