By Judith Gicobi
The international business journal Financial Times recognized Kenyan retailer Quickmart Limited as one of Africa’s fastest-growing businesses on Tuesday, May 3.
According to a local daily, the shop was placed eleventh on the region, with a 311 percent actual growth rate and a 60.2 percent compound yearly growth rate.
The grocery franchise, which opened in 2006, has seen tremendous development in yearly revenue and employee numbers, and was the top-ranked retail store in Africa, beating off competitors from Nigeria and South Africa.
The fastest-growing business was Wasoko, formerly Sokowatch, followed by fintech Flocash Limited. The relative growth rates of the two Kenyan firms were 8,782 and 5,160, correspondingly.
“Wasoko is one of the several on the continent seeking to cut the cost of doing business in the massive informal commerce sector by helping deliver goods to traders more efficiently. It achieved the highest CAGR in revenues between and raised $125 million in a Series B funding round in March,” a portion of the report stated
Lori Systems (transport), Africa’s Talking (tech), and e-commerce startup Copia rounded out the top 20 Kenyan businesses on the list.
ASA International Kenya (financial services), East African Business Company (agricultural commodities), M-Kopa (fintech), and Impax Business Solutions (tech) took the 32nd, 41st, 51st, and 67th spots, respectively.
With nine enterprises, Kenya is the third most featured nation in the ranking, behind South Africa (24) and Nigeria (20). They also drew the most venture funding and spawned the most unicorns, or enterprises worth more than Ksh115 billion (USD1 billion) and would-be unicorns.
Certain criteria had to be met by the 75 companies that were reviewed. They had to be self-contained, and the money generated throughout the evaluation period had to be mostly organic.
