Edidiong joins Alerzo to drive growth, adoption of its products

Marketing executive Edidiong Ekong has joined Alerzo, a Series A B2B e-commerce & technology company digitising Africa’s informal retail sector, as a Head of Marketing to drive adoption and growth for all its products, including Alerzoshop and AlerzoPay. He joins from Klasha – a San Francisco-based e-commerce and payment company that raised $2.4m from Greycroft, where he was Head of Marketing, managing the brands marketing and ambitious growth plans, launching Klasha’s products – Checkout, Klasha Wire, Klasha Shop in Nigeria and Ghana and acquiring over 10,000 businesses within five months of launch.

Edidiong’s experience at early-stage startup Klasha and leading Chinese-owned music streaming and technology company Boomplay will be valuable in his new role at Alerzo. At Boomplay, he was instrumental in Boomplay’s acquisition of over 47 million users in Nigeria and an overall global 100 million app downloads milestone on Google Play as of January 2021. He also championed and managed innovative marketing programs, such as partnerships with Multichoice for the Big Brother Nigeria Reality TV Show, campus tours across universities in Nigeria with Tecno Mobile, Infinix and iTel Mobile and Filmhouse Cinemas, BurnaBoy’s African Giant Album Activation, Tiwa 4999 Concert, Niniola Concert, Falz Experience II concert, Felabration.

When quizzed about the motivation to take on this new role, Edidiong stated, “My focus will be on driving market adoption of the company’s core product – Alerzoshop and launching new products, including AlerzoPay, to new and existing customer segments”. Edidong went further to say, “ I will be bringing new perspectives to the organisation, working with cross-functional teams to ensure adaptability in the product development and execution processes and achieve Alerzo’s core goal of digitising and empowering the millions of women who are the backbone of consumer commerce in Nigeria’s $100 billion informal retail sector.”

In August, Alerzo had raised $10.5 million in a Series A funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to over $20 million led by London-based Nosara Capital. FJ Labs and several family offices from the U.S., Europe and Asia, including Michael Novogratz. With its ongoing rapid expansion from Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria to the Middle Belt and northern regions of Nigeria – Abuja and Kano and the recent acquisition of FinTech company Shago Payments, Alerzo has ambitious plans to launch and drive adoption of AlerzoPay, the company’s cashless payments and lending platform, as well as a portfolio of new business support and digital services to customers across Nigeria.