Lagos, Nigeria – Dec 24, 2025: Tanda and FasterCapital announced a strategic partnership today through the EquityPilot program to accelerate Tanda’s rollout of video-commerce infrastructure for emerging markets, starting in Africa. The collaboration combines FasterCapital’s global acceleration resources with Tanda’s native short-video shopping platform, designed to solve fragmented buyer’s journey and unlock a $5B+ video-commerce opportunity.
Market opportunity & problem
Africa’s e-commerce market is forecast at $50B+ by 2025 with 450M+ smartphone users and rapid short-video consumption. Yet creators, SMEs and brands face broken buyer journeys: videos drive discovery but conversion requires cross-platform friction, trust gaps and limited localized payments. Global platforms offer reach but not native commerce or escrow payment for emerging markets like Africa. Tanda addresses this white space by marrying short-form content and commerce into a single, localized purchase flow optimized for trust and payments in emerging markets starting from Africa’s payment and trust landscape.
Startup solution & differentiation
Tanda is a short-video social commerce platform with native “Buy Now” actions in promoted videos, an integrated Tanda Shop, affiliates dashboard, and an escrow-backed checkout supporting wallets, telcos and banks. Creators earn instant commissions; buyers gain purchase protection. Early traction includes a 16,000+ waitlist, 98 influencers, and 1,400 SMEs onboarded, with an MVP launching within one month. Tanda targets $500K GMV in Nigeria by month six post-launch. Tanda differentiates from global short-video apps by offering built-in commerce, automated affiliate payouts, escrow trust, and an Africa-first payments stack creating a defensible, localized alternative to link-based shopping experiences – foundational infrastructure designed to scale across emerging markets including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
FasterCapital partnership value
Through EquityPilot, FasterCapital provides pre-seed capital, product scaling expertise, growth playbooks, introductions to strategic investors and distribution channels, and hands-on mentorship. FasterCapital’s selective criteria and global track record validate Tanda’s product-market fit and team readiness. The program will fund product development, influencer acquisition and escrow float to reach 50k–100k users in Nigeria within six months and accelerate multi-market expansion into Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Egypt by month 12, followed by phased entry into other emerging regions including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. FasterCapital’s investment and network will fast-track fundraising and go-to-market execution.
Executive quotes
“Hesham Zreik’s investment thesis centers on founder-market fit and scalable, region-specific products. Tanda’s combination of content-native commerce and escrow-backed trust addresses a critical African e-commerce gap,” said Hesham Zreik, investor and EquityPilot lead. “FasterCapital’s EquityPilot amplifies founders with capital, network and product expertise Tanda is well-positioned to lead video-commerce in emerging markets starting from Africa.”
“Consumers watch short videos; they shouldn’t leave the app to buy. With FasterCapital’s backing, we’ll accelerate product-market fit, scale creator monetization and build a trusted, Africa-first checkout,” said Vincent Ibekwe, founder and CEO of Tanda. “This partnership validates our vision and helps us move faster to serve creators, SMEs and young consumers.”
Growth trajectory & next steps
Near-term priorities: launch MVP in Nigeria (month 1), reach 50k–100k users and $500K GMV by month six, and expand into two new markets by month 12. Funding use: product (35%), marketing (30%), market expansion (20%), team and ops (15%). Tanda plans Series A readiness by month 18–24, targeting pan-African scale and strategic partnerships with telcos and payment providers.
About Tanda
Tanda is a bottom-up video-commerce infrastructure company built for emerging markets, starting in Africa. The platform combines a native shop, affiliate payouts, escrow for trust, and localized payments to unlock video-commerce for creators, SMEs and consumers. Founded by Vincent Ibekwe, Tanda is launching in Africa with a scalable architecture designed for expansion into other emerging regions including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
About FasterCapital
FasterCapital is a global venture builder and online incubator dedicated to co-funding and co-founding innovative startups. Established in 2014, we are now #1 venture builder in terms of number of startups that we have helped, money invested and money raised. It supports startups worldwide through various programs, including funding assistance, business development, and technical support. The EquityPilot program is designed to help early-stage startups build scalable solutions with mentorship, strategic guidance, and network support.
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