Moroccan Startup Raises $3 Million With A Goal To Be The ‘Alibaba Of Africa’- Valutrics

Moroccan startup Waystocap has raised $3 million to expand operations in Africa, it announced last week.

The investors in the latest round include Y Combinator, Battery Ventures, Soma Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Amino Capital, Endure Capital, Story Ventures, Lynett Capital, Neon Capital, 4DX LLC, Michael Seibel, Jude Gomila and Pascal Levy Garboua.

Waystocap is a marketplace for businesses to sell and buy in Africa. Launched in 2015, it aims to become the Alibaba of Africa.

The latest fundraising came after it came out of the Y Combinator accelerator program in Silicon Valley.

The marketplace is more focused on retailers and wholesalers than average consumers.In 2017, it claims to have processed transactions worth $3.1 million, mainly in food, textile, and industrial tools.

The firm has offices in Casablanca and Los Angeles.

The market for cross-border trading is huge in Africa and represents at least $720 billion, said Waystocap Founder and CEO Niama El Bassunie.

Moroccan early-stage firms have been eliciting considerable investor interest of late.

In March, Casablanca-based classified car ads startup Moteur.ma raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Malaysian investment firm Frontier Digital Ventures (FDV).

The startup plans to use the funds to move into new car ads, in addition to the used car classifieds space where it is already present.