Deepankar Rustagi

Inquisitive Lagosian, Tech enthusiast, Entrepreneur || Founder, OmniRetail ( @OmnibizAfrica + @Mplify_Limited + OmniPay) and @vconnectnigeria

[Mark Essien @markessien]

If you purchase 10 buses, they will run with barely any costs in year 1 and year 2. Between year 3 and 5, your maintainance costs rise, and the probability of a bus loss rises. Between year 5 and 10, your repair costs rise dramatically and you are almost certain to have lost one or two buses.

Startups behave as if the margins of year 1 and 2 are going to remain forever. They do not save for the years where things are degrading. The complexity of the business rises as you battle repairs, replacements, etc. At scale, the complexity rises exponentially - a single bike can introduce 3 "units" of complexity in getting lost - e.g finding it, rerouting driver, replacing it and so on.

All this complexity barely shows up in the first two years and then you have this cost and complexity factor that pops in around end of year 2 and just starts rising exponentially from there.

If the startup did something like take on debt with a moratorium, this repayment kicks in exactly as all the other costs arrive. It's a whirlwind of complexity that the first two years did not prepare the CEO for.

That's why the margins of anything with engines seems so amazing at the start, but then you look around and wonder why the guy on the streets do not all have massively profitable transport companies.

Africa makes the above problem WAY worse - bad roads, poor repair quality, unexpected incidents, low education drivers.

Such companies need proper nuts-and-bolts CEOs, not CEOs that are great at fundraising, but those that are all about the details. And such CEOs need funders that understand that the company needs to be funded, and the CEO cannot spend all their time chasing capital.

[Eko Innovation Centre | Venture Studio @EkoInnovation]

AOT Lagos 6.0 Award Unveil #2!
Drumroll, please! 🥁 Presenting… STARTUP OF THE YEAR 🏆

Here are the groundbreaking nominees reshaping the tech landscape:

Omni Retail : Simplifying distribution and retailing of essential goods across Africa, bringing efficiency and

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

Thanks a lot

[Eko Innovation Centre | Venture Studio @EkoInnovation]

AOT Lagos 6.0 Award Unveil #2!
Drumroll, please! 🥁 Presenting… STARTUP OF THE YEAR 🏆

Here are the groundbreaking nominees reshaping the tech landscape:

Omni Retail : Simplifying distribution and retailing of essential goods across Africa, bringing efficiency and

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

Throwing money behind a problem, always the solution. It is OK to question the Long proven / traditionally accepted solution. https://t.co/8WzhDPnfJR

[Codie Sanchez @Codie_Sanchez]

In 2016, roughly 20-30% of MBA grads founded their own startup.

Now?

They're skipping the building part and going straight to CEO.

Here's how:

(*spoiler: you don't need an MBA to do it)

[The Flip @TheFlipHQ]

Small retailers are the lifeblood of African economies.

Not only do they sell 90%+ of all goods in a country like Nigeria, but they also create a significant amount of employment.

But why do these retailers remain small?

Why are African markets still so "informal"?

Earlier this year, we hit the streets of Lagos with @rustagid to explore the retail value chain.

Deepankar is the CEO of @omnibizafrica, Africa's #1 Fastest Growing Company in 2024.

And as we visited distributors and retailers, he explained the working capital challenges that hamper growth.

There's one key metric for retailer growth. What is it?

Watch the full episode below ⬇️

[Benjamin Fernandes 🇹🇿 @Benji_Fernandes]

What most people don’t know is that I decided not to take a high-paying tech job after my Stanford MBA and instead flew back to Tanzania to start building NALA.

- 2016 — Testing out various ideas during school.
- 2017 — Graduated — moved back home to Dar es Salaam, no funding, early testing.
- 2018 — Convinced a co-founder to join, built a domestic payment service in Tanzania, received cease and desist letter from biggest telecom mobile money service in Tanzania.
- 2019 — Got into YC (after 5 attempts), then my co-founder quit one week before demo day. Struggled to raise pre-seed money but a few people bet on us.
- 2020 — No product market fit, covid pandemic — pivot the business. Shut down old business. Do layoffs.
- 2021 — Running out of money, pivot the business again. Started building cross border payments. Some investors told us this would never work. Running out of money.
- 2022 — New NALA consumer cross border fintech business live, growing fast.. Raised $10m seed round.
- 2023 — Present: Scaled to, 500K users, 10x revenue growth and profitable.
- 2024 — Raise $40m Series A. One of the largest Series A in African tech history.

