Bumpa has secured a $4 million seed round and asserts to be developing the infrastructure to support online commerce and allow African small company owners to launch, run, and grow their enterprises from their mobile devices.
The business said it would use the pre-seed investment of $200,000 to grow into new markets in Africa, hire more people, and improve its own systems and structures. Bumpa’s seed round is led by Base10 Partners, the world’s largest black-led fund.
It’s the firm’s second investment in Africa after Okra. Plug & Play and Fast Forward also invested. Despite contributing 48% of Nigeria’s GDP in the last five years, millions of SMBs function inefficiently due to manual methods. In recent months, entrepreneurs have launched small business digitizing solutions.
The platform’s roots can be traced back to 2018 when its co-founders Kelvin Umechukwu and Adetunji Opayele created websites for small company owners who were interested in going online for the first time while operating another venture that provided advice for these companies.
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Bumpa’s development traits
Bumpa had to develop to keep up with the platform’s users’ expanding needs, which included keeping track of sales and accounting, inventory, and customer information. The fact that both founders came from families of small company owners who had direct experience with these issues was also helpful. When COVID struck in 2020, Bumpa returned to the drawing board, redesigned its product, and released a new version onto the market the following year, just as businesses began migrating online in droves.
With this edition, companies can establish websites in “60 seconds,” receive payments, control inventory, manage finances, process orders, and interact with consumers. We’re seeking to tackle small company inefficiencies since most have functioned in a black hole. They lack data and insights into what’s occurring, what’s selling, and how their items are selling, says CEO Umechukwu. We’re doing it differently than other startups. Bumpa is developing, and our features are the basis.
Bumpa’s product ecosystem
Bumpa is no longer the only choice available to small Nigerian companies for tools that help automate their accounting, invoicing, and inventory management processes. Examples include Pastel, Kippa, and OZE.
Bumpa approached small businesses differently as a retail automation firm, not a banking platform. “Bumpa and other companies have diverse product focuses. Umechukwu is in retail automation, not fintech. We’re not fixing previous fintech issues. Meta integration is untested. Bumpa’s interface with Meta allows shops to attach Instagram and Facebook to their app and accept DMs via Bumpa.
The link lets users trade and sell items, exchange receipts, record transactions, keep purchaser information, and request payments on Bumpa while it reflects in Instagram DMs. Bumpa and Instagram handle all transactions. fragmentation A business owner uses social media, payments, invoicing, logistics, and markets. He said these solutions are silent. We want to link continents. “The idea is to merge all of these small business solutions and channels with a single button.”
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Bumpa wouldn’t go into this mission blindly, however. It will prioritize platform orders and activity. 40% of Bumpa’s orders come from Instagram and WhatsApp. Next, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Google My Business will be integrated to enable conversational commerce for its platform’s over 50,000 small businesses.
Bumpa has a subscription plan to supplement its online commissions. Umechukwu claimed subscriptions increased Bumpa’s Q2 to Q3 revenue. Bumpa has fulfilled over 200,000 orders and made over $20 million since its founding. Fast Forward Ventures’ Opeyemi Awoyemi stated that Bumpa is Africa’s Shopify. After a $30,000 pre-seed check, his business is doubling down on Bumpa since it “unlocks wealth for millions of new and current vendors.” Bumpa’s COO is Omolara Awoyemi. Bumpa enables e-commerce and reduces friction for millions of SMBs, said Luci Fonseca of Base10 Partners. The more time we spent with Kelvin and Adetunji Opayele, the more we recognized that they are really remarkable founders with great missions.