IFC leads $5m round in Ivorian e-commerce ANKA
ANKA, an Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform for African businesses, has raised $5 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Proparco, and BPI France.
The pre-Series A extension round is a mix of equity and debt; last January, ANKA, formerly Afrikrea, raised $6.2 million.
The seven-year-old startup has secured $13.5 million from investors since its inception and will use the fresh investment to strengthen product development and expand services in its key markets Nigeria, Kenya, and the US.
Key Takeaways
Globally, the African diaspora is spread out across several countries. An estimated 36 million Africans live outside the country of their birth, with just over 50% residing within the continent. The sheer size of the African Diaspora means there’s a large potential market for African cultural items outside the continent. This is an opportunity for local retailers to boost African exports with the help of e-commerce platforms and solutions like ANKA, which handle all the resource-intensive components, including marketing, cross-border shipping, and payments.
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