Chooya, a Nigerian eCommerce startup digitizing word-of-mouth marketing has received $950,000 in cash and program support from the Entrepreneurship World Cup to fuel its product development, marketing, and personnel to help businesses struggling with new customer acquisition to grow their sales.
Founded in 2019 by Igwe Uguru who doubles up as CEO. Igwe is also the co-founder of RAD5 Tech Hub, an innovation hub focused on venture building, Chooya is one of the top 100 EWC finalists chosen from 200,000 participants spread across 200 countries, Chooya benefits from the over $75M service support from Misk Global Forum, Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), and other world-class partners.
According to Mr. Uguru, “I was inspired to digitize word-of-mouth marketing by my experience helping my 72-year-old father at his local business. Without any form of paid commercial or social media ads, I watched the customers grow every single month through word-of-mouth marketing and helped my father train all his five children in the high institution. We are very excited about Chooya’s future and the impact we are set to make considering the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, especially on small businesses.”
By default, for any business to reach new customers and grow their sales they have to engage in marketing. Unfortunately, currently available channels do not provide an easy or budget friendly way to automate word-of-mouth marketing which by research is the most effective type of marketing.
Chooya’s word-of-mouth mobile solution called “addds” plans to target 5,000 businesses by Q3, 2022, and help them boost sales by 3x.
The startup begun as a “search engine for African traditional markets and has previously received recognition and awards from Alibaba Business School and African Leadership University (2020
Jonathan Ortmans, President, Global Entrepreneurship Network “As one of the top 100 EWC finalists chosen from 200,000 participants spread across 200 countries, we are excited to have Chooya join this community of promising founders. Through the Club, GEN Starters access global connections with experienced entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors within the Global Entrepreneurship Network and our partners, as well as year-round opportunities for additional support and visibility through curated networking opportunities at special events and learning experiences through GEN Accelerate – our training platform.”