Wasoko's B2B bet: $125M round, MaxAB merger, then a pivot to merchant fintech

B2B e-commerce platform that lets Africa's informal corner shops order fast-moving consumer goods by app or SMS and get free same-day delivery, plus credit scored on their purchases.

That tech-enabled distribution to Africa's mom-and-pop shops could become profitable at scale, and the merchant network and data would unlock higher-margin fintech.

US$14M Series A (2020); US$125M Series B (March 2022, led by Tiger Global and Avenir Growth) at a US$625M valuation; roughly US$240M raised by Wasoko and MaxAB combined

Daniel Yu founded Sokowatch (renamed Wasoko) in Nairobi to serve Africa's informal retail channel, where mom-and-pop shops sell hundreds of billions of dollars of consumer goods each year. The platform let stores order stock via SMS or app and receive free same-day delivery, attacking stockouts, cash-flow gaps and fragmented supply.

After a US$14M Series A in 2020, Wasoko raised a US$125M Series B led by Tiger Global and Avenir Growth in March 2022 at a US$625M valuation, rebranding from Sokowatch and entering Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire with claims of 50,000+ merchants and 2.5M orders delivered. The West Africa push failed: those operations shut in 2023, and it scaled back from eight markets to five. In December 2023 it agreed an all-stock merger with Egypt's MaxAB, completed in August 2024, creating a group claiming 450,000 registered merchants across Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda and Tanzania.

The merged group is still operating and pivoting to fintech: over US$20M in merchant credit disbursed with 99%+ repayment, an Egypt fintech vertical generating roughly US$180M in annual turnover, and e-commerce profitable in three of five markets. It has raised no new capital since 2022, VNV Global has marked its stake down, and co-founder Daniel Yu left day-to-day leadership in September 2025 as MaxAB's Belal El-Megharbel took over as CEO.

Informal retail is the dominant channel in Africa — hundreds of billions of dollars of goods sell through corner shops — so the wedge looked huge and underserved.

Purchase data gave Wasoko a proprietary credit signal: it could lend to shops no bank would touch, based on repayment history it generated itself.

Mega-rounds from Tiger Global and Avenir funded geographic expansion, but expansion into West Africa proved operationally unmanageable and was reversed.

The all-stock merger with MaxAB cut duplicated overhead and added Egypt, letting the group claim pan-African scale without raising new equity.

Investors' markdowns and the 2022–2024 funding freeze forced the pivot from GMV growth to fintech margins.

High-volume distribution in fragmented emerging markets earns thin margins; the durable asset is the shop network and its purchase data, so the money lives in fintech layered on top.

As of the sources checked, the merged Wasoko-MaxAB group still runs in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda and Tanzania, led by CEO Belal El-Megharbel after Daniel Yu stepped back in September 2025. It is scaling fintech — merchant financing, payments and digital services — reporting US$20M+ in merchant credit with 99%+ repayment and an Egypt fintech vertical doing roughly US$180M in annual turnover. It has raised no new equity since 2022; VNV Global has marked its stake down and no new valuation is disclosed. COMESA opened a merger probe in late 2025. The stated goal is full group profitability.