Silverbacks Holdings, a private investment firm, has announced its ninth profitable exit, following a partial exit of its stake in OmniRetail, a fast-growing B2B retail platform.
The firm revealed that the exit delivered a fivefold return on its initial investment, continuing a streak of high-yielding exits. It follows an earlier exit from LemFi, which returned 29 times the capital invested.
The latest exit comes on the heels of OmniRetail’s $20 million Series A funding round, which attracted investors including Flour Mills of Nigeria. Founded in 2019, OmniRetail digitises the informal retail supply chain and has grown its valuation to over $100 million. Between 2020 and 2023, the company’s revenue surged by 71,818 percent from $280,000 in 2020 to over $120 million in 2023.
Read also: Meet fast-growing OmniRetail’s new advisory board members
The company connects over 150,000 retailers and 5,800 distributors, enabling inventory, finance, and payments. It reached profitability in 2024, processing over N1.3 trillion ($810 million) in transactions last year.
“This ninth exit is another validation of our long-term strategy and reaffirms the exceptional calibre of entrepreneurs we support. Inevitably, Silverbacks’ crop of founders will be at the forefront of Africa’s next generation of global brands,” said Ibrahim Sagna, Executive Chairman of Silverbacks Holdings.
“Silverbacks has been a truly resourceful early investor and a consistent contributor to the growth of OmniRetail’s network. I’m excited to see them continue the journey with us as I also have the pleasure to support their sports venture,” added Deepankar Rustagi, Omniretail’s founder and chief executive officer.
The exit is part of a broader partial exit program announced by Silverbacks last month. Across Nigeria, exits have yielded an average 10.7x multiple on invested capital (MOIC) and an 81.5 percent internal rate of return (IRR) over an average holding period of 2.8 years. In Egypt, the averages stand at 9.7x MOIC and 339 percent IRR over 1.7 years.
Overall, Silverbacks’ African investments have returned nearly 4x the capital invested, with fintech deals leading the pack at 13.7x MOIC and a 91.9 percent IRR over 3.7 years. In comparison, the firm’s non-African exits have yielded a more modest 1.3x MOIC.
