ShopEX, a multi-channel retail business based in Nigeria and exclusive distributor of some of the world’s most successful ‘As Seen On TV’ products has raised pre-seed funding of $400,000 from Cape Town venture capital firm, HAVAÍC. The investment forms part of a US$635,000 convertible notes round alongside existing angel investors, bringing total investment to date to $885,000 with previous participation from EchoVC and Expert Media Partners.
Founded in 2018, ShopEX is on a mission to bring ‘teleshopping’ to the everyday life of Nigerians by creating direct-to-consumer live shopping experiences. The company mobilizes a combination of traditional and digital channels to market, sell, and distribute some of the world’s most successful ‘As Seen On TV’ brands in Nigeria and other African markets, including Nutri-Bullet, Copper Chef, Power XL, Dream by Genie, Myfit Jeans, and Contour Pillow.
Founded by CEO Isi Abebe and advised by Expert Media Partners (EMP), ShopEx digitises and integrates the customer journey across numerous channels or platforms, from television to Instagram, to improve customer engagement and sales conversions. Integrations with leading last-mile partners optimises the fulfillment process via a nationwide, 24-hour delivery service. Across the board, the technology monitors revenue, media spend, sales agent data, inventory, customer engagement, transactions, fulfillment, and logistics in real-time to optimise success.
“The launch of ShopEx perfectly coincides with rising e-commerce and maturing logistics and payment platforms across Africa. These are vital components for creating a truly omnichannel experience,” said Abebe. “We look forward to rolling out an exciting pipeline of new products and bolstering our technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience and expand our offering into other markets.”
Going forward, ShopEx is poised to capture Africa’s fast-growing e-commerce market buoyed by high mobile phone penetration rates and social media growth. The company aims to become the QVC of Africa and go beyond transactional eCommerce or traditional brick-and-mortar stores to create engaging live shopping experiences for customers.
According to ShopEX Country Manager and ex Jumia Chief Marketing Officer, Olajumoke Kujero, customers can expect exciting initiatives in the near future.
“We are delighted to receive this funding from HAVAÍC, it’s a vote of confidence that gives us an extra boost in our journey to delivering Africa’s first truly omnichannel shopping experience across digital and traditional media.
With exciting initiatives like our soon-to-launch ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ scheme and the various ongoing retail and affiliate partnership conversations in the works, our customers can expect to get the absolute best value for money spent on the quality globally acclaimed products we have in our offering.”
This latest funding round will enable ShopEx to continue growing its team, brand, product agreements, inventory, and operations into new markets with Ghana already underway.
“ShopEx has the experience and network to take advantage of arguably one of the most untapped retail opportunities in Africa,” added Ian Lessem, Managing Partner at HAVAÍC. “What’s more, their scalable technology means ShopEx can leverage off social media and key partnerships with the likes of Multichoice, Jumia, and Alibaba to spearhead the growth of multi-channel shopping in the market.”
Marking the VC firm’s second pan-African fund, HAVAÍC announced the third and final close of its HAVAÍC Universum Core African Fund earlier this month. Now also counting its latest portfolio company in ShopEx, the fund has already deployed a third of its funds into early-stage African technology companies, including CrowdForce, CompariSure, Kuda, Mobiz, HearX, and Tanda, among others.