Tappi, a Kenyan full-stack SaaS business built for small businesses in Africa to help them find customers online, has announced the raise of $1.5 million seed to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) scale in Africa.
The pre-seed round was led by Mercy Corps Ventures and Chui Ventures, with participation from several other investors, such as Digital Currency Group, SOSV, Resilience17, growX ventures, Orbit Startups, Reflect Ventures, and angel investors/advisors from global tech giants like Google, Salesforce, and Zendesk.
Tappi disclosed that the new funding will go towards building a solid direct sales force, as well as forging strategic partnerships with leading fintechs and mobile network operators such as MTN Nigeria.
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Speaking on the seed raised, the company’s CEO Kenfield Griffith said,
“We are grateful to be supported by great investors who share our vision and the mission to address the untapped potential within Africa’s informal SME markets, particularly in overlooked service industries such as food services, fashion, agriculture, and health and beauty. We are eager to empower SMEs across Africa by providing them with a trusted identity online to find customers.”
He emphasized Tappi’s commitment to helping businesses achieve visibility, adding that the company’s AI feature aids businesses in crafting effective ad copies, an important aspect often overlooked by resource-constrained SMEs.
Founded in 2022, Tappi is a Kenyan end-to-end digital commerce SaaS solution designed for small and medium-sized businesses.
With Tappi, users can:
- Get a free website and SEO marketing to make their business visible online.
- Create ads (advertisements) in three quick steps and post them to Facebook & Instagram.
- Get SMS and online reviews from customers.
The company automates tasks like gathering and compiling client evaluations for online testimonials and grants them access to advertising resources to streamline SMEs’ interactions with technology.
In Nigeria, Tappi has addressed advertising challenges by allowing businesses to use their MTN mobile airtime credit, making it easier for small businesses to advertise online.
Since its inception, the startup has captured verified reviews on $3M consumer transactions and engaged with over 150 consumers. It has also been able to satisfy over 10M consumers, power over 100k businesses, and have captured 4M reviews from customers.
Tappi is trusted by giant companies such as Meta, Flutterwave, M-PESA, Next Play ventures, Google, TLCOMCAPITAL, and MTN.
The digital commerce startup is constantly working on enhancing its technology to take SMEs into the future, ensuring that small businesses using Tappi always have a competitive advantage.