Nigerian Startup Provides App-Based B2B Marketplace in Africa

When typical small shopkeepers in Africa need inventory, they often must close their store in the middle of the day and head to the nearest wholesale shop to place their order and pick up their goods, with travel times of two hours to six hours not uncommon.

With that in mind, the founders of Nigerian startup Suplias knew there was a better way and set out to develop a solution.

Their answer is a B2B marketplace in which those very same store owners can buy inventory from manufacturers using a mobile app. Now, they can complete orders online in under 15 minutes, pay less for the goods and receive the delivery the next day for a cost described as “almost free.”

“Our mission is to help local businesses thrive and excel,” Sefa Ikyaator told PYMNTS. He is one of three founders of Suplias, along with Michael Adesanya and Stephen Igwue. “We are bringing this to life by building the engine for commerce for mom-and-pop stores.”

The idea appears to be drawing attention outside the country too, as Suplias recently received support via outside funding from investors after joining the Y Combinator Summer 2021 class.

“Y Combinator has been a gamechanger for Suplias,” Ikyaator said.

Goods, Delivery

Since its founding 15 months ago, Suplias has focused on delivering a wide assortment of goods via reliable, next-day delivery for its customers.

As a result, the small- to medium-sized business (SMB) retailers it serves no longer need to lock up their stores, lose revenue and travel miles to pick up inventory. Instead, they can keep their doors open, reduce the cost of buying inventory and receive it the next day.

“There are three factors that make our business model resilient,” Ikyaator said.

He explained that because Suplias customers buy inventory to sell to consumers, the average order value is high enough to make the unit economics make sense. And because the locally owned and operated businesses place orders between three to eight times every month, the revenue is recurring. Lastly, these businesses have other needs that can be monetized.

A Complete Platform

Now, Suplias is working to expand its range of SMB services it offers. Future plans include building a complete platform that provides seamless inventory restocking, financing, payment and cash handling.

“Our primary focus is the platform to provide value to our customers,” Ikyaator said. “We are partnering with banks and other FinTech startups to bring these services to life for mom-and-pop stores.”

Like every retail business, the small stores served by Suplias also need money to buy inventory but find it difficult to secure credit or financing because they don’t have collateral and are often highly informal with little documentation. There is poor tracking of sales and revenue, heavy reliance on cash and limited banking history.

This has made it difficult for banks to get the data they need to rate the creditworthiness of these SMBs, but Suplias is also looking to provide a solution here.

“We capture data from these stores that can be used to evaluate how best to provide financing support, and we provide the inventory directly, so we don’t have to disburse funds,” Ikyaator said. “Inventory financing will be executed via buy now, pay later.”

As it adds financing and other services, Suplias will continue its mission to help local businesses.

“Seventy percent of our customers are women who are the primary source of income for their families,” Ikyaator said. “At scale, Suplias will help to generate huge economic gains for small business owners and improve the living standards of many families in Africa.”