Kenya’s ShopZetu secures one million dollar pre-seed funding

ShopZetu, an African fashion and lifestyle e-commerce company, has announced the closure of a one million dollar pre-seed funding round, led by Chui Ventures.

The Kenya-based start-up, founded in 2021 by Marvin Kiragu and Wandia Gichuru, is hoping to become the most prominent of its kind on the continent, operating as a centralised marketplace for various vendors, as well as for content creation, digital marketing and warehousing, among other things.

With the funding, the platform said it is planning to scale customer acquisition in Kenya and expand its vendor base to 1,000 brands, while also venturing into new beauty and home decor categories.

ShopZetu is further looking to explore partnerships with international brands that are seeking local distribution without the need for physical stores.

It is also intending to pilot regional delivery services in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

In a release, Kiragu, who is also CEO of the firm, said: "We are excited to be leading the charge in online fashion and lifestyle retail.

"The future of e-commerce in Africa will be driven by content, community, and hyper-personalization through recent advances in artificial intelligence."

ShopZetu was created to address what the company calls a “fragmented” fashion retail industry in Africa, with numerous small brands and fashion vendors often serving customers offline in stalls and on social media.

Since its launch, the marketplace has experienced “remarkable traction”, seeing over 400 percent increase in monthly orders since January 2021 and serving over 30,000 customers.