Kenya-based Wasoko and Egypt-based MaxAB recently finalised their merger after eight months of integrating their business operations across the continent. The newly formed entity, co-led by Daniel Yu, CEO of Wasoko, and Belal El-Megharbel, CEO of MaxAB, now reaches 450,000 merchants across Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda, making it the largest business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce network in Africa.
Both MaxAB and Wasoko provide e-commerce solutions for small informal retailers to order inventory from suppliers and receive timely deliveries, often on the same day. The primary distinction, however, lies in their geographical focus: MaxAB operates in Egypt and Morocco, while Wasoko offers its B2B ecommerce platform to retailers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda. This will remain unchanged post-merger, Yu told African Business in an interview.
Were continuing our local operations across the various markets in East Africa. What were benefiting from now is a centralised global back office, where were able to continue to develop and invest in better technology and services that can be offered across the combined group, he remarked, highlighting that the tie-up was structured as an all-stock transaction with no separate capital raised.
Yu noted that the company is banking on increased scale and improved efficiencies post-merger to achieve profitability.
The strategic priority moving forward will be on sustainably growing the business to achieve full profitability across all of our markets, he noted.
