The demise of MarketForce, once a rising star in the African B2B e-commerce landscape, exemplifies the challenges of scaling startups in emerging markets. Despite early successes, the company ultimately fell short of its ambitions.
However, its founders, Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, are far from finished. Teaming up with Mark Kiarie and Kuria Kevin, they have regrouped and are now building a new venture, Chpter , which has just secured USD 1.2 M in pre-seed funding.
MarketForce: A Promising Start, an Uncertain EndMarketForce was conceived in 2018 as a sales force automation software company. Its goal was to offer consumer brands real-time market visibility on the performance of their agents, products, and services. The idea quickly attracted interest, and the company secured large paying customers, Mbaabu claims. However, the growth was slow, and the sales cycles were lengthy-a combination that proved challenging in a market where venture capital was scarce.
"We bootstrapped for a year and a half before finally convincing friends, family, and angels to inject USD 200 K in seed capital," writes CEO Mbaabu while announcing the shuttering of the B2B e-commerce business in April.
But just as MarketForce raised this initial funding, the world plunged into the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly crippling the business. The company lost most of its recurring revenue and faced the threat of its largest client pulling out to develop a similar software in-house.
