ANKA is an all-in-one SaaS e-commerce platform that helps African exporters, online merchants and drop shippers consolidate orders, payments and shipping. The company evolved from a marketplace (formerly Afrikrea) and rebranded to a SaaS model in 2021. Its product suite includes ANKA Marketplace (configurable storefront and omnichannel order/inventory management), ANKA Pay (local payment methods) and ANKA Shipping (partnership with DHL for international dispatch). ANKA reports over a million monthly visits, $50 million processed across 175 countries, a turnover increase from €200,000 to €3.6 million, 20,000+ vendors (80% women) and 350,000+ buyers. It transports over 10 tonnes of cargo per month and says its margins and SME community have nearly doubled since the prior capital injection. The company plans to use new funding to strengthen product development, expand services in key markets (Nigeria, Kenya and the U.S.) and hire sales, technical and product talent while pursuing a goal of onboarding 100,000 African sellers by 2030. Formerly Afrikrea, ANKA launched as a SaaS omnichannel platform that lets merchants monitor sales and inventory across marketplaces, social media and websites and offers customizable storefronts, payment links and logistics integrations. The company partners with DHL and Visa and provides multi-currency payments and a buy-now-pay-later option; Afrikrea remains one feature on the ANKA site. ANKA is free to catalogue products but charges €10/month once sellers accept payments or make sales and a €10 upfront fee for shipping or hosting; it reported over 13,000 subscribers, with about 40% not using the marketplace. The platform serves sellers from 47 African countries (more than 80% women) and said sellers grow revenue by 50% on average; it records over 700,000 buyer visits and buyers have transacted over $35 million from 174 countries. The company claims it ships over 10 tons of cargo per month and that 90% of sales come from buyers in France and the U.S. ANKA plans to build a mobile app, continue product development and hire across tech, finance, sales and marketing to expand its ~30-person team across four continents.

Total raised

$12M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Sep 2023