The founders of Marketforce, a YC-backed Kenyan e-commerce business that also created Chpter, have raised $1.2 million in a pre-seed round of funding.
BrandSpur digital news brand reports that the company intends to use the money to improve its technology and enter the markets in Nigeria and Egypt.
With chat, order, and payment features, Chpter—founded in 2022 by Tesh Mbaabu, Mesongo Sibuti, Kuria Kevin, and Mark Kiarie—allows businesses to convert social media from a marketing tool into a sales platform.
The company collects money by charging a transaction fee for payments made through its platform and by charging a monthly subscription. A few of Chpter’s clients are the online retailer Phoneplace, the sneaker retailer Kicks Kenya, and the insurance Britam. The startup is now active in South Africa and Kenya.
Tesh Mbaabu, CEO and co-founder of Chpter stated: “We are investing in our tech stack to offer an end-to-end product, connecting the APIs from social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram with popular e-commerce and customer relationship management systems like Shopify and Woocommerce.”
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The lead investor in the round was Pani, an investment firm with an emphasis on Africa that was co-founded by former Cellulant CEO Ken Njoroge.
Additional investors included Paul Kimani and Jackson Kibigo, co-founders of Workpay, and founder and CEO of Nala, Benjamin Fernandes. Angel investors included Plesion Capital, Techstars, Norrsken, Renew Capital, and ViKtoria Ventures. Investor trust in the new firm is demonstrated by the successful fundraising effort.
While its co-founders were still running Marketforce, a Kenyan e-commerce site sponsored by YC and once valued at over $100 million, Chpter was founded. Marketforce has already received support from a few of Chpter’s investors, though Mbaabu did not elaborate. Chpter functions separately from Marketforce.
