Original Story Published by: Annie Njanja, www.techcrunch.com
Photo Source: Jumba
Less than a year after launch, Kenyan B2B construction tech startup Jumba has secured clients in major regions of the East African country, a tell-tale of the growth it has experienced over the last 10 months.
Jumba, which enables construction material retailers (regarded as hardware stores locally), found on almost every block, to restock, and real estate developers to access the supplies they need for their projects, claims to have recorded three times quarterly growth at the close of last year.
Co-founder and CEO Kagure Wamunyu told TechCrunch that the startup, currently covering 60% of Kenya’s 47 counties, is scaling its operations in the country to keep up with the growing demand of construction materials, buoyed by $4.5 million funding it has secured in a seed round.
The round was led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Enza Capital, which led its $1 million pre-seed round last year, Foundamental, Seedstars International Ventures, Logos Ventures, Speedinvest, First Check Africa and Alumni Angel Network.
“We are growing very fast, and our problem has always been that we have way more demand than we can meet,” said Wamunyu.
“Most of our customers are in counties beyond the capital, Nairobi, and the reason is that manufacturing is centralized in Nairobi, but customers are located throughout the country, and that is where we come in because we help with distribution,” she said.
Co-founded with Miano Njoka (CTO), Jumba started out by serving retailers but afterwards began supplying construction materials to developers, which Wamunyu says was informed by demand.
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