TradeDepot, a B2B marketplace that connects micro-retailers with distributors and manufacturers of fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs), has acquired Green Lion, its competitor in Ghana, for an undisclosed amount, paving the way for its growth, and the delivery of its services across the West African country.
The acquisition involves a full take-over of Green Lion’s assets, relationships in Ghana and its employees. Green Lion had developed fintech solutions to enable traders access financing, and a digital ledger Wysr, which retailers use for stock monitoring and bookkeeping. Green Lion was co-founded by Jorge de Rojas, Enrique Moreno de la Cova and Miguel de Rojas in 2018.
Green Lion has so far made 29,854 transactions with 4,404 customers – making it one of the largest B2B e-commerce platforms in Ghana. By September last year, it had a presence in four cities with plans to enter more after it raised debt funding from Global Social Impact Investments. It also looked to grow its customers to 15,000 by the end of this year. Before acquiring Green Lion, TradeDepot was only active in Accra, Ghana’s capital city.
TradeDepot is now set to accelerate its growth across the country by building on what Green Lion had achieved and using its data, technology and logistics network to connect more neighborhood retailers to suppliers, while providing them with access to financing options like loans or BNPL support. The BNPL offering is embedded in the company’s ShopTopUp platform.
“Ghana represents a significant market for consumer goods in Africa and we are excited to bring the Green Lion team onboard to drive growth and prosperity for more retailers and distributors in the country. We look forward to deepening our relationship with the market and working with more partners to maximize the opportunities that abound in Ghana and beyond,” said TradeDepot CEO and co-founder Onyekachi Izukanne.
TradeDepot, which was founded in 2016 and recently raised $110M in series B funding, uses its own warehouses and fleets of drivers to distribute FMCGs to its network of micro-retailers across Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The Series B round remains one of the largest for B2B e-commerce platforms in Africa.
It started off in Nigeria distributing milk to small retailers before diversifying to other fast moving goods. According to a past interview, the startup is now servicing more than 100,000 merchants. Its main competitors are Sokowatch and Marketforce, scaleups that are also streaming the informal retail supply chain.
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