Nigerian online supermarket Bolorims has acquired a 10% stake in Kenyan online retailer AfricaSokoni. The two companies will also to launch a new joint venture, Bolosokoni.com, in West Africa. Don’t hold your breath.

AfricaSokoni was launched in January 2018 and claims to have a unique business model, apparently targeting the B2B space. It reportedly raised almost $1m of funding in 2019. In the Kenyan online retail space it is a small player, some distance behind #2 player Kilimall, itself some distance behind #1 player Jumia. Its emergence also came at a time when established supermarket chains such as Tuskys and Naivas have sought to reposition themselves – not entirely successfully – as multichannel retail businesses.

There is little evidence AfricaSokoni does sucessfully target the B2B space or differentiate itself from B2C online retailers, or how it is supposed to do that. Its “how to video” explains that a customer can search for a product, add it to their cart, select a delivery address and payment method and then place their order. After which the product will be delivered.

Bolorims is a new player in Nigeria’s retail sector, having launched in late 2018 as an online supermarket. CEO Michael Tokunbo Orimobi is primarily known as the founder of a law practice bearing his name in Nigeria. He has said that the investment is designed to “build a cohesive partnership between Nigeria and East Africa.”

At the time of writing, www.bolosokoni.com, the domain name for the new joint venture, was still unregistered.