An e-commerce startup in Nairobi, Kenya, Sky Garden has taken on a tremendous US$4 million funding via a Series A round after a US$1.2 million seed funding round in February 2018.
The Series A round featured investors like SANAD Fund for MSME, Aavishkaar, UNCOVERED FUND and KSK Angel Fund (founded by Japanese former AC Milan footballer Keisuke Honda).
“Sky Garden is at the forefront at offering these businesses transformative tools to fully capitalize on the uniquely African E-commerce opportunity, emerging as one of the leading E-commerce enabling platforms on the continent.” Ashish Patel, partner at Aavishkaar Capital.
Founded in August 2015 and launched in May 2017, Sky Garden is a mobile-first Software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform focusing on African businesses.
The startup is widely known for delivering an easy-to-use online inventory management system (online marketplace) as well as catering to the distribution needs of Established businesses, SMEs and informal entrepreneurs in the middle and lower segment of the economy.
Sky Garden enable a prompt, safe and secure delivery of products sold from retailers to customers whilst letting the entrepreneurs retain control over their businesses with ease by allowing inventory control and immediate payment reconciliation in an automated platform with or without a tech background. Thus, thousands of satisfied retailers have opened webshops through Sky Garden.
Martin Majlund, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sky Garden, enthusiastically said, “Sky Garden’s sole focus is to provide African sellers with best-in-class technology to access and reap the benefits of online commerce. This investment round will allow Sky Garden to drive impact at scale. I’m looking forward to an exciting new chapter with these great partners pioneering e-commerce with the African entrepreneur in mind.”
SANAD, an Investor at Sky Garden, had long promoted the power of technology for financial inclusion and business growth to groom emerging institutions for access to finance from local and international sources on market-based terms.
Dr Daniela Beckmann, a SANAD Board chairperson, said, “We are very pleased to be joining forces with Sky Garden, an impactful company expanding access to the benefits of e-commerce to the locally owned businesses that drive the engine of the economy and are at the core of SANAD’s mission. With an investment into Sky Garden, we will also enable technology transfer for the benefit of entrepreneurs in the region.”
The Kenyan e-commerce startup will utilize the fund for the expansion of its operation.
Kenya in focus
GDP: $95.503 billion compared to Zimbabwe's $21,441 billion in 2019
Population: 52,573,973 compared to Zimbabwe's in 14,465,468 in 2019
GDP per capita: $1,816 compared to Zimbabwe's $1,464 in 2019
