uAfrica.com, a South African e-commerce technology company, has raised $1.5 million between global organisation bidorbuy.com and private South African investor Andy Higgins, MD of uAfrica.com.
uAfrica.com is a technology company providing multi-channel cloud-based e-commerce services to SMEs across Africa and has been operating in the e-commerce realm since 2004.
"Over the last two years, a substantial portion of locally established online South African e-commerce companies has benefited from an influx of global investment. This increase is testament to the opportunity the South African market has to offer these investors both from a return perspective and the growth in the number of local skilled experts working on IT and application developments," says Higgins.
Higgins, founder and former MD of bidorbuy.co.za, joined the team in 2012 following which the company rebranded as uAfrica.com in order to facilitate a broader focus on all aspects of e-commerce.
Higgins, along with uAfrica.com's director of technology, Jaco Roux, will continue to lead the company forward, focusing on e-commerce facilities that speak to the local market and meet the local need.
"Too often international products offer services that aren't always applicable to a very local audience - we plan to shift the paradigm as we take international best practices and add relevant localisation, giving merchants and consumers the best of both worlds," says Higgins.
Jaco Jonker, CEO of bidorbuy.co.za, points out that the online retail space has become a significant part of South African shopping trends and that online retailers prefer to use more than one channel.
"Therefore, the need to operate or generate sales across multiple Web-based retail stores or applications will continue to grow, as will the need to manage inventory across these various platforms," says Jonker.
"We made the business decision to partner with the leading e-commerce experts, uAfrica.com, in order to help deliver these specialised services, including multiple channels, to online retailers. This is also fundamental to the future e-commerce growth within the bidorbuy channel." concludes Jonker.
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