When you think about all of the overhead associated with running an online business, it can certainly add up.
But in an African country like Nigeria, where Paypal often doesn’t work and people don’t have the same access to shipping companies like they do in the U.S., an e-commerce business can seem even more out of reach.
Seeing that most of his entrepreneurial friends were struggling with the process, Nigerian native Quadry Ola set out to make operating an online business cheaper and more feasible than ever before.
His company, IderaOS, is automating online sales and delivery for African sellers by digitizing access to local delivery and payments.
The company’s first solution, ListBuy, is a transaction-based social commerce platform that entrepreneurs can use to reach and connect with potential customers, seamlessly accept payments and deliver products to their customers with just a few clicks.
“I believe that anybody and everybody should be able to become an entrepreneur.”
ListBuy will help business owners connect, grow, manage and scale their businesses with an ecosystem powered by data analytics. The resource will make business decisions on sales and marketing, recommend logistics companies and support them from their first sale to full scale.
“The environment in an emerging market isn’t functioning like it’s supposed to — it’s not like you have UPS or Fedex," Ola told Rhode Island Inno. "In an emerging country, Paypal doesn’t work a lot of the time, and a delivery company doesn’t work that much either. All those entities are there, but they are all in silos. Your platform brings all these local entities together and gives you a place where you can come in and create your own shop and create your own online account. You are basically using a platform that already has partnerships with local payment and delivery companies.”
IderaOS' products provide companies with the tools to make the most cost-effective solutions for its business. For instance, the company has a marketplace built in that allows companies to compare shipping rates among available companies in the area.
“Based on your locality, the price might be different. And based on how heavy a certain item is, it might be more expensive,” said Ola. “Also, if certain shipping companies have a big presence in a certain area, shipping will be cheaper. But if they only have two or three locations, they might charge more.”
Merchants simply have to place their ListBuy account link in their social media bio. This enables them to get in-depth performance analytics that measure pageviews, link clicks and overall click-through-rate so businesses can make data-driven business decisions. The company makes money by taking a cut of each sale.
Since officially launching the platform in August, IderaOS if off to a good start.
It's currently working with more than 500 African companies, has been accepted into MassChallenge RI and joined IBM’s startup program, which is helping IderaOS harness IBM infrastructure to build a more data-driven e-commerce and financial platform.
The company has also sealed notable partnerships with companies, like FirstData and Stripe, to enable the platform to accept all various international payments. It's working with Mastercard, too, to help in the global payment space.
Ola said short-term goals include launching the new platform (potentially before the end of the year), hiring more coders and marketers and raising some seed capital down the line.
He sees a huge opportunity, considering Nigeria’s population is expected to become the world’s third largest by 2050, according to a recent United Nations report.
“The young people ... now are on Facebook, they are on Instagram. That’s your market,” said Quadry. “I believe that anybody and everybody should be able to become an entrepreneur.”
