Maad, a fast-growing Francophone B2B e-commerce startup headquartered in Senegal, has successfully secured $3.2 million in debt-equity funding.

This infusion of capital aims to fortify Maad’s expansion efforts within Senegal and pave the way for new ventures across the broader Africa’s Francophone region. 

The seed round, led by Ventures Platform, saw significant participation from renowned investors such as Seedstars International Ventures, Reflect Ventures, Oui Capital, Launch Africa, Voltron Capital, and Alumni Ventures.

Additionally, Maad secured $900,000 in debt financing from the French Development Financial Institution (DFI) Proparco, along with contributions from local banking institutions.

With direct existing connections between suppliers and small retailers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), the startup aims to dominate the Senegalese market and infiltrate the new Francophone markets by year-end, with its recent capital injection

Co-founded by Sidy Niang, Jessica Long and Karimou Ba in 2020, Maad initially focused on data collection services before transitioning to developing software aimed at assisting companies in managing their internal distribution processes.

“Watching our clients use our software for their distribution was what inspired us. The software was providing a lot of value and we could imagine much more value if we put all the products that small shops buy on the same platform,” Niang told TechCrunch.