Known as ‘Afrikrea’ since its launch in 2016, the e-commerce platform is renamed ‘Anka’ and announces a capital increase of EUR 5.4 million.
At the beginning of the year, the e-commerce platform for products ‘Made in Africa’ announces an important change, its new name: ‘Anka’. It is the solution launched in 2021 that allows people to sell and ship their products worldwide but also receive their funds through international, African or local payment methods.
Name change and capital increase for Anka
This was also the opportunity for the start-up to announce a capital increase of 5.4 million euros, bringing the total amount of investments received since its inception in 2016 to 7.1 million euros. Among the various projects announced, this capital increase will notably allow for the reinforcement of the product, sales and finance teams, which will happen through the hiring of remote developers
“We have seen unprecedented growth since launching Anka last year; since then, our subscriptions have tripled and the volume of the latest services has increased eightfold in the last six months alone. As our vision and the needs of our clientele went beyond the unique purpose of Afrikrea Marketplace, working under the auspices of Anka offers a more holistic description of our mission as a pan-African company. With the Anka platform integrating all aspects of commerce, we now serve sellers not only in fashion but in a variety of sectors in more than 80 percent of African countries,” said Moulaye Tabouré, CEO and co-founder of Anka, in a message.
The new investors are Joe Tsai, Executive Vice President of Alibaba, Bestseller Foundation, Saviu, Vested World, Enigmo, Groupe Prunay and Rising Tide Africa. They join previous investors Lofty Inc, Kepple Africa, Consonance, id4 Ventures and Thierry Petit.
Anka has conducted sellers in 47 of the 54 African countries and transactions valued at over €30.9 million in 174 countries worldwide. The platform currently has over 700,000 visits per month, with the majority of its customers based in Europe and North America.
Originally founded as an online marketplace for selling and buying African-inspired clothing, accessories, arts and crafts, Afrikrea has experienced annual growth of 250 percent since 2016
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.fr. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