Tanzania-based software company, Ramani, has secured $32 million in its equity and dept financing round.
Ramani, which is a YC Combinator backed startup, said it will use the newly raised funds to develop new products to improve the consumer-packaged products supply chains – which is its focus. The firm will also soar on the wings of the investment to push its expansion across the East African country.
The fundraise, which comes after Ramani raised an undisposed seed funding earlier this year, had participations from renowned global technology investors Flexcap Ventures, as well as the revered founder and CEO of Infoscout, Jared Schreiber.
Ramani as a software company captures supply chain data, and uses it to drive sales visibility, and enable micro-distribution centres to access financial services. It was founded in 2019 by two brothers: Iain and Calvin Usiri; and Kibet Martin, who serves as CEO, CTO, and COO, respectively. The founders have backgrounds in Computer Science and Finance from Stanford, Google, Salesforce and CapGemini. The trio, who were of Tanzanian and Kenyan origin, decided to return to Tanzanian after their time overseas, and use their skills and experiences to build industry-defining products to solve problems around sales.
Some of the products provided by Ramani includes tech-enabled inventory management systems, procurement, and point-of-sale software; these, the startup uses to digitise sales processes and help businesses gain real-time sales insights and inventory visibility.
“We deploy our app on a specialized point-of-sale device and a printer, which salespeople use in warehouses to manage their inventory and operations. The data is also accessible on computers, and WhatsApp,” CEO, Usiri, said.
Recently, Ramani got its lending license from Tanzania’s apex bank, and has began work on providing lending services to its customers. The startup noted that it sees a potential $1 billion revenue in its lending venture, which it plans to target at its current Tanzanian market, and other intending markets.
“The consumer-packaged goods supply chain is one of the biggest in Africa, but it is grossly underserved by the current financial service providers. That is why we are building bespoke financial services for the supply chain. We are currently focused on leveraging financial services in order to monetize because we provide our software for free,” Usiri said.
Speaking on the funding, Ramani CEO and Co-founder Iain Usiri said:
“Ultimately, we want to make it easier for businesses to succeed in Africa and this new capital is another brick in that foundation. We’ve leveraged our Silicon Valley relationships and partnered with globally renowned investors, many of whom are successful founders themselves. We’re committed to repaying their faith in us and in Africa.”
Co-founder and General Partner of Flexcap Ventures, Andrew Vigneault, also commented on the funding, he said:
“The CPG industry in Africa is being systematically transformed by Ramani’s huge ambition for a vastly improved and more efficient supply chain. It has been a pleasure to witness Ramani’s success and traction so far and we are certain the company will continue to achieve market-leading growth, fueled by a strong leadership team with exceptional technical expertise.”
