(Bloomberg) — The increased use of smartphones in Africa will quicken the planned continent-wide expansion of e-commerce platform Copia Global, according to an Amazon veteran who the firm appointed to its board.
The company, that started in Kenya in 2013 and raised $50 million in January, tapped Jason Murray as it looks to accelerate its growth. Before starting supply-chain platform Shipium in 2019, Murray spent almost two decades at Amazon where he held leadership roles including as vice president for retail systems and services.
“Copia technology investments over time paired with emerging smartphone usage for middle to low-income Africans has created perfect conditions for it to succeed,” Murray said in an interview. “Low-income African consumers are turning to Copia the same way Americans turned to Amazon during the last 20 years” when the company introduced convenient and appropriately selected and priced offerings, he said.
Mobile service subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa may increase to approximately 615 million, or about half of the people in the region by 2025, from about 495 million last year, according to a GSMA report.
Copia runs a business-to-consumer system for the informal market. While competitors mainly target the urban market, Copia has built a network of agents in remote villages in Kenya and Uganda, and has handled more than 10 million orders since starting almost a decade ago.
The company’s fundraising round at the beginning of the year was led by Goodwell Investments BV, with other participants including the German development finance institution DEG, International Development Finance Corp. of the U.S. and Perivoli Innovation.
Murray’s “technology, supply chain and pricing expertise are already proving invaluable to Copia as we embark on a period of growth in East Africa and the rest of the continent,” Chief Executive Officer Tim Steel said in a separate interview.
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