Once upon a time in 2016, ANKA debuted its e-commerce brand as Afrikrea in Ivory Coast. Today ANKA rounds up its Series A fundraising with $6.2m and announced its brand name change. The Ivorian e-commerce startup reportedly evolves its services to software at the same time ANKA got the million-dollar deal.
At the time Afrikrea was in its prime, the Ivorian startup operated as a fashion house, selling arts, clothes, fashion designer, crafts, etc. Afrikrea still exists as a feature within ANKA amongst other new features. The startup currently has multiple channels for merchants to sell everything you can imagine originated from including fashionable accessories.
The merchants on ANKA have their social media tied to their Afrikrea profile — this is one of the major features that influenced rebranding the startup company. Other new features on ANKA include an integrated third-party payment gateway, third-party logistics, social commerce, customisable storefront, drop shipping, and the Afrikrea community.
For context, Afrikrea features commercial social media where you can either make a trade or interact with the community. Afrikrea has been lucrative before the rebranding — the startup accounts for 250% YoY revenue income during Afrikrea days. The new ANKA has a dashboard where its users can manage their activities in one spot
ANKA marketplace focuses on African products with seven thousand sellers trading on the platform. The Ivorian startup currently exists in 47 African countries with buyers from around the world, per CEO Moulaye Taboure’s comment. Taboure revealed ANKA partnered with Visa and DHL in 2021 to meet customers satisfaction.
ANKA’s software-as-a-service is free for its users – only merchants are mandatory to sort its commission per sales made and process payment via its gateway. For context, merchants are free to register and generate links to accept payments then ANKA charges its fee for using its software afterward.
Taboure’s comment also revealed his agenda to employ mobile developers to upgrade ANKA’s mobile platform. He proposed to hire a team of professionals to manage ANKA’s development per sales, tech, marketing, and finance — a technical team comprised of thirty professionals.
