Afrikrea, the Ivory Coast-based e-commerce platform for “all things made in Africa,” has raised US$6.2 million in pre-Series A funding and rebranded as “ANKA.”

Afrikrea was founded in 2016 as an online marketplace for selling and buying African-inspired clothing, accessories, arts and crafts, but last year pivoted to become an all-in-one SaaS solution providing a seamless e-commerce service for African micro-retailers.

ANKA (which means “Ours” in Bambara and Djoula) intends to build an infrastructure dedicated to powering e-commerce for its more than 13,000 sellers who export literally “all things made in Africa” to a global audience. Afrikrea continues to be one of ANKA’s channels.

Through its customised seller platform, seamless coordination of global payments, and shipping for thousands of businesses in Africa and around the world, the platform enables African social commerce, exporters, and dropshippers to save time, energy, and money. It has already received over US$35 million in transactions from 174 different countries.

The US$6.2 million pre-Series A round was led by Investisseurs & Partenaires and included participation from Alibaba’s executive vice chairman Joe Tsai, BESTSELLER Foundation, VestedWorld, Enigmo, Groupe Prunay, and Rising Tide Africa.

They join existing investors Saviu Ventures (which is also taking part in the round), LoftyInc Capital Management, Kepple Africa Ventures, Consonance Investment Managers, id4 Ventures, and Thierry Petit in the round. The additional funding brings the company’s total investment to $8.1 million to date.

The new funds will be used to expand the mobile infrastructure of ANKA’s e-commerce SaaS and to fund future product development. The funds will also be used to increase talent acquisition across the company’s product, sales, and finance teams, as well as to hire more remote developers.

“We have experienced unprecedented growth since the launch of ANKA last year; our subscribers have tripled, and volume on the newest services has multiplied by eight in just the last six months,” said Moulaye Taboure, CEO and co-founder of ANKA.

“Because our vision and clients’ needs had outgrown the Afrikrea marketplace’s singular purpose, operating under ANKA provides a more holistic description of our mission as a pan-African company.” We now serve sellers not only in fashion, but in a variety of sectors in over 80% of African countries, thanks to the ANKA platform, which integrates every aspect of business.”

Sebastien Boye, co-CEO of Investisseurs & Partenaires, expressed his pleasure at leading ANKA’s funding round.

“This company is central to IPAE2’s investment strategy: it has a talented and ambitious African founders team, significant growth and value creation potential, and a compelling impact thesis.” Indeed, ANKA’s goal is to provide micro entrepreneurs in Africa with all of the tools they need to tap into the global ecommerce market’s potential. Around its comprehensive platform, the company has the potential to build a full entrepreneurial ecosystem. “We have been very impressed with ANKA’s growth since its inception and are confident in their ability to drive digital and financial inclusion for African entrepreneurs,” he said.