While many read the round announcement news and assume it’s been an easy journey, this is just a highlight reel of the journey we’ve been on.

[Dr. 'Bosun Tijani @bosuntijani]

MSMEs drive the growth of our economy and December is one of the busiest and most profitable periods for small businesses.

So on a personal note and in my own way, I will be supporting 2 small businesses every day till the end of the year.

It could be as simple as buying their products or sharing their stories and I’d love you to join me. If you have a small business or know of one doing great work, please tweet at me and patronise them.

To kick this off, I spent this morning at breakfast with some of my team at Ziya, a lovely cafe in Victoria Island, Lagos . I love the simplicity and consistency of their meals.#NigerianMSMEExcellence

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

I’m going to @Nairametrics’s upcoming Space. Will you join too? https://t.co/GBxwCk7l0M

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

“Remaining asset-light makes B2B e-commerce companies more flexible and scalable to live up to their economic potential”

This is an informative read on scaling B2B eCommerce in Africa👌🏼

[TechCabal Press Room @techcabal_pr]

Will Africa’s B2B e-commerce industry survive another decade?

Find Out More: https://t.co/4q6XULIPgm

[OmniBiz | Digitizing B2B E-commerce @omnibizafrica]

We are excited to announce @rustagid has been selected to join @EndeavorGlobal network.

You can read the full story below.

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

I had an exciting time talking to the @weetracker team about the growth of B2B e-commerce in Africa.

I mentioned that B2B businesses should be seen as regional cluster businesses with independent P&L.

You should read more here.

[WeeTracker @weetracker]

"It is not feasible for a B2B e-commerce company to replace a distributor, logistics provider or retailer. Any startup looking to disrupt this segment will have to work with all these components with increased efficiency."
https://t.co/ljnrfxTtq4

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

We are pleased to announce this investment in the OmniRetail brand.

We are enabling the growth of 65,000+ retailers and set to do more.

Congratulations team @omnibizafrica @Mplify_

[Aruwa Capital Management @AruwaCapital]

Aruwa Capital Management is thrilled to announce our recent investment into @omnibizafrica

OmniRetail, a tech-first B2B e-commerce company, is revolutionizing the retail landscape in Nigeria and Ghana by aggregating end-to-end retail operations.
#AruwaCapital

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

We had an amazing time catching up with the brightest minds at the recently concluded @AVCA_Africa annual conference in Cairo.

Glad to have discussed how @omnibizafrica has evolved with OmniPay and how our asset light model is changing the B2B e-commerce ecosystem in Africa.

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

Join me today at 7pm as I discuss the intricacies of Africa’s regional growth and prospects alongside other top industry leaders.

We will also be launching #theworldahead2023 at the event.

[OmniBiz | Digitizing B2B E-commerce @omnibizafrica]

Join @rustagid tomorrow at 7 pm WAT as he shares insights into Africa's retail growth.

Deepankar has penned down his thoughts in #theworldahead2023. This will launch tomorrow at the event.

You do not want to miss it!

[OmniBiz | Digitizing B2B E-commerce @omnibizafrica]

We are excited to announce that OmniRetail (OmniBiz) will be attending
the 19th Annual AVCA Conference & VC Summit in Cairo, Egypt.

Our founder and CEO, @rustagid will be among the speakers at the conference.

See you there!

[OmniBiz | Digitizing B2B E-commerce @omnibizafrica]

We are driving the end- to-end digitization of the B2B retail ecosystem in Africa.

[Deepankar Rustagi @rustagid]

This win wouldn’t have been possible without our stellar team and partners.

This is definitely one for the books.

Congratulations everyone.

[OmniBiz | Digitizing B2B E-commerce @omnibizafrica]

We are on the list!

We are excited to announce that we got listed as CB Insights Retail Tech 100: The most promising retail tech startups of 2023.

The selection was made from a pool of over 7,000 companies across the world, including applicants and nominees.

[IN THE VALLEY @In_TheValley]

@omnibizafrica's model is retailer-focused.

The company has already onboarded +90k retailers on its platform.

We spoke to @rustagid on Omnibiz' mission.