Powered by People, a commerce technology company with deep roots in Africa, has raised new funding led by the BESTSELLER Foundation as it seeks to build infrastructure that could help independent brands compete in an increasingly AI-driven global marketplace.
The financing was led by the BESTSELLER Foundation and joined by existing investors Golden Ventures, Susa Ventures and Altos Ventures, according to the company.
The investment comes as Powered by People, or PBP, expands its focus on what it calls the “trust layer” for agentic commerce — technology designed to ensure that product information can be discovered, understood and trusted by consumers and AI systems making purchasing decisions.
But behind that emerging AI-commerce business is a company that has spent years working with artisans and independent brands in Africa, helping them overcome some of the barriers that have traditionally kept small producers from global markets.
PBP’s maker network currently includes more than 3,000 businesses globally, with a substantial concentration across Africa. Its directory lists producers in Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, among other markets.
Kenya is particularly important to the company’s operations. PBP’s Kenyan network includes brands such as Kazuri, Adele Dejak, Airi Kenya, Ankole Luxury, Bawa Hope, BeadWORKS, FLOC, Kitengela Hot Glass, Lulu Kitololo Studio, SOKO, Ubuntu Life and We Are NBO.
The company has sought to address a problem that goes beyond simply giving African businesses an online storefront.
Many artisan and creative businesses have products that can compete internationally but lack affordable financing, digital infrastructure, export readiness, technical expertise and access to large buyers.
PBP’s model combines those elements.
The company provides financing, training, digital tools and market access, while its dropship platform connects independent brands with international retailers.
In Kenya, that work has included the Jiinue Growth Program, implemented with the Mastercard Foundation and a consortium of partners including Grassroots Business Fund, DT Global, 4G Capital, GROOTS Kenya, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.
Through the program, PBP provides Kenyan makers with financing, digital tools, training and access to markets. The company says the support has helped businesses improve their digital presence, increase production and enter its dropship program, with products reaching buyers including the Smithsonian and Nordstrom.
The scale of the company’s earlier Kenya work illustrates the size of the opportunity.
In 2023, PBP provided $215,453 in financing to 451 individual Kenyan makers. It also created digital profiles for 65 makers, delivered technical assistance to 55 and generated market access for another 10, according to its 2023 sustainability report.
The company has since expanded its approach to include AI-supported digital tools.
PBP says its technology can help artisans address what it calls the “retail readiness gap,” using AI to create professional product catalogs that improve online visibility, product discovery and sales.
That work is becoming increasingly relevant as AI systems begin to influence how consumers find and buy products.
Rather than searching through dozens of websites themselves, consumers could increasingly ask AI agents to find products, compare prices and eventually complete purchases. For a small African brand, being invisible to those systems could become another barrier to international growth.
PBP is building technology intended to address that problem.
Its CatalogAgent solution is designed to optimize product catalogs for agentic-commerce platforms, while PBP Verified provides validation around sustainability, quality, reliability and compliance. The company says the tools are intended to give retailers, consumers and AI purchasing agents greater confidence in the products they encounter.
That represents a shift in the company’s original mission.
PBP was built around helping independent brands and producers of responsibly made goods reach global markets, access financing and use digital tools. Its current strategy combines that mission with technology designed for a retail environment increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
The company’s founders also bring direct experience in global sourcing and African entrepreneurship.
Ella Peinovich is the founder and chief executive officer. She previously built SOKO, an independent jewelry brand that was acquired by Essense Ventures in 2022.
Hedvig Alexander, PBP’s founder and vice president of community and impact, previously built a global sourcing network of more than 5,000 artisans through Far + Wide Collective.
Alison Phillips, founder and vice president of merchandising and design, previously founded the lifestyle home brand Caban, which was sold to Ralph Lauren, and has held merchandising and design roles at companies including Aritzia and BlackBerry.
Their combined experience reflects the company’s unusual position between traditional global sourcing, African artisan businesses and emerging commerce technology.
One example is Kazuri, the Kenyan jewelry company founded in 1975. PBP says Kazuri has rebuilt its artisan workforce after the pandemic and is expanding into Nordstrom while continuing to focus on women and their families.
Another is BeadWORKS, a Kenyan social enterprise working with more than 1,300 women artisans across nine community conservancies. The program links artisan income with conservation efforts, with the company saying it indirectly benefits more than 7,800 people.
PBP’s financing model is also aimed at a problem that can become more acute when small businesses receive large international orders: cash flow.
The company offers purchase-order financing, allowing artisans to receive advances after buyer orders are verified, as well as consignment financing designed to help makers meet retailer demand without bearing the full upfront cost of production.
For African businesses, the combination could be significant.
A maker may have a product capable of selling internationally but lack the capital to manufacture a large order, the digital catalog required by a retailer or the product information required by an AI system.
PBP is attempting to build the infrastructure connecting those pieces.
The BESTSELLER Foundation investment therefore comes at a point when PBP is moving from a marketplace focused on connecting makers with retailers toward a broader technology platform for how products are discovered, validated and purchased.
“At BESTSELLER Foundation, we invested in PBP to expand access to markets, income to global suppliers, and ownership within local economies,” Tine Henriksen, managing director of BESTSELLER Foundation, said in a statement.
She said PBP’s dropship platform and verified product catalog data could help producers participate in an economy where AI increasingly influences how products are discovered, trusted and purchased.
For Africa’s independent brands, that transition could matter beyond e-commerce.
The next gatekeeper to a global customer may not be a department-store buyer or a Google search result. It could be an AI agent deciding which products are relevant enough to recommend.
PBP is betting that African makers should have the data, financing, technology and market access needed to compete when that happens.
Its broader proposition is that the future of global commerce will not be built only around transactions, but around whether consumers — and the machines increasingly shopping on their behalf — can trust the products being offered.