Aruwa Capital invests in Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform

Aruwa Capital Management announced an investment into OmniRetail, popularly known as OmniBiz, a tech-first B2B e-commerce company that aggregates end-to-end retail operations to help manufacturers, distributors, logistic partners, and retailers achieve their business goals through a seamless supply chain framework and embedded finance.

Founded in 2019, OmniRetail launched as a salesforce automation software company, used by brands and distributors in the FMCG sector. However, following the Covid-19 pandemic, the company realised that it was solving only one side of the problem in the retail value chain. With this, they built OmniBiz, an online shop that helps retailers order their stock and have it delivered within 24 hours. Today, the company has brought on board leading brands and manufacturers in Africa, simplifying their entire distribution processes with technology and robust operations, and providing them with market insights. OmniRetail now has over 65,000 retailers on its platform providing them access to a large variety of SKUs, order fulfilment, payments and collections, inventory financing, inventory management and business intelligence.

“We are excited to have completed this investment in OmniRetail. We find the technology stack of the company very impressive as they have created different interconnected technology solutions that are addressing real-life challenges in the retail value chain in Africa. We think this technology stack will in the long-run play a major role in the company’s network-effect strategy in the FMCG value chain in Africa. We are also impressed with the depth and robustness of the company’s supply chain operations, that is powering the e-commerce segments. We think these supply chain capabilities have played a strong role in the growth the company has witnessed within the past three years. With OmniPay, we also see strong prospects for the company as they are clearly customer-obsessed and committed to creating real impact for all stakeholders. In line with Aruwa’s gender lens investing strategy, OmniRetail is promoting the economic growth of over 50,000 women retailers today and counting, through improved revenue and inclusion to the digital financial bracket. In addition, about half of the company’s workforce are female, further illustrating our thesis of women empowerment through our investments,” says Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, founder and managing partner of Aruwa Capital.