NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 19 – Retail-tech start-up Wasoko is not planning to relocate its headquarters from Nairobi for Zanzibar.
The firm was responding to allegations that it was planning to move its operations to the Indian Ocean country.
In August 2022, the company set up an innovation center in Zanzibar to support its African operations.
The hub comprises engineers, product managers, UX designers and researchers.
“Wasoko remains headquartered in Nairobi Kenya, after the launch of Zanzibar Innovation Hub,”
“We are aware of growing reports which claim that Wasoko, Africa’s largest B2B e-commerce network has relocated to Zanzibar and has failed in Kenya,” the firm’s CEO Daniel YU said in a statement.
YU confirmed that the firm’s headquarters is still located at the Senteu Plaza in Kilimani, Nairobi.
“Our operations in Kenya continue to be largest with 936 employees, supporting a local customer base of over 48,000,” he added.
Wasoko first entered the Kenyan market in 2016, before expanding its wings to Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Cote d Ivoire and Senegal.
Early this year, it said it will be investing at least $20 million (Sh2.29 billion) in Kenya to provide more small shop-owners with fast-moving consumer goods.
This came after the company raised $125 million (Sh14.29 billion) from international investors, which is a record series B funding raised by a non-fintech firm in Kenya as well as Africa.
The equity-round was led the World’s largest venture capital firm Tiger Global and Avenir Growth Capital with participation of VNV Global, Binny Bansal (co-founder of Flipkart) and Sujeet Kumar (co-founder Udaan) as well as existing investors such as Quona Capital, 4DX Ventures and JAM Fund.
