Bumpa – a Nigerian digital e-commerce firm has secured $200,000 in a pre-seed funding round. Participants in the funding round include Greencap Equity, HOAQ Club, Whogohost Venture Arm, Rizq Investment Group, Microtraction, DFS Labs, Aidi Ventures, Prosper Otemuyiwa, OO Nwoye, Perfect Makanju, and other angel investors.
Kelvin Umechukwu and Adetunji Opaleye founded Bumpa in February 2021, it is an e-commerce solution startup that helps African merchants move, manage and grow their businesses online, right from their mobile phones. With Bumpa, merchants who do not possess any form of programming or digital skills can set up their e-commerce store using just their smartphones. Businesses are helped to promote and sell on social media platforms such as Instagram, Whatsapp, and Facebook, as well as offline.
Bumpa, formerly known as Scalescabal, provides an opportunity for merchants to take advantage of technology tools to promote their businesses. The lockdowns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on all businesses, but especially on those that ran in-store, and the realization of the importance of having an online store dawned on many merchants. Founded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, Bumpa serves the critical need of providing e-commerce solutions needed by African informal businesses to thrive.
The young e-commerce company says it has taken on over 7,000 merchants on its platform since its launch, including retail businesses like The Ajala Store and Lash Ng. It also claims to have recorded a 50 percent month-on-month growth rate. According to the company, over 30,000 products have been listed on its platform by merchants, and over $500,000 in recorded transactions have been completed.
Bumpa, however, is not satisfied with this achievement. According to co-founder and CEO, Kelvin Umechukwu, the company has set a target to reach 200,000 merchants before the end of 2021. He added that the new funds will be targeted at expanding Bumpa’s team to better empower more small business owners with the tools to grow their businesses.
“Building the operating system for MSMEs in Africa can be daunting but having the right team, very supportive investors, and the best community of customers makes the work fun to do and a lot easier. I believe that a lot of small businesses will thrive as they begin to take advantage of technology for their growth and I’m very excited about the future of commerce in Africa because of what we are building at Bumpa,” Kelvin Umechukwu said.
Bumpa enables customers to get a list of products, place orders, and request logistics services to help them deliver physical products with their smartphones- who knows, the company might just be on its way to become the “Shopify of Africa”.
Merchants can accept online and offline payments, handle bookkeeping, and engage customers easily, all from the ease and comfort of their smartphones. They are also able to analyze the performance of their business across multiple channels, both online and offline.
Bumpa is primarily based in Nigeria but has active users from other African and European countries. The startup was recently admitted into the Microsoft for Startups program which gives free technical consultations and access to corporate partnerships to growth-stage startups.
