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A B2B distribution and inventory-finance network that helps Nigeria’s neighborhood stores restock through digital and human channels.
50,000–300,000 micro-loan ticket (currency unspecified)
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Trade Depot is a Nigerian retail-distribution startup built around the reality that neighborhood stores, informal retailers, street vendors, and open markets account for most commerce. CEO Onyekachi Izukanne describes a market with roughly 1.1–1.2 million retail stores, fragmented wholesalers, and many middlemen between manufacturers and the shops that sell everyday goods. Trade Depot’s approach is to aggregate manufacturers, connect them to retailers, and make ordering feel more like e-commerce while still supporting the human channels that local merchants prefer. The system combines a platform, logistics infrastructure, and field execution. Retailers can use an Android app, WhatsApp, a toll-free line, or USSD-based interactions; the company also sends people into the streets to onboard and support stores. Trade Depot added inventory financing based on transaction histories, reporting a 97% repayment rate in its pilots. Its challenge is scaling trust, logistics, credit, and adoption together across Nigeria.
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Join the Unicorn Club — $5/moCancel in one click · first payment refundable for 7 daysData credibility: CEO interview; Onyekachi Izukanne reports a 97% repayment rate in Trade Depot’s pilot inventory-financing program and describes 50,000–300,000 credit tickets, but the transcript does not specify the currency. No independent repayment data, revenue, margin, default cohort, or financing terms were verified. The interviewer mentions a Series B of up to $10 million, but the CEO does not substantiate that figure in the transcript.