Nigeria - Startup under 3 years old

Describe your project or startup in a few words

We’re helping young women in Nigeria make at least N5,000 daily by going to the market to purchase food items for working-class, time-pressed women who cannot afford to visit the market on their own. We refer to these young ladies as "shopping agents."

01.01 Describe your startup in more detail

Ipala is an infrastructure for food items markets that gathers food items markets and lets shopping agents update the prices of the food items in those markets. This way, working class and busy women can purchase food items on Ipala from the comfort of their homes with the assistance of the updates, and then send Ipala shopper agents on errands to assist them in visiting the market, making their purchases, and having their food items delivered. This aids working-class women who depend on Ipala to meet their food items needs.

01.02 What is the main problem you are trying to solve?

Poor food items accessibility and manual food items order process

01.03 Tell us the major benefits and/or advantages of using the product/service that your startup provides (at least 3).

Working class, busy women and households save and invest more time in other home care responsibilities. Ipala help improve work-life balance for working class women. Young women who are shopping agents on Ipala earn more daily to stay financially active.

01.04 Please describe who exactly your startup’s product/service is aimed at serving. Who are the targeted beneficiaries?

Working class women. Busy women and households.

01.05 When was your company established?

2023-09-12

01.06 Are you already selling your product/service?

Yes

01.07 How many other owners are there within your startup?

1

01.08 Among the other owners, how many are female?

1

01.09 Please describe the profile of the other owners within your startup (skills, experience, etc.)

Johnbosco Ikwunemelu- Co-founder/CEO A serial entrepreneur and a mid-level C++ programmer, a top video editor. Johnbosco is a second time founder. I have a special skill of onboarding early users on any software product pre-revenue. I brought in 2000 users in my first start-up bosshall.com a mediatech for radio brands. now we've bootstrapped Ipala with 145 users currently and 19 stores trading on our marketplace. I don't believe in limit. Jude Enemali- co-founder/Business strategist - Jude is a serial entrepreneur who has built and co-founded couple of businesses including a successful football club called African child Academy. Jude co-founded bosshalls.com with Johnbosco and now piloting business role at Ipala. Micheal Ejeh- CTO. Mike is a seasoned full-stack programmer who has led multi-racial team of developers on-site and remotely in Nigerian and European tech firms. Mike is currently leading a team of 3 developers at Ipala.

01.10 If you have a website, a social media page (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin…), or app, please provide the link(s) here:

https://ipala.shop

01.11 Which industry best describes your project?

h) IT (digital services, equipment and software)

02.01.01 My startup contributes to the No poverty goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.01.02 No poverty - Justification for my startup

Ipala operate a positive sum economy where we share revenue with young women who are our shopping agents. With this, we help them become financially active and improve Nigeria GDP going forward.

02.02.01 My startup contributes to the Zero hunger goal

2

02.02.02 Zero hunger - Justification for my startup

02.03.01 My startup contributes to the Good health and well-being goal

2

02.03.02 Good health and well-being - Justification for my startup

02.04.01 My startup contributes to the Quality education goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.04.02 Quality education - Justification for my startup

02.05.01 My startup contributes to the Gender equality goal

2

02.05.02 Gender equality - Justification for my startup

02.06.01 My startup contributes to the Clean water and sanitation goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.06.02 Clean water and sanitation - Justification for my startup

02.07.01 My startup contributes to the Affordable and clean energy goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.07.02 Affordable and clean energy - Justification for my startup

02.08.01 My startup contributes to the Decent work and economic growth

7 - Strongly Agree

02.08.02 Decent work and economic growth - Justification for my startup

We employ and deploy shopping agents who earn daily by storming food items market to buy food items for households who can't afford the time to come to the market themselves. With this, we mitigate social vices, give thee young women some decent work and improve their economy and food items value chain economy at large.

02.09.01 My startup contributes to the Industry innovation and infrastructure

7 - Strongly Agree

02.09.02 Industry innovation and infrastructure - Justification for my startup

Our startup Ipala is underpinned by database technology that uses best user experience to update people on latest food items prices in markets near them and connect them to diligent shopping agents.

02.10.01 My startup contributes to the Reduced inequalities goal

2

02.10.02 Reduced inequalities - Justification for my startup

02.11.01 My startup contributes to the Sustainable cities and communities goal

2

02.11.02 Sustainable cities and communities - Justification for my startup

02.12.01 My startup contributes to the Responsible consumption and production goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.12.02 Responsible consumption and production - Justification for my startup

The more we help food items SMEs sell more to local and international consumers, ( Nigerian in diaspora) the more farmers see more demands from wholesalers and retailers. With this, we help the value chain financially sustain their production.

02.13.01 My startup contributes to the Climate action goal

2

02.13.02 Climate action - Justification for my startup

02.14.01 My startup contributes to the Life below water goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.14.02 Life below water - Justification for my startup

02.15.01 My startup contributes to the Life on land goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.15.02 Life on land - Justification for my startup

02.16.01 My startup contributes to the Peace Justice and Strong Institutions goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.16.02 Peace Justice and Strong Institutions- Justification for my startup

02.17.01 My startup contributes to the Partnerships for the goal

2

02.17.02 Partnerships for the goal - Justification for my startup

06.01 There are a large number of customers who already use a product/service very similar to the product/service we envision creating.

5

06.02 The product/service represents an entirely new type of product/service.

7 - Strongly Agree

06.03 The product/service could be described as a new technology.

1 - Strongly Disagree

06.04 The product/service is an improvement on an existing product or service.

1 - Strongly Disagree

06.05 The product/service could be described as an extension of a range of products or services.

1 - Strongly Disagree

06.06 The product/service responds to a demand or need that has not been satisfied by other products/services.

7 - Strongly Agree

06.07 The product/service is a new version of an old product/service.

5

06.08 Justification for my startup

Currently in Nigeria, food items prices changes by the minute and this destabilizes people's food items budgeting. Again, there's a rise in working class mums, women at large even men seeking the services of other women to help them visit the market and buy food items for them. but no platform is tailored to provide latest food items price information from all shops across markets. no platform is currently building for shopping agents. In fact, the term "shopping agents" was coined at Ipala. we're helping shops in markets assign shopping agents to their businesses who help them update prices of food items in their shops and also help buyers visit those shops to pick food items they already paid for and deliver to them. that's how innovative and efficient Ipala is.

06.09 Competitive Analysis

Pricepally Vandease Unlike Pricepally, Ipala does not oversee 98% of its stock. The majority of the food in Ipala is found in the open-air food market. This results in reasonable rates and guaranteed availability. *Furthermore, since our agents can go into village markets to source food items for urban clients, rural marketplaces on Ipala also strengthen our price advantage. Unlike Vandease, Ipala focus on households not restaurants. Ipala is the only food items marketplace connecting households to shopping agents.

11.05 Are you initiating actions within your community to promote the role of female entrepreneurs?

Ms Chidinma Tolani is Design Lead at Ipala and co-own Ipala with Micheal Ejeh. We are working on staging design conference bi annually where she speak to young aspiring women on product design skills and how to ideate, design solutions into a usable software product.