- Chpter, a Kenyan AI-powered social commerce platform, has secured a $1.2 million pre-seed round to expand its product reach across five markets in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, and Morocco, within the next few months.
- Ken Njoroge of PANI, cofounder and former CEO of Cellulant, led the funding round with participation from Plesion Capital, Techstars, Norrsken, Renew Capital, ViKtoria Ventures, and angel investors including NALA Founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes, and Workpay Cofounders Paul Kimani and Jackson Kibigo.
- The company will use the funding to accelerate product development of its conversational commerce offering and enhance its sales and marketing efforts on the back of growing demand from leading brands.
Initially founded in 2021 by Mark Kiarie (COO) and Kuria Kevin (CPO), Chpter is an AI-powered conversational commerce platform that helps merchants increase sales on social platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram by automating conversations, marketing and payments all in a single solution.
In 2022, the co-founders partnered with Mesongo Sibuti (CTO) and Tesh Mbaabu (CEO) — co-founders of MarketForce — to build the AI-powered conversational commerce platform.
Recall in 2020, Sibuti and Mbaabu launched RejaReja, a B2B eCommerce platform under MarketForce. However, due to sustainability challenges and profitability struggles, they shut down the sales force automation software startup and announced the launch of Chpter in April 2024.
Per the company, Chpter is already operational in Kenya and South Africa, supporting businesses across various sectors, including eCommerce and retail, financial services, education, media and entertainment, travel and hospitality, and health and wellness.
The startup acknowledged that social commerce combines content sharing, messaging, and selling to shorten sales cycles. However, it highlighted that many transactional processes, like product discovery, selection, and payment, are still inefficient. This need for improvement contributed to the development of Chpter.
Africa's eCommerce industry is projected to reach $75 billion by 2025, with social commerce playing a major role in this growth. As more Africans turn to online shopping, social media platforms have become essential channels for businesses to connect with and engage customers.
In May 2024, Chpter became an official Meta Business partner, enabling it to offer advanced Meta features globally, including setting up product catalogues for easy checkout on WhatsApp, running marketing campaigns on Meta platforms, and providing innovative solutions for growth, engagement, and automation on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.
Meanwhile, in August 2024, another Kenyan social commerce startup, Sukhiba Connect, raised $1.55 million in a seed extension round to help businesses connect with and sell to customers through WhatsApp.
