Acquisition
Jun 2021MarketForce acquired Digiduka, expanding its fintech and merchant-wallet capabilities.
SourceThe SuperApp for neighbourhood merchants in Africa.
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 30, 2026
Overview
MarketForce is a Nairobi-based retail-distribution and fintech startup that built RejaReja, a B2B commerce marketplace for informal merchants and consumer brands across Africa. Public reporting says it later wound down the RejaReja B2B arm and pivoted toward a social-commerce / conversational-commerce spinout, Chpter.
Primary product
RejaReja — a B2B retail marketplace / merchant super-app for inventory ordering, payments, and merchant financial services
Founded
2018
Headquarters
Nairobi, Kenya
Team size
50-60
Industry
Internet Marketplace Platforms
Sub-industry
B2B retail distribution and fintech marketplace
Offices
Nairobi, Kenya
Lagos, Nigeria
New York, USA
Kampala, Uganda
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Kigali, Rwanda
Business model
B2B commerce marketplace
fintech marketplace
SaaS
asset-light distribution model
Funding
Stage
Series A
Total raised
$42.5M
Latest round
Series A · Feb 2022
Latest amount
$40M
Feb 2022 · V8 Capital Partners
Jul 2021
Y Combinator Summer 2020 check
Aug 2020 · Y Combinator
May 2020 · ViKtoria Ventures (VBAN)
People & investors
Leadership
Co-Founder & CEO
Co-Founder & CTO
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Operating Officer
VP, Marketing & Impact
VP of Engineering
Head of People and Culture
Head of Customer Experience
Work & culture
Publicly described as a positive, collaborative, integrity- and ownership-oriented culture with transparency, care for colleagues and clients, and a 'work hard, play hard' tone.
Compensation
No public salary bands were found. Public signals emphasize ESOP participation, growth, and learning, but not a published compensation grid.
Benefits
Global ESOP for full-time employees
hyper-professional growth
collaborative environment
opportunity to solve real regional problems
learning and development emphasis
Product & market
Pricing
Not publicly disclosed; appears to monetize through a marketplace / transactional model plus merchant-finance and brand intelligence services rather than published list pricing.
Differentiators
- —Asset-light model using partner logistics and warehousing
- —Unified B2B commerce plus fintech super-app
- —Inventory financing / BNPL for merchants
- —Mobile-channel access including WhatsApp / USSD
- —Real-time market-intelligence dashboards for brands
- —Large merchant footprint across multiple African markets
Technology
Confluence
Jira
Zendesk
Intercom
Vue.js
React
Angular
JavaScript
HTML
New Relic
Google Analytics
AWS
PostgreSQL
Google Cloud Platform
Google AI Platform
Customers
Informal merchants / neighborhood merchants / dukas
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands
Consumer brands
Field agents / sales agents
Unilever
Pepsi
Safaricom
Coca-Cola
Nestlé
Flour Mills of Nigeria
Bidco Africa
Chandaria Industries
Kapa Oil
Cellulant
Lami
Competitors
TradeDepot
Sokowatch / SOKOWatch
ElasticRun
ShopKirana
Sabi
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
$10M-$20M
Estimated monthly visits
573
Signals & risks
Layoff
May 2023TechCrunch reported two rounds of layoffs and said MarketForce let about 250 people go amid a cash crunch and restructuring.
SourceShutdown
Oct 2023TechCrunch reported MarketForce shut down RejaReja in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Tanzania, keeping Uganda active for a time.
SourceOther
Dec 2023Disrupt Africa reported Pezesha filed a liquidation petition over unpaid debts.
SourceShutdown
Apr 2024TechCrunch reported MarketForce wound down its B2B e-commerce arm, RejaReja, and pivoted toward Chpter.
SourceLatest news
TechCrunch · Apr 2024
TechCrunch reported that MarketForce wound down RejaReja after sustainability problems, high margins pressure, and a funding crunch, and that it was pivoting to Chpter.
Disrupt Africa · Dec 2023
Disrupt Africa reported a liquidation petition tied to unpaid debts, with a court date scheduled in 2024.
TechCrunch · Oct 2023
TechCrunch reported MarketForce shut down operations in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Tanzania for RejaReja, keeping only Uganda active at the time while it prepared a social-commerce spinout.
TechCrunch · May 2023
TechCrunch reported two rounds of layoffs, about 250 people let go, and a major cash crunch after some committed Series A capital was not wired.
TechCrunch · Feb 2022
TechCrunch reported MarketForce’s $40 million Series A round led by V8 Capital Partners, bringing total publicly reported funding to $42.5 million at the time.
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