Companies

Dutch PE Goodwell pumps Sh203m into Kenya distribution firm

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Ms Els Boerhof, a partner at Goodwell. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Dutch impact investor Goodwell Investments has made a $2 million (about Sh203 million) investment in Nairobi-based consumer goods catalogue and delivery service Copia for an undisclosed stake.

Copia — founded by Americans Tracey Turner and Jonathan Lewis — uses technology and a network of more than 3,000 local agents to deliver goods and services to about 40,000 “underserved consumers” in rural Kenya.

Copia is a Silicon Valley start-up was launched in Kenya in 2013 with 20 agents.

“It has shown dramatic growth over the past few years and now works with over 3,000 agents, counts some 40,000 customers, and executes over 80,000 orders a month,” the firms said in a joint statement.

“The growth potential for Copia remains huge as it currently covers around 28 per cent of Kenya and reaches only a minority of households in this area.”

The Dutch investor said it has set its sights on Africa wide expansion following the capital injection.

“Copia’s total addressable market could comprise several emerging markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia as well that represent a potential purchasing power of over $5 trillion a year,” it said.

“Copia enables households to access goods that would otherwise be difficult to obtain without travelling to a major city.

“Pre-paid orders made through the firm take on average only two to three days to be delivered.”

Goodwell also holds a stake in Lidya — an online provider of working capital loans to small businesses in Nigeria — and MFS Africa which touts itself as “Africa’s largest and fastest growing mobile money aggregator and interoperability platform”.

This is latest in a string of PE investments in Kenya-based IT firms.

Analysts say innovations and a ready pool of users have turned the country into a centre of innovation, attracting major players in the world of US venture capital, some with investments in top-tier investment firms in Silicon Valley.