Oniocha, an online bookstore that allows users to buy, sell, request and swap books, all on one digital marketplace is currently looking for investment to help scale across the African continent.
Launched last year, the startup was founded in response to the multiple difficulties Africans face in getting their hands on books in an efficient and affordable manner.
The store aggregates booksellers, readers, writers, publishers, and allows users to get access to the books they want.
“Many people have to ship the books they want from overseas bookstores, and this is not a pocket-friendly process. Bookstores and public libraries in Ghana have a very limited and sometimes outdated stock of books. This problem is one that even some universities face, leading to poor exposure and low standard of education,” said Deborah Saki, one of the co-founders of the startup.
The startup which currently bootstrapped till now has around 1,700 active users on its application and is growing at a rate of 23% each month.
“We are looking to raise US$150,000, and most of this will go into purchasing rights for the distribution of e-books once we implement that functionality. Some of the funds will also go into expanding our workforce and operations, and to facilitate development of our products.” said Saki.
“We will roll out a subscription service after we fully integrate e-books into our solution,” she said.
Oniocha recently was announced as winners of the Ghana Regional Finals for the MEST Africa Challenge where they will have a chance to secure $50,000 in equity in the overall finals.
Source: Disrupt Africa
