Dooka partners Tradeshift to launch Pan African B2B digital marketplace

Dooka has partnered with Tradeshift, the global network for digital trade, to launch the first-ever pan-African digital marketplace for business-to-business trade across the continent.

Delivered on Tradeshift’s global B2B commerce platform, utilizing the Tradeshift® Marketplace Operator solution, Dooka makes the corporate purchasing experience as consumer-centric and intuitive as buying at home. By eliminating any friction in the buying process, the Dooka marketplace delivers a digital commerce environment that actively promotes barrierless connectivity and inclusive trade between large African businesses and local suppliers.

Dooka recently announced that MTN, Africa’s largest mobile network operator, has become the first large organization to join the marketplace. The strategic partnership will support MTN’s commitment to equitable access, improved digital transparency and greater efficiency for its suppliers.

Dooka is the next-generation Business-to-Business marketplace designed for corporate purchasing in Africa. “The name Dooka came from the Swahili word ‘duka’, meaning a shop or market,” said Toby Sparrow, CEO, Dooka. “As large companies embark on their digital journeys, there is a risk that innovation gets forgotten. If African leaders in business and politics think that execution of the next generation of trade in Africa will be an extension and acceleration of the status quo, Africa will again fall short.

“Just making something digital doesn’t necessarily make it better or right. Dooka brings the consumer online shopping revolution into the corporate digital journey. It really does bring about positive change and that’s what inspired us to launch Dooka in Africa.”

For large organisations across the African continent, the Dooka marketplace promises an innovative, comprehensive and fully digitalised procurement and payables solution across long-tail and indirect spend categories.

Marketplace users will benefit from the best prices and a greater variety of products from a large group of vetted sellers across the region. Sellers can easily upload products and services and offer them to the marketplace owner. Rapid seller onboarding and a robust digital toolset covering everything from product sourcing to invoicing give buyers and sellers a truly paperless transaction environment, ensuring that any spend remains in line with corporate and regulatory policy.

“What Dooka has done sits at the very core of everything we believe in at Tradeshift,” said Christian Lanng, CEO at Tradeshift. “The future of global trade will be born from digital ecosystems that promote healthy, inclusive and sustainable partnerships between buyers and suppliers. B2B Marketplaces can revolutionise business trade across the African continent like mobile transformed consumer commerce.”