Anka, the pan-African marketplace for designers and artisans that began life as Afrikrea, has been bought by Global Shop Group following the rapid insolvency of its French parent company MANSAART.
The deal, the value of which was not disclosed, comes about two months after MANSAART entered formal recovery proceedings in Paris and then moved to liquidation when the rescue attempt failed.
Court filings show MANSAART entered judicial recovery on July 1, 2025, but the process was converted to judicial liquidation on July 29, 2025 after officials concluded the business could not be salvaged.
The parent company had declared it could not meet creditor obligations as of May 7, 2025, and a court-appointed liquidator, Marie-Hélène Montravers, put assets including the Anka platform up for sale to recoup funds for creditors.
Anka’s trajectory has been uneven. Founded in 2016 by Moulaye Tabouré, Abdoul Kadry Diallo, and Luc Perussault-Diallo, the company started as Afrikrea and later broadened into a full-stack commerce and logistics provider for African creators.
Over its life it raised roughly $13.5 million, including a $6.2 million pre-Series A in 2022 and another $5 million round in 2023 backed by institutions such as the International Finance Corporation, Proparco, and the French public investment bank BPI.
Even with those injections of capital, MANSAART’s balance sheet deteriorated quickly. The Anka platform reportedly facilitated more than $60 million in gross merchandise value across 47 African countries, serving customers in over 170 markets and supporting more than 10,000 jobs across 46 nations.
High-profile success stories, including Nigerian designer Shakirat Arigbabu, were cited in international profiles that credited the platform with enabling sizable export revenues from African SMEs.
The forced sale raises questions about how venture-backed platforms that stitch together cross-border operations should be structured. Investors such as Saviu Ventures, Investisseurs & Partenaires, the BESTSELLER Foundation, and Bluepool likely saw their equity wiped out by the liquidation.
The rapid pace from recovery to liquidation suggests either an acute funding shortfall or structural problems that late-stage capital could not fix.
For creators who relied on Anka as a channel to global buyers, the acquisition presents both hope and uncertainty.
Under new ownership the marketplace’s technology and payment rails could be stabilised, but sellers will be watching to see whether payouts, logistics partnerships, and marketplace protections remain intact.
Restoring trust after a parent company collapse will be a priority for whoever now controls the assets.
From my reporting experience, this episode highlights two wider lessons for founders and funders in African tech.
First, building resilient local entities and diversified revenue streams matters when a European or external holding company runs into trouble.
Second, transparent escrow and payout mechanisms are essential for platforms that handle merchant revenues across multiple currencies and jurisdictions.
Global Shop Group inherits not just a codebase and user base, but the responsibility of safeguarding livelihoods and reputations built on the platform.
Going forward, the market will be watching how Global Shop Group integrates Anka, whether it invests in seller-facing guarantees, and how it navigates regulatory and payments complexity across Africa.
If executed carefully, the asset sale could preserve a valuable distribution channel for African creators. If it is mismanaged, the episode may leave another cautionary footnote about cross-border governance in digital commerce.
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