African commerce is not short of sellers. It is short of trust.
Tens of thousands of merchants already sell, every day, on WhatsApp and in markets. What they lack is not one more channel. It is the certainty of being paid, and the certainty of being delivered.
What we believe
Technology does not create commerce. It removes what stands in its way.
A clothing seller in Abidjan does not lose sales for lack of tools: she loses them because one buyer in three refuses on delivery, because she can prove nothing when a parcel is disputed, and because beyond her own city she has no one to hand a package to.
None of those three problems is solved by a better interface. They are solved by escrow, proof of handover and a delivery network. That is what UPMARCHAND builds, and that is why payment and logistics belong to the group rather than to suppliers.
We start from the ground, not from the product. Every piece of the platform answers a sentence somebody said to us.
What we refuse
Some practices are profitable and widespread. We do without them — easier to say now than to regret later.
Where we are going
Three countries first. The continent after, not the other way round.
Opening ten poorly served countries is easier than holding three properly. We take the opposite road: Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, with coverage that reaches down to peri-urban areas before it spreads out.
The goal is not to be the largest marketplace in Africa. It is to be the one where a merchant knows they will be paid, and a buyer knows they will be delivered or refunded. The rest follows.
- TodayBuilding the founding merchant network
- At openingThree countries, main cities and peri-urban areas
- ThenCity by city, never by press release