One Kiosk is a Nigerian online platform that connects local store owners with customers based on their location. The company was started in 2019. Co-founder Adeshina Adewumi (30) answers our questions.

1. Give us your elevator pitch.

We connect small businesses to customers based on location and consumer preferences. We use an online marketplace approach to link customers to the closest available sellers. Our target merchants range from informal retail players to medium-scale supermarkets. Our system has been able to grow revenues for our merchants and then capture their sales data to make them eligible for credit. The end consumers who use our platform can shop from stores close to their location and it’s delivered within an hour; or a personal shopper does the shopping and delivery is usually the same day.

2. How did you finance your startup?

We initially used our savings to start One Kiosk. We also received an interest-free loan from Sterling Bank. As we grew, three angel investors invested $65,000.

3. If you were given $1 million to invest in your company now, where would it go?

We would increase our user growth. Then we would improve and strengthen our technology to make our system available through a franchise model in any region or country in the world. Last but not least, we would invest in attracting the right talent. With qualified and able employees, you become unbeatable within the industry. I firmly believe in getting the best people on board, especially those who are entrepreneurial or who have worked with successful startups, locally and globally.

4. What risks does your business face?

Competition is fierce within our industry; however, we have created a niche within this space. Our only risk is when we stop innovating to add value for our customers.

Our market is currently not regulated. This means anybody with deep pockets can play around and starve those players with fewer funds.

5. So far, what has proven to be the most successful form of marketing?

Public relations has been a huge channel for us. We are currently running a campaign where users can download our mobile app and win up to N50,000 (ab0ut $130) in cash and shopping vouchers. Since we have been using this marketing avenue, our revenue has grown from $30,000 to $785,000 as at the end of November.

6. In addition to your own company, name one untapped business opportunity in Africa.

Trade financing for small- and medium-scale retailers and other buyers of agricultural produce is under-developed. It can become viable with an effective AI credit algorithm and an efficient collection system.

Over the last few months, we have worked closely with some of our retailers and partners to grow their capacity. There is still a huge gap in the trade financing market, particularly informal retail players and farmers. We have a pending transaction to connect and facilitate this which would amount to about $1.5 million. This is just one transaction.

Working with small-scale retailers has brought opportunities outside of our primary solution, where we get to engage with stores with a track record on our system. They sometimes get a request to bulk supply products and most times need extra cash to fulfil such orders. We then connect them to financial partners that give them these funds through us. There is a 5% 30-days interest and we split this between us and the partner financier.

---

One Kiosk CEO contact information

Contact details are only visible to our Monthly/Annual subscribers. Subscribe here.