Kenyan-based Powered by People, has secured $5 million in seed funding to grow its transaction volumes by increasing the number of small brands using its B2B online marketplace to reach international buyers.
The equity funding was led by Susa Ventures and Golden Ventures and other investors including Flexport Ventures, J Ventures, and the founders of DraftKings, Fabric.
The Startup has now raised a total of $7 million, having previously received funding from the Founders Factory Africa, Mercy Corps, and the Mastercard Foundation.
Powered by People is a wholesale e-commerce platform that links small brands to retailers keen on supply-chain transparency, sustainability, and small-batch production – companies that are also pushed by the need for diversity and have pledged to support small traders as they also keep up with the rise of conscious customers.
“We are going to continue building up our technology…we have new vendor tools we are launching this quarter that will help streamline and automate things to help these businesses take on bigger orders and grow. We are also investing in building our senior leadership.” Powered by People co-founder and CEO Ella Peinovich stated while speaking about the equity investment.
“We are providing these businesses with new visibility into the specialty retail market in North America. We have also introduced them to wholesale, which we think is the best way to source from any country, and make business sense too,”
