Kola Market has been selected as one of the inaugural investees of Madica, the investment program launched by US-based investor Flourish Ventures. Selected startups receive up to $200,000 in financing.
What problem is Kola Market solving?
Despite their significant contribution to Africa’s GDP, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face internal and external challenges. Internally, SMEs find it difficult to identify optimal restocking levels due to a lack of resources, leading to stockouts or excess inventory. Even with excess stock, they find it difficult to access the market since they mainly sell through traditional sales channels. The lack of data also impacts their decision-making and ability to access finance since banks rely on such data to underwrite credit.
Founded by Marie-Reine Seshie, Kola Market provides a full-stack B2B e-commerce solution to SMEs’ challenges. It offers sales-a-service, smart inventory, and product financing to SMEs. The company digitises the entire sales process and supports SMEs with sales and marketing activities to help sell inventory. The startup claims to leverage proprietary data science techniques to generate the most accurate orders or stock while driving consistent sales to maximise profit.
The company partners with distributors or manufacturers who work with the retailers and wholesalers. It assesses and matches excess inventory to and generates demand from wholesalers and retailers within the network. Kola generates revenue from the credit it advances to SMEs and the margins from its sales service.
Which investor is betting on Kola Market?
The funding was secured from Flourish Ventures’ pre-seed investment program, Madica. Launched in 2022, Madica is an Africa-focused program that empowers underrepresented and underfunded mission-driven founders. The sector-agnostic platform seeks to back 25-30 African founders with up to $200,000 each, coupled with 18 months of structured support that includes mentorship, executive coaching, and access to the global investor network.
Source: Madica
