Chooya, an Aba-based eCommerce startup has received $950,000 in cash and program support to digitize word-of-mouth marketing for African businesses and consumers.
The award cash price comes from a $100,000 national prize and $850,000 global prize from the EWC, the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), and other world-class partners for emerging as one of the top 100 EWC finalists chosen from 200,000 participants spread across 200 countries.
While the startup has been bootstrapped since its inception, the company says this may change soon as it plans to raise funds soon from early-stage investors who will help bring in additional value and drive expansion into new cities like Lagos through strategic partnerships with marketing firms.
What they are saying
Jonathan Ortmans, President of Global Entrepreneurship Network expressed excitement to have Chooya join this community of promising founders adding that the startup would be able to access global connections, year-round opportunities for additional support and visibility and its training platform.
He said, “As one of the top 100 EWC finalists chosen from 200,000 participants spread across 200 countries, we are excited to have Chooya join this community of promising founders. Through the Club, GEN Starters access global connections with experienced entrepreneurs, mentors and investors within the Global Entrepreneurship Network and our partners.”
Noting that businesses aiming to reach new customers and grow sales must engage in marketing, Igwe Uguru, CEO, Chooya said that available channels do not always provide an easy or budget-friendly way to automate word-of-mouth marketing which according to research is the most effective type of marketing.
He explained that as a result of this, Chooya has developed a mobile solution called ‘addds’ to help businesses to turn their happy customers into brand advocates who will, in turn, talk about their services and help to generate more sales as it targets 5,000 businesses by third quarter 2022, thus helping them tripling their sales.
The CEO said, “Interestingly, businesses can track every word-of-mouth action each of their customers performs about their business even outside of our platform using a simple dashboard where they can also get to thank or even reward them.”
The CEO also stated that the team will deploy a new business model around the User Generated Content (UGC) to give its users the power to monetize their experience and the content they share on its new product for ReVues, also known as happy customers.
