Nigeria: Tana Africa Capital and Sango Capital announce retail investment
Tana Africa Capital and Sango Capital announced a minority investment in Sundry Markets, one of Nigeria’s fastest growing modern grocery retailers. The transaction marks a partial realisation of the capital invested in the company by Sango through its Fund I, and a new investment by Sango through its Fund III and by Tana Africa Capital through its second fund (TAC II). Sango Fund I’s investment began a successful partnership between Sango and Sundry Markets founder and chief executive Ebele Enunwa, to spur the development of one of Nigeria’s fastest growing modern grocery retailers.
Established in 2015, Sundry Markets operates the Marketsquare brand of supermarkets and convenience stores, providing a superior shopping experience to customers and a one-stop destination for prepared and packaged food, fresh baked goods, fruits and vegetables, butchery products and beverages, as well as personal and home care products across different store formats. Led by the founder and chief executive, and in partnership with Sango, Sundry Markets has grown rapidly to 21 stores today, disrupting the grocery retail sector and demonstrating exceptional financial and operational performance across economic cycles.
With Tana and Sango now working together as active and long-term investors, in partnership with the company’s highly experienced founder, and backed by a strong management team in a business with exceptional growth potential, Sundry Markets is well positioned to realise its long-term vision of becoming the leading grocery retailer in Nigeria.
“The successful partnership with Ebele Enunwa at Sundry Markets represents the transformational potential of private capital when put in the right hands. Starting out with an entrepreneurial idea to provide everyday goods and services to ordinary Nigerians in world class, clean and convenient shopping environments, Ebele has been able to prove that good execution delivers excellent outcomes not only for investors, but also for the broader Nigerian economy,” said Charles Mwebeiha, managing director and co-founder at Sango Capital.
“Modernising the retail sector leads to better quality jobs, better experiences for customers, improved supply chain and sales channels for suppliers, and more tax revenue for the government. Sango has proudly backed a strong entrepreneur who has managed to continue growing his business through very tough times and we are grateful for the continued partnership,” Mwebeiha added.
“We are delighted to partner with Ebele Enunwa, the founder of Sundry Markets and his team, who have built a great business that is well positioned to capitalise on the exciting growth opportunities in the Nigerian grocery retail market,” commented Mark Tindall, managing director at Tana Capital.
“We plan to work with Ebele and the Sundry Markets team, as well as fellow shareholders to contribute the learnings from Tana’s other retail investments across the African continent so that Sundry Markets can develop into a world class Nigerian founded retail company.”
“With the support of our investors, we set out to establish a world class retail business professionally run by Nigerians, and for Nigerians,” said Ebele Enunwa, founder and chief executive of Sundry Markets. “The modern retail sector in Nigeria continues to grow tremendously and we are committed to continue serving our customers around the country by offering them a one-stop shopping experience for all their home cooking, personal care and home care needs.”
Deloitte and Jackson, Etti & Edu (JEE) served as financial and legal advisors to Tana. Webber Wentzel and CardinalStone served as legal and financial advisors to Sango.
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