Egypt's MaxAB merges with Wasoko to bolster Africa’s retail sector

Egypt's MaxAB merges with Wasoko to bolster Africa’s retail sector

Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce firm MaxAB plans to merge with Kenya-based Wasoko to drive the transformation of Africa’s informal retail sector.

Through the merger, the e-commerce leaders will join forces to establish a digital retail platform in the continent, according to a press release.

Wasoko and MaxAB will have a collective customer base of more than 450,000 merchants serving nearly 65 million consumers in Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and DR Congo.

Additionally, the two companies are expected to collaborate on enabling greater intra-Africa trade between their markets and implementing new technologies on a Pan-African scale.

Both startups plan to address major challenges inhibiting the development of Africa’s $850 billion informal retail sector and empower the combined companies to further strengthen their infrastructure while harnessing cross-market synergies.

The CEO of MaxAB, Belal El-Megharbel, stated: “As a combined company, we can truly unlock the potential of Africa's informal retail sector across a variety of technology-enabled services in e-commerce, fintech and logistics.”

Daniel Yu, CEO of Wasoko, said: "When I launched Wasoko in Kenya in 2016, it was with the promise of becoming a truly pan-African company, and this merger is the boldest step we have taken towards realising that goal while reflecting