Bumpa secures new funding to promote social commerce in Africa

The largest black-led fund in the world, Base10 Partners, sponsored a $4 million seed investment for Bumpa, a Nigerian e-commerce business that aims to support SMEs' economic expansion.

Sahil Lavingia, the CEO of Gumroad, Magic Fund, Jedar Capital, DFS Labs, FirstCheck Africa Angel Program, E62 Ventures, Club14, and Fast Forward Ventures were additional investors in the round.

“Bumpa is building a mission that we love and were excited to get behind, enabling e-commerce and reducing friction for millions of SMBs,” said Luci Fonseca, Principal at Base10 Partners. “The more we spent time with Kelvin and Teejay, the more we saw that they are very special founders and have a powerful mission to build the defining e-commerce platform in Nigeria and across Africa,” Luci Fonesca, Principal at Base10 Partners.

Bumpa has attracted the eye of investors and partners with its bold decision to support business expansion and development for one million SMEs across Africa at a time when venture investment in the continent has been steadily declining.

Co-founders Kelvin Umechukwu and Adetunji Opayele founded Bumpa in February 2021 with the goal of offering SMEs in Nigeria cost-effective and reliable websites. At first, the company went under the name SalesCabal.

Using their mobile device from any part of the world, business owners could record sales, accept payments, manage orders and inventory, issue invoices and receipts, receive business reports, as well as sending bulk SMS and email using the first version of the Bumpa app, which also offered free websites for business owners.

"The goal is to do three things: connect, innovate and scale. Bumpa 2.0 for us as a startup is to connect all the relevant tools, channels, and places that SMEs need all in one place: the Bumpa app. It is also to innovate by bringing simpler, automated ways to do any business transaction or operation on the app. It is also to scale our user’s businesses, our position as key players in the African commerce industry, and to scale the capacities and reach of the employees and even we, the founders," Kelvin Umechukwu, CEO of Bumpa, said.

Opeyemi Awoyemi of Fast Forward Venture Studio Fund, together with major VCs and angel investors like Microtraction, OO Nwoye, DFS Labs, Pioneer VC, and others, led a $200,000 pre-seed round for Bumpa last year. It also secured $50,000 in funding from the Google Black Founder Fund a few months later.

The startup was able to expand its workforce thanks to these funding rounds and introduce user features including discounts and coupons, personalized domain names, staff accounts, multi-currency checkouts, and Facebook pixel integration.

Since its launch, Bumpa has attracted more than 50 thousand SMEs, with 40% of its users actively using the app's resources on a monthly basis. The business added that it had more than 400,000 product listings.

Bumpa is currently trying to extend its product offerings by integrating more social commerce options for the expanding number of African SMEs that are seeking digital solutions. This is thanks to the fundraising and the support of investors and partners who share Bumpa's goal. With the help of these operations, connections, and integrations, SMEs will have more control over how they run and expand their businesses.

As it aims to assist more businesses in achieving mainstream success, Bumpa will also be growing its workforce with an emphasis on Marketing, Engineering, and Business areas. The Bumpa App is available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store.