E-commerce start-up Chpter secures Ksh.155M pre-seed funding

Kenyan e-commerce start-up Chpter announced on Monday that it has secured $1.2 million (Ksh.155 million) in its pre-seed round.

Chpter was founded by Mesongo Sibuti (CTO), Kuria Kevin (CPO), Mark Kiarie (COO) and Tesh Mbaabu (CEO) in 2022.

The software technology start-up provides an AI-powered commerce platform to merchants to make them sell more on social platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram by automating conversations, marketing and payments.

The funding round was led by Ken Njoroge of PANI (also the co-founder and former CEO of Cellulant), with participation from Plesion Capital, Techstars, Norrsken, Renew Capital and ViKtoria Ventures.

Several angel investors among them NALA founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes, as well as Workpay co-founders Paul Kimani and Jackson Kibigo also invested in the pre-series round.

Chpter currently operates in Kenya and South Africa with clients such as the insurance provider Britam, sporting goods retailer Decathlon, pharmacy chain Dovey Pharma and online sneaker store Kicks Kenya, among others.

The company’s platform is on a monthly subscription charge and Chpter earns a transaction fee for payments processed using the tool.

With the new funding, Chpter said it plans to expand to at least five more African markets such as Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and Morocco in the coming months.

The investment will also go towards accelerating the product development of its conversational commerce offering and boosting its sales and marketing efforts, added the venture.

Mbaabu and Sibuti are the co-founders of another Y Combinator-backed e-commerce venture MarketForce, launched in 2018, although the two ventures operate independently.