Badili, a Kenya-based smartphone re-commerce startup, has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding to scale its operations within Africa, one of the fastest-growing mobile phone markets in the world.

Venture Catalysts, V&R Africa, Grenfell holdings and SOSV participated in the round, as did family offices and angel investors from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and India.

Buoyed by the new funding, Badili plans to explore new growth opportunities in West Africa, where it hopes to tap an increasing demand for affordable second-hand smartphones, even as it scales its operations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

“We are launching in Uganda and Tanzania and have established strong partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Within the next six months, we will be expanding to a few West African markets to get our foot in the door of some of the major markets in Africa,” said Rishabh Lawania (CEO), who co-founded the startup with Keshu Dubey (CTO) early this year.