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This partnership enables Copia’s diaspora and urban customers to conveniently initiate transactions and purchases for their loved ones in rural areas in Kenya using the Cellulant network. This provides greater choice, affordability, and convenience for both urban and rural shoppers when shopping for everyday items.

“We are deeply committed to simplifying e-commerce in Africa and are excited to collaborate with Cellulant in expanding Copia’s market reach. This will enable us to provide diaspora and urban customers with alternative and convenient payment options when they shop on Copia’s platform for friends and family across Kenya and Uganda,” said Tim Steel, Chief Executive Officer, Copia Global.

Remittance inflows to Kenya have increased tenfold in the last fifteen years, reaching an all-time high of 3.72 million dollars in 2021, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). For many Kenyans as in many African nations, digital payments made by diasporans to rural families provide a financial lifeline to millions of households. Diasporans and people living in urban areas can use Copia’s online platform to pay for goods and have them delivered to friends and family back home.

“We are delighted to be Copia’s payments technology partner enabling consumers in the diaspora to make purchases seamlessly. As the African e-commerce and payments landscape in Africa continues to evolve, we believe that fintechs and e-commerce platforms need to have a deeper collaboration in expanding opportunities that will help ease payments and collections for businesses and their consumers across all sectors of the economy”, said Akshay Grover, Chief Executive Officer Cellulant.

In recent years, Cellulant has led the charge in simplifying payments for a wide range of businesses in various sectors such as airlines, telecoms, e-commerce platforms, and ride-hailing companies among others processing about USD 14 billion in 2021 alone.

Cellulant provides a single digital payments platform – named Tingg- that addresses the complex payments needs of businesses. Tingg makes it easy to collect and make payments across multiple payment methods in different currencies, with the best customer experience for any business looking to digitize its payments.

Copia combines mobile technology, over 40,000 digitally enabled local agents, and an innovative last-mile logistics system to provide a broad product offering efficient, reliable delivery to rural consumers. The streamlined process enables customers to simply provide the phone number of a friend or family member at checkout and Copia will do the rest, including locating the recipient, identifying the nearest delivery centre agent, and delivering the goods.

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“While most e-commerce players have been largely focussed on replicating Amazon’s model in emerging markets, this isn’t always going to fit the context,” says Murray, who had been at Amazon for 19 years.

For Murray, smaller, more rural businesses and individual business owners have been largely left out of the e-commerce boom in Africa, unable to access or afford high ticket items available via other online platforms.

“Copia has tailored its offering to meet the specific needs of small, rural businesses and individuals, who require competitive prices on a broad selection of products that they can access offline if needed,” he says.

Launched in Kenya in 2013, Copia B2C business model focusses on middle to low-income business owners in rural Kenya and Uganda. The company uses an agent banking model to reach its target consumers. To date it has 30,000 agents signed up to the platform.

Agents act as sales and distribution points for the e-commerce platform. This means that customers can search, buy and request items, make returns and submit complaints via their local agent if they do not have access to the internet. Individual orders can be linked to customers mobile devices, which means that Copia can follow up with delivery updates, new products and special offers direct to the customer.

The company also uses its own logistics network and promises delivery in one to two days. According to Tim Steel, CEO of Copia based in Nairobi, 97% of all deliveries are made on time.

“The agents we use are often individuals who already have established businesses and are known to the people in their area,” Steel tells The Africa Report. “This way, we get access to our target consumer base, and they have trust in the system because they are transacting with someone they have a personal relationship with.”

Murray hopes to bring his expertise around software development, supply chain management and inventory planning to Copia as it continues to grow in Kenya, Uganda and East Africa more broadly. “With growth comes additional challenges, and I hope I can help Copia tackle any issues given my previous experience,” he says.

E-commerce growth

The number of e-commerce companies in Africa has mushroomed in the last decade with both local and international startups looking to benefit from the burgeoning middle class, growing use of e-payment platforms and internet access across the continent.
According to the International Finance Corporation, the African e-commerce market was estimated to be $20bn, up 42% compared to 2019, accounting for 12% of the global average. While official figures have yet to be released, it is widely believed that e-commerce volumes have had an additional boost following several stay-at-home and lockdown measures put in place by regional and national governments in Africa to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Data form McKinsey shows that 30% of consumers surveyed said they plan to increase their use of online and mobile banking tools in Africa as business moves online.

And given the sector’s strong growth prospects, African e-commerce – and the fintech sector more broadly – has continued to successfully raise funds from equity investors looking to profit from Africa’s demographic dividend.

In January this year, Copia raised $50m in Series C funding and Ivorian company ANKA, backed by Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, raised $6.2m in Series A funding. At the beginning of March, Kenya-based food distribution company Wasoko raised $125m in Series B funding while wholesale e-commerce platform Powered By People secured $5m in seed funding in the same month.

As for Copia, Steel says that there are several ways that the company can accelerate growth across the continent. “There may be partnerships and acquisitions we can make, more fundraising opportunities and further down the line an IPO.

“But for now, our focus will be on customer acquisition and retention,” he says.

Source: The Africa Report, Published on 29th March – https://www.theafricareport.com/186946/copia-bets-growth-on-low-to-middle-income-sector-and-ex-amazon-hire/

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