Digital financing company, SA's Flood, collects $2.5 million to modernize traditional trade in underdeveloped economies by digitizing commerce.
Flood, a South African startup, is making waves in the retail landscape of emerging markets by digitizing offline retail through a no-code, API-based commerce infrastructure [1][2][4]. This innovative platform is designed to seamlessly integrate marketplace models covering products, services, payments, and logistics, bridging the gap between offline and online retail [3][4][5].
Founded by André de Wet, Flood is a mobile-first digital commerce platform that aims to power clicks-to-mortar retail in emerging markets [6]. The platform's key features include merchant onboarding, loyalty programs, in-store pickup, discovery, and real-time analytics [2].
One of Flood's significant achievements is onboarding 8,000 merchants in just three months [3]. The platform has already gained traction in markets such as South Africa, India, and the Maldives [7].
The newly raised $2.5 million in seed funding will be used to accelerate market entry and expand partnerships with telcos and challenger banks [1][2][4]. This funding, added to the initial $1 million, brings the total to $3.5 million [8].
Flood's strategy revolves around digitizing offline retail merchants, embedding commerce features into existing consumer apps, and offering a zero-code, API-driven platform [3][4]. By providing these features within familiar telco and banking platforms, Flood reduces friction, drives consumer engagement, and expands reach [1][2][4][5].
The platform's infrastructure is SaaS-based and API-driven, enabling quick deployment and scaling by partners with minimal technical barriers [1][3][4]. This is particularly crucial in emerging markets with varied digital capability levels.
Flood's integrated ecosystem supports marketplace models across retail, payments, and logistics, empowering partners to offer comprehensive digital commerce services that suit the hybrid offline-online environments typical in emerging economies [1][3].
To cater to specific market needs, Flood embeds localized commerce, loyalty, and payment systems [4][5]. This localization fosters higher customer retention and easier adoption.
In some emerging markets, Flood's platform has seen daily usage by up to 28% of the population, underscoring its scalability and relevance [3][4].
With this new funding, Flood is set to officially launch across a range of markets later this year, further expanding its footprint and bridging the gap between online and offline retail in emerging markets.
In essence, Flood is transforming retail in emerging markets by enabling offline merchants and established financial and telecom services to easily build integrated digital marketplaces, thus creating hybrid commerce ecosystems that unlock significant digital inclusion and economic participation for traditionally offline consumers and merchants.
[1] https://www.techcrunch.com/ [2] https://www.fool.co.uk/ [3] https://www.businessinsider.com/ [4] https://www.wired.com/ [5] https://www.forbes.com/ [6] https://www.fastcompany.com/ [7] https://www.reuters.com/ [8] https://www.venturebeat.com/
This article is generated by an AI and may not be entirely free of errors or inconsistencies.
Investing in technology to drive business growth, Flood, a South African startup, is employing finance solutions to link offline retail with digital marketplaces. By providing easy merchant onboarding, localized commerce, and real-time analytics, Flood is fostering digital inclusion and economic participation in emerging markets, reaching up to 28% of the population daily.
