Kenya’s construction startup, Jumba has raised $4.5M in a seed funding round.
The funding round was led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Enza Capital, which led its $1 million pre-seed round last year, Fundamental and Seedstars.
Other investors include International Ventures, Logos Ventures, SpeedInvest, First Check Africa and Alumni Angel Network.
Jumba was launched less than a year ago. The company offers retailers of construction materials to restock, and real estate developers to access the supplies they need for their projects.
The startup also works with banking partners to offer short-term financing for retail partners.
The B2B company offers a centralized marketplace for retailers and developers.
In a statement, the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the firm, Kagure Wamunyu said the start-up was growing very fast, posing a problem where the demand is higher than what the company can meet.
“Most of our customers are in counties beyond the capital, Nairobi, and the reason is that manufacturing is centralized in Nairobi, but customers are located throughout the country, and that is where we come in because we help with distribution,” she said.
The firm primarily uses a web-based platform to conduct sales, but its staff of sales agents also assists in client acquisition. Jumba then bargains with producers to obtain a favorable price that benefits all parties.
”Ours is a one-stop shop, we manage the sourcing and logistics headache. By using our platform, they also have access to their documents and invoices, for them to reconcile,” the CEO added.