EARLY 2014 ECOMMERCE EXITS – SHOPPI.NGACQUIRES BUYNOWNOW AND 1500NAIRA

  While not as big as Jumia and Konga, Shoppi.ng is
likely the biggest e-commerce platform in Nigeria
that you’ve never heard of. And the startup is doing
interesting things too. Like acquiring other startups.
A Shoppi.ng spokesperson has informed TechCabal
that they have acqui-hired two smaller online
stores, Buynownow.com and 1500Naira.com in a
cash and stock deal.

The individuals involved declined comment on the
value of the deal. But even if we don’t know what
Shoppi.ng paid for the stores, we at least have
some idea of what they are acquiring. The three
year old BuyNowNow, a merchant marketplace was
snapped up mostly for its 200 merchants and the
founder, Mayowa Owolabi, who will be joining
Shoppi.ng’s team in a strategic capacity. Mayowa
is a serial internet entrepreneur and Nigerian
startup veteran, with previous projects including
Dudumobile and Gbedumobile.
1500Naira, like its name implies, sells all its
products for N1,500 with its breakout most popular
item being NYSC kits that come into high demand
among thousands of Nigerian youth corpers at least
three times a year. Juwon Isobu, its CEO is coming
to Shoppi.ng with himself and the merchants
already signed up to his platform. Jobberman’s
Opeyemi Awoyemi is also a co-founder and angel
investor in 1500Naira.com.
Both stores are still running, but will eventually
achieve operational integration with Shoppi.ng down
the line.
Shoppi.ng on the other hand, is something of a
puzzle. When it was preparing to launch around this
time last year, it looked like it would shoot all the
way up into the lead with the big J and K. But
somehow, we haven’t seen that much visible action
from their end. On the front end at least. The
website still sports a predominantly merchant-
facing interface and not a lot of the marketplace that
it promises to be.
However, we are told that Shoppi.ng is currently
invested in a lot of offline legwork that includes
merchant education and agent recruitment. Perhaps
the most obvious benefits of their new acquisitions
will be an immediate boost to their customer-facing
and sales operations.
Shopp.ing’s backers/management are moneyed
and well connected though, so everything is
probably going according to plan. The platform is
managed by Wole Lawani, a VC and private equity
practioner as well as member the Lagos Angel
Network.
But then again Nigeria’s ecommerce ante just got
upped again with Konga’s $25 million raise bringing
the total of known e-commerce investment to
almost $100 million. It is early days, the
addressible market is yet to mature and all, but the
stakes are increasingly getting higher for Shoppi.ng
and all others who want a piece of Nigeria’s online
retail pie.
In any case, the first week of the year is hardly out,
and things are already happening. One of the
biggest questions of 2013 was “where are the
exits?” Well, here you go. Local acquisitions/exits
like these, albeit small are a good sign and
hopefully an optimistic portent for activity in the
ecosystem for 2014.