Kenya’s Mesozi Group nets $350k for its MarketForce 360 retail platform

Kenyan tech company the Mesozi Group has landed a $350 000 investment to fund the expansion of its retail tech platform MarketForce 360.

The investment came from Viktoria Business Angels Network (VBAN), Growing Africa Capital and a number of global venture capital (VC) companies.

Mesozi was founded in 2013 by Tesh Mbaabu (pictured above) and Mesongo Sibuti. The company’s other products include online travel booking service Cloud9xp, which in June last year merged with travel company HeartBeat Adventures (see this story).

In a blog post published today, Mesozi said the investment will go directly into the group’s subsidiary and “flagship” product, MarketForce 360, a field sales and distribution automation software platform.

Mesozi, which is behind the MarketForce 360 platform, was founded in 2013 by Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti

The investment will help enhance the product and unlock new revenue streams and build the team’s capacity in East Africa, it said.

It said MarketForce 360 enables consumer brands to optimise how they deliver essential goods and services to retailers and consumers by bridging the information gap in last-mile distribution, while maximising efficiency across the sales and distribution value chain.

In the post, Mesozi said the company leverages on the power and availability of mobile devices by enabling both employed and independent field agents to record all customer interactions as they happen in the field, from taking orders and feedback to managing deliveries and payments.

It added that it will soon be allowing retail outlets to order and pay for goods directly from their nearest supplier.

MarketForce 360 then aggregates the data collected in the field and presents it through live web dashboards, where manufacturers, distributors and service providers are able to monitor and analyse their distribution channels, the company said.

This, it said, allows clients to estimate demand and tailor their sales, distribution and marketing efforts based on real-time market trends and consumer purchasing habits. “This enables them to harness the potential of the African market like never before,” it said.

In the post, Mbaabu, said that after two bootstrapped years of research and development and building the product, and testing across various industries, the company is ready to take in external capital.

“Initial customers love our product, so we are ready to aggressively grow our customer base as we make an impact in the expansive African retail and distribution economy,” he said.

Read more: Norwegian Håvar Bauck behind Cloud9xp merger in Kenya

Featured image: Mesozi Group CEO and co-founder Tesh Mbaabu (Facebook)