Co-founders Audrey Djiya and Peter Nsaka have secured funding from Fearless Funding.
TechCrunch reports that the pair became connected while attending Stanford University. Djiya attended its school of business, while Nsaka studied computer science.
Although they pursued different educational journeys, they were united by a shared mission: solving the complexities surrounding international commerce. Their focus became streamlining the movement of goods across borders, addressing issues such as inefficient supply chains, inconsistent regulations, and barriers to trade. Their unique perspectives and expertise became the foundation for tackling the challenge with innovation and collaboration. For Djiya, she had taken note from her family, who were entrepreneurs.
“Growing up watching family members move goods cross-border, the challenges around international commerce really stuck with me,” she told the outlet.
Nsaka made his own observations while at Shopify. He took on the role in 2020 as a software engineer, and he has since been promoted to senior software engineer, according to his LinkedIn. During his initial time with the company, he noticed that the Black Friday sales data excluded sales from Africa.
“This observation stuck with me,” Nsaka explained to TechCrunch. “The easy path would have been to accept the conventional wisdom, to attribute this disparity to platform preference or market limitations. But engineering has taught me that assumptions are the enemy of innovation.”
Together, Nsaka (CTO) and Djiya (CEO) launched Zimi in June 2023. Per the company website, it encourages international brands to scale their presence through its offerings which include storage and order fulfillment, the ability for merchants to receive USD payment, and access to affordable ocean and air freight services.
“Everything a merchant needs to do to sell internationally can be done in one place on our platform,” Nsaka said.
Zimi secured $2 million in funding through a round led by Fearless Fund, with additional support from Y Combinator and a network of other investors and advisors. Attracting the attention of Fearless Fund was divine timing for the founders after they gained traction on LinkedIn for Zimi’s launch.
“Which was perfect timing as we were just starting to think about fundraising,” Djiya revealed, according to TechCrunch. “Our other investors we met primarily through direct inbound as well.”
The investment will scale its team, strengthen its U.S. fulfillment networks, and integrate artificial intelligence models to improve merchants’ experiences.
“We’re seeing strong interest from brands across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa who want to reach US customers, and we need to expand our infrastructure to support them,” Nsaka mentioned. “We’ve only scratched the surface of making global commerce truly accessible for international brands.”
