The most revealing number in the Wasoko-MaxAB merger was not the size of the combined merchant network. It was the decision to stop treating gross merchandise value as the main proof that the model worked.
When the two B2B commerce companies completed their merger in 2024, they had already reduced their combined footprint from eight markets to five. Wasoko co-founder Daniel Yu said at the time that the group was making a positive contribution margin per order, a sharp contrast with the earlier phase when growth in transaction volume carried more attention than profitability.
Since then, the combined company has kept consolidating. In 2025 it agreed to acquire Egypt’s Fatura, extending a strategy that combines commerce, supply-chain operations and higher-margin financial services.
The reset says something larger about African B2B e-commerce: distribution only scales when each order has disciplined economics underneath it.
Moving physical goods is unforgiving
The original B2B e-commerce thesis was compelling.
Millions of informal retailers buy fast-moving consumer goods through fragmented distributor networks. A digital platform could aggregate demand, improve pricing, deliver stock more reliably and then layer payments or credit on top.
The difficulty is physical execution. Warehouses, inventory, delivery fleets, fuel, damaged goods and working capital all create costs before a retailer receives an order.
Growth can therefore make losses larger if the company subsidises delivery or carries too much overhead. GMV rises, but cash burns faster.
Wasoko and MaxAB were not alone in learning this. Across the category, companies reduced geographic footprints, changed models or closed as venture funding became less tolerant of long paths to profitability.
The merger attacked fixed costs first
The combined company said the merger allowed it to consolidate central teams and remove overlapping overhead. That is less exciting than a new market launch, but it directly improves unit economics.
VNV Global’s 2024 annual report, an investor in Wasoko, described the merger as transformational and said the group had a clear path toward profitability across five core markets.
Scale can help a distributor when shared technology, procurement and back-office costs are spread across more orders. It only works, however, if local operations remain efficient. A warehouse in Nairobi does not become cheaper because another warehouse exists in Cairo unless the group can share enough procurement, systems and management overhead to matter.
That is why the post-merger story is operational rather than purely geographic.
Fintech offers a higher-margin second layer
The combined company has also leaned harder into payments and credit.
That makes strategic sense. Commerce creates frequent relationships with small retailers, and those relationships produce transaction data. Credit, payments and other financial services can monetise the network without requiring a truck to move another carton of goods.
The Fatura acquisition reinforces that direction. EFG Finance became a shareholder and board participant, while the combined platform gained another retailer network in Egypt that can receive embedded finance products.
The risk is assuming fintech automatically fixes weak commerce economics. Credit can create attractive margins, but it also creates default risk. A company still needs a healthy distribution business underneath the financial layer.
Why it matters
Wasoko-MaxAB is one of the clearest examples of the African startup market’s shift from “growth at all costs” toward operating discipline.
The lesson is not that B2B commerce was a bad idea. Informal retailers still need better procurement, logistics and credit. The lesson is that a large addressable market does not erase the cost of serving it.
Founders in logistics, commerce and mobility should pay attention because the same principle applies anywhere software touches physical operations. Every market expansion adds local complexity. Every transaction needs enough gross profit to carry delivery, support and overhead.
Capital can accelerate a sound model. It cannot permanently subsidise a broken one.
What to watch
Watch whether the combined company can demonstrate sustained profitability across its remaining markets rather than only positive contribution margin per order.
Fintech mix is also important. If payments and credit grow faster than core commerce, Wasoko-MaxAB may increasingly resemble a financial-services platform with distribution attached.
Finally, watch leadership and further consolidation. The category still has many fragmented regional players, and the logic behind the original merger could drive more combinations.
The hard reset has already changed the benchmark. In African B2B e-commerce, scale now has to prove that it can pay for itself.
