About SOKO
SOKO is a Retail company based in San Francisco (United States) founded in 2011. Internet-first brand offering hand crafted jewellery. SOKO has raised $1.4 million across 4 funding rounds from investors including USAID, Grassroots Business Fund and Rio Technology Partners. Its website shopsoko.com draws about 14 thousand monthly visits. Its focus areas include Consumer, Fashion Tech, B2C Commerce and Accessories. Its competitors include BaubleBar, John Hardy and Paparazzi Accessories; 1 of its 3 listed competitors has raised funding.
Company details
Founded in Kenya, Soku is an online marketplace for global jewelry and accessories that connects mobile-enabled women artisans from developing countries with global customers online. Based in San Francisco, New York and Nairobi, Kenya. Artisans can use their basic feature phone for SMS text entry forms to upload product details in their virtual storefronts and receive payments as mobile money. All jewelry is handcrafted and made using locally sourced, regional and sometimes upcycled materials. SOKO recruited over 250 artisans from Kenya in its first 2 weeks.
- Total Equity Funding$1.4M (USD)
in 4 rounds
- Latest Funding Round$700K (USD), Debt – Conventional
Nov 2016
- InvestorsUSAID
& 2 more
Apps and channels of SOKO
its YouTube channel Soko has 339 subscribers and 17 videos.
Videos from SOKO
The most watched videos on SOKO's YouTube channel, Soko (339 subscribers). Click a video to play it here.
More on Soko.
Funding Insights of SOKO
SOKO has successfully raised a total of $1.4M across 4 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Debt – Conventional round of $700 thousand completed in November 2016. This substantial capital infusion reflects strong investor confidence in the company's business model, growth potential, and market opportunities. The funding enables strategic expansion, product development, market penetration, and operational scaling to drive long-term value creation and competitive advantage.
- Total Funding $1.4M
- Total Rounds 4
- Last Round Debt – Conventional — $700,000
- First Round $700,000
(Jun 2013)
- Investors Count 3
All 4 funding rounds of SOKO with amounts and investors; the two latest post-money valuations are shown, the rest are part of the premium plan.
| Date | Amount | Transaction Name | Valuation | Lead Investors | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2016 | $700,000 | Debt – Conventional | – | – | |
| Apr 2015 | $699,997 | Seed | – | – | – |
| Sep 2013 | $100,000 | Grant | – | – | |
| Jun 2013 | $700,000 | Seed | – | – |
3 investors in total: 3 institutional.
Investors in SOKO
SOKO has secured backing from 3 investors, including venture fund and institutional investors. Prominent investors backing the company include USAID, Grassroots Business Fund and Rio Technology Partners.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Private equity investments are directed toward small and medium-sized enterprises. | gbfund.org | Washington, Dc, United States | ||
| rioafrica.com | ||||
Global poverty and development are addressed through USAID initiatives. | 1961 | usaid.gov |
Investor details for SOKO
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People of SOKO
9 people are tracked at SOKO (2 in leadership, 7 in team).
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Catherine Mahugu | Founder | Leadership |
Abishai Omari | Director Of Engineering | Leadership |
Moses Odhiambo | Full Stack Engineer | Team |
Mohamed Abdullahi | Software Engineer | Team |
Eric Otieno | Quality Assurance Manager | Team |
Medinah Ndhaya | Sales Operations & Logistics | Team |
Ronit Zalik | Canada Sales | Team |
Maureen Naftal | Production Manager | Team |
Jeff Kungu | Senior Software Engineer Full-stack | Team |
Complete people profiles for SOKO
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Timeline of SOKO
3 dated milestones of SOKO across 5 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded SOKO is founded.
- Funding First funding round of $700K.
- Funding Latest funding round, Debt – Conventional, of $700K.
Competitors of SOKO
SOKO has 3 listed competitors in our database, 1 of them funded. They include BaubleBar, John Hardy and Paparazzi Accessories.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| baublebar.com | 2010 | New York, United States | $38.77M | Fashion jewelry and personalized accessories are sold by BaubleBar. | ||
| johnhardy.com | 1992 | New York, United States | 122 | Hand-crafted jewelry is sold via an online boutique. | ||
| paparazziaccessories.com | 2011 | Atlanta, United States | 111 | Sells affordable jewelry like necklaces, earrings, and bracelets via online platform. |
Detailed competitors of SOKO
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- Full competitor set
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Web traffic of SOKO
The website of SOKO (shopsoko.com) receives about 13.8K visits a month.
- Monthly visits13.8K
▲ 36.5% vs previous month
Websites whose visitors overlap most with SOKO. Affinity shows how closely the audiences match.
| Website | Domain | Audience affinity | Monthly visits | Global rank | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| carolinabucci.com | 100% | 15.7K | #1,667,828 | View details | |
cinco-store.com | cinco-store.com | 97% | #983,131 | – | |
| stelladot.com | 89% | 37.6K | #746,310 | View details | |
livefashionable.com | livefashionable.com | 89% | #7,234,777 | – | |
| maiyet.com | 89% | View details | |||
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
All 40 similar websites and full traffic analytics for SOKO
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- 40 similar websites
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Top companies in Fashion & Lifestyle E-Commerce
2 companies that operate in the same segment as SOKO (Fashion & Lifestyle E-Commerce) in United States, ranked by their profile score on The Company Check.
| Company | Description | Founded | Location | Total funding | Revenue | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Men's fashion apparel is offered online by Bonobos. | 2007 | New York, New York, United States | USD 127.67 M | |||
Online rental platform offering multi-category fashion products and accessories | 2009 | New York, New York, United States | USD 326.35 M | USD 306.2 M | 887 |
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Related news about Soko
Complete news archive for SOKO
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Frequently Asked Questions about SOKO
SOKO was founded in 2011 and raised its 1st funding round 2 years after it was founded.
SOKO is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. It is registered at San Francisco, California, United States.
SOKO is a funded company, having raised a total of $1.4M across 4 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a Seed of $700K, raised on Jun 2013.
Founded in Kenya, Soku is an online marketplace for global jewelry and accessories that connects mobile-enabled women artisans from developing countries with global customers online. Based in San Francisco, New York and Nairobi, Kenya. Artisans can use their basic feature phone for SMS text entry forms to upload product details in their virtual storefronts and receive payments as mobile money. All jewelry is handcrafted and made using locally sourced, regional and sometimes upcycled materials. SOKO recruited over 250 artisans from Kenya in its first 2 weeks.
SOKO's top competitors include BaubleBar, John Hardy and Paparazzi Accessories.
SOKO has 3 investors. Key investors include USAID, Grassroots Business Fund, and Rio Technology Partners.