Less than a year after launch, Kenyan B2B construction tech startup Jumba has secured clients in all major regions of the East African country, an indicator of the growth it has experienced over the past 10 months.
Homewhich allows building materials retailers (locally considered hardware stores), found on almost every block, to restock and real estate developers access the supplies they need for their projects, claims to have seen 300x monthly growth since April of last year.
Co-founder and CEO kagure wamunyuHe told TechCrunch that the startup, which currently covers 60% of Kenya’s 47 counties, is expanding its operations in the country to keep up with growing demand for building materials, fueled by $4.5 million in funding. dollars it has obtained in the seed round.
The round was led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Enza Capital, which led its $1 million pre-seed round last year, Foundational, 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 much more demand than we can meet,” Wamunyu said.
“Most of our customers are in counties outside of the capital, Nairobi, and the reason is that manufacturing is centralized in Nairobi, but customers are located all over the country, and that’s where we come in because we help with distribution,” said.
He co-founded the startup with Miano Snake (CTO), Jumba began by serving retailers but later began supplying building materials to developers, which Wamunyu says was based on demand.
“We realized that the need is not only for the hardware stores, it is also for the developers because they were also requesting the products from us,” he said.
Jumba simplifies the sourcing of building materials through a common marketplace for retailers and developers, eliminating the headache of dealing with multiple suppliers.
Customers access products through its web platform, but its team of sales associates in the different counties also help with customer search. Jumba then negotiates discounted prices (plus its markup) with the manufacturers.
“Ours is a one-stop shop, we manage the sourcing and the logistics headache. By using our platform, they also have access to their documents and invoices so they can reconcile,” said Wamunyu, a civil engineer and contractor, who in the past has also helped Uber and Kobo360 scale their services in Africa.
“We run internal logistics as one of the ways we create efficiencies to deliver to people in a way that doesn’t make it as expensive for them to access goods.”
The startup is also solving the financial headache for retailers through short-term financing backed by its banking partners, with plans underway to take advantage of long-term credit for developers as well.
“Retailers can access financing through services like buy now pay later from our banking partners. Construction sites will also have the ability to source the materials to complete the works in the near future,” Wamunyu said, adding, “We place a lot of emphasis on understanding the customer and what they need, their pain points and then tailoring our products to suit. them. We are doing this so we can unlock access and cash flow.”
Jumba is tapping into the construction industry in Kenya, which is expected to continue to grow on the back of mega infrastructure projects. In addition, Wamunyu says that she is inspired to continue solving the challenges of the sector, with the hope of reducing the housing deficit in Kenya, which stands at 80%.
“With our B2B market, our vision continues to be verticalization in construction and solving the problems of the sector. Kenya will continue to be our main market, the opportunity is huge here. We plan to scale in this market to acquire more customers before exploring the next market,” he said.
