Oja, a Nigerian-owned eCommerce company, raises $3.4 million to establish London first online cultural market
Oja, a Nigerian-owned eCommerce company, raises $3.4 million to establish London's first online cultural market
Oja, a London-based eCommerce startup, has raised $3.4 million in a pre-seed round of funding to support the development of the city's first cultural supermarket, which will open in 2017.
Acequia Capital, Tiny VC, and HoaQ Fund were among the investors who participated in the round, which was led by LocalGlobal. Investors from the private sector included Darren Shapland (former CFO of Sainsbury's), David Vismans (former CPO of Booking.com), Dimple Patel (former Chief Operating Officer of Trouva), and Anton Soulier (formerly of Deliveroo, now CEO of Taster).
Mariam Jimoh, a Nigerian-born entrepreneur, founded Oja, an online grocery store, in 2020. It provides customers with cultural food products by selling and delivering them.
In his comments on the pre-seed round, George Henry, General Partner at LocalGlobe, stated that the startup stood out for its novel and refreshing approach.
Creating London's first cultural market
Pre-seed funding was raised by the startup, which had approximately 200 users on its iOS and Android apps prior to the pre-seed round.
After going through the testing phase, the app's user base increased by 56%, primarily due to word-of-mouth marketing, according to Oja.
Most of Oja's target audience is made up of people who want to eat the food of their forefathers and foremothers and who live in areas where ethnic food can be difficult to come by.
Additionally, it includes returning expats who are looking for a convenient way to obtain the specialized ingredients they require to prepare the food they ate while abroad but cannot find locally.
Oja is a word that means'market' in Yoruba, a Nigerian language. According to the startup, it intends to expand its inventory and app to serve a diverse range of ethnicities and cultures. It plans to do so by stocking foods and other wares (for example, beauty products) that are popular among those communities and by customizing its app in order to provide what it calls "a unique culturally-specific shopping experience."
African and Caribbean cultural groups are the focus of the startup's current product offerings, which are centered on these groups. Among the most popular products are plantains, yams, smoked scotch bonnet chili peppers, and oxtail.
Oja intends to use the additional funding to broaden its offering of ethnic products in the future, as well as to expand its coverage of the United Kingdom, in addition to its current operations.
