Chpter, a conversational commerce platform utilising AI to facilitate sales on social platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram, has proudly announced the successful raising of $1.2 million in their pre-seed round.

The round was spearheaded by Ken Njoroge of PANI, the cofounder and former CEO of Cellulant, along with contributions from Plesion Capital, Techstars, Norrsken, Renew Capital, ViKtoria Ventures, and notable angel investors including NALA Founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes and Workpay Cofounders Paul Kimani and Jackson Kibigo.

Since its inception in Kenya in 2022, Chpter intends to allocate the capital in three fundamental areas:

1. Advancing the development of their conversational commerce offering,
2. Extending product availability to more countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and
3. Enhancing sales and marketing campaigns in response to growing demand from leading brands.

Today, a substantial amount of buying and selling has been taking place over social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and soon TikTok.

In developing markets, this form of e-commerce, also known as social or conversational commerce, has gained significant popularity over the years, constituting the majority of e-commerce activity on the continent.

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This is largely due to the accessibility and minimal digital expertise required for these channels. E-commerce in Africa is projected to surge to $46 billion by 2025, attracting over 500 million shoppers.

Social commerce efficiently merges content sharing, messaging, and selling to streamline the sales process for businesses. However, many of the processes associated with transactions, spanning from product discovery and selection to order placement and payments, have been largely inefficient and limited.

To counter these challenges, Mesongo Sibuti (CTO), Kuria Kevin (CPO), Mark Kiarie (COO), and Tesh Mbaabu (CEO) joined forces to launch Chpter.

Chpter offers an AI-powered conversational commerce platform, empowering merchants to boost sales on social platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram by automating conversations, marketing, and payments all within a unified platform.

Tesh Mbaabu, Co-Founder and CEO at Chpter, expressed enthusiasm about pioneering the social commerce transformation, particularly in Africa, as an increasing number of consumers turn to channels like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to communicate and make purchases.

He noted, “Specifically, WhatsApp’s role in business communication cannot be overstated. With more than two billion active users, it offers an unparalleled platform for businesses to offer support, engage in sales conversations, and maintain customer relationships.”

Mark Kiarie, Co-Founder and COO at Chpter, further added, “A WhatsApp-led e-commerce experience makes it more inclusive and accessible to the underserved mass market, due to its low data and digital literacy requirements, as well as the over 95% usage rate in many emerging markets.”

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Through Chpter, businesses can capitalise on the potential of social media platforms to drive sales, interact with customers seamlessly across multiple platforms, and establish more robust customer connections through tailored marketing.

Chpter has also recently been approved as a Meta Partner, enabling them to introduce advanced Meta features to businesses worldwide.

This includes setting up a product catalogue to facilitate seamless checkout and payments within WhatsApp, executing marketing campaigns on Meta platforms, and delivering innovative solutions for businesses on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram that facilitate growth, collaboration, personalised engagement, and automation.

Furthermore, Chpter has introduced chpter.AI to enable businesses to deploy a chatbot and AI-powered sales/customer service agent, guaranteeing accelerated responses to customer enquiries and boosting sales conversion rates.

Chpter is currently operational in Kenya and South Africa, servicing numerous businesses in e-commerce, retail, financial services, education, media, entertainment, travel, hospitality, health, and wellness.

In the coming months, they intend to expand their services to at least five more markets, including Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, and Morocco.

Some of Chpter’s prominent customers include Britam (East Africa’s largest insurance company), Decathlon (Global sporting goods retailer), Dovey Pharma (leading pharmacy chain in Kenya), Kicks Kenya (Kenya’s largest online sneaker brand), TSHEPO (South African luxury lifestyle clothing brand), Galxboy (the top streetwear brand in South Africa), Phoneplace (leading online electronics reseller in Kenya), Flexpay, Standup Collective, IKOJN, City Walk, Artfit, Vision Plus, and Victoria Homestore.

With their growing list of clients and successful presence in various industries, Chpter continues to solidify its position as a leading provider of digital solutions and services on the continent.