Kenya-based fintech and e-commerce hub Copia Global has added John Lazar, the former CEO of Microsoft subsidiary Metaswitch, to its board of directors.
During the Series C extension round, Enza Capital, LGT, Goodwell Investments, and other companies played essential parts.
Copia Global wants to meet the needs of middle- and low-income people in Africa, especially those who live in rural areas. They do this by giving people access to a wide range of goods and services and helping them deal with problems like lack of choice, high prices, and unreliability.
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Copia Global’s recent run
The company shut down its operations in Uganda in 2021. It said this was in line with the actions of many of the best companies in Africa and worldwide, which are reacting to the market and putting profit first.
The company said, “Given the economic downturn and the fact that capital markets will likely remain tight for some time, Copia plans to step up its efforts to bring our original Kenyan business to sustainable, scalable profitability.”
When Copia opened a store in Uganda, Tracey Turner, founder and chair of Copia Global, called it “the next step” in its plan to reach Africa’s growing middle class.
“The middle class in Uganda is one of the fastest growing in the world. The people there work hard and are very entrepreneurial.” Turner said that Copia was made to meet the needs of this group of fast-growing but overlooked customers who want to buy high-quality goods at the best prices.
To be more specific about the choice to leave Uganda, CEO Tim Steel said it was the best thing for Copia to do, given the state of the market.
The company got $50 million in a Series C stock round on January 18. Goodwell Investments led the round. It was three years since Copia’s $26 million Series B round. The company had already raised $33.5 million in Series A and B funding before that. But Copia has raised a total of $83.5 million since its founding in 2013 and up to January 2022, which includes its Series C round.
The company said in a statement that it uses mobile technologies, a network of local agents, and its own logistics system, Copia Logistics, to reach a market that doesn’t work for traditional stores or Western online shopping.
In the next two years, Africans are expected to spend more than $2 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The middle class on the continent is the main force behind this growth. However, their shopping needs aren’t met because Western-style e-commerce companies like Jumia can’t make money because of the high transportation costs. Since going public, the African e-commerce giant has not made a profit; in fact, it keeps losing money.
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About Copia
Copia is the only B2C e-commerce platform designed to serve the rapidly growing middle and low-income African consumer market, 750 million households strong.
Copia is an e-commerce platform that works in Kenya and Uganda. Tim Steel is the CEO of Copia, which has received $83 million in equity funding since it began in 2013.
Tracey Turner and Jonathan Lewis, two of the owners of Copia, are friends and coworkers from Silicon Valley. They are both experienced business owners who started their social effect fintech companies in the early 2000s.
Copia gives over 1.6 million customers access to low-cost, essential goods through a mobile app, a network of more than 30,000 dealers, and smooth logistics systems.