Click to watchThe last time Sabi made headlines, it was a quiet restructuring: streamlining roughly 20% of its workforce to refocus on commodity trade and traceability. Since then, the picture has become clearer.
Across Africa, the B2B e-commerce playbook is changing. The early model that digitised informal trade through heavy logistics and agent networks has proven difficult to sustain. Jumia pulled back from its B2B segment, Wasoko merged with MaxAB to manage costs, and MarketForce wound down RejaReja after funding dried up. Even well-capitalised players are rethinking scale in a market where margins remain tight and infrastructure gaps add friction.
Sabi is one of the few who found a different path. The Lagos-based startup that once helped small retailers restock fast-moving goods is now applying its distribution expertise to critical minerals. Through its Technology Rails for African Commodity Exchange (TRACE) platform, Sabi moves over 20,000 metric tons of lithium, copper, tungsten, and antimony each month, supplying buyers in the US, UK, Netherlands, Singapore, and Asia. In less than two years, it has facilitated over 100,000 tons of exports from Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania.
At the recent Moonshot conference in Lagos, CEO Anu Adasolum said the company is “doubling down” on the part of the business that is seeing the most demand.
How Sabi stumbled into mining
Sabi’s move into minerals was a response to demand. Small traders in the extractives sector, blocked by the same infrastructure and compliance gaps that slowed retail commerce, began asking to use its network to help them, too. The systems were already in place—traceability systems, compliance tools, and financing capabilities built for agricultural trade.
As global buyers began prioritising verified supply chains, those early mineral trades started to grow fast. Within months, TRACE was doing more volume than Sabi’s retail network, shifting the company’s focus entirely.
The global squeeze
Sabi’s timing couldn’t be sharper. China’s new export restrictions on critical minerals have forced global manufacturers to diversify supply. The European Union now requires digital due diligence and traceability data for mineral imports, and other regions are adopting similar rules. Meanwhile, high-profile cases—like the DRC’s lawsuit against Apple over “blood minerals”—have made compliance non-negotiable.
Africa holds nearly 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves, yet its participation in global supply remains limited. The issue isn’t resources. It’s more of reliability.
“The technical barriers around trading and supplying minerals are significant,” Adasolum said. “If you deliver the wrong quality, you don’t just lose money, but also the buyer’s trust, and that affects their production chemistry.”
Building trust into the supply chain
Sabi’s TRACE platform integrates with Flare, a blockchain-based passport system that records GPS data, labour conditions, environmental metrics, and quality specs from mine sites. Each shipment is logged from pit to port, giving global buyers verifiable proof of origin.
“Traceability is one of the minimum things you need to fulfil contracts with global companies,” Adasolum said. “They need to know where the material comes from.”
Beyond transparency, TRACE handles commercial operations: buying, quality checks, logistics, and compliance for smaller African producers who lack the capacity to manage these processes independently.
Playing the long game
Adasolum rejects the view that African suppliers are simply shipping out raw materials without adding value domestically. Value chains, she argues, must be built in stages, and Africa must first consolidate its base.
“It took decades for China to get here; it didn’t happen overnight,” she said. “If you skip steps, you stall progress. You need to strengthen each stage before moving to the next.”
Sabi is already working with investors on local processing projects, but Adasolum insists the groundwork—verifiable, large-scale production—comes first.
In a sector where missing documentation can cost billions in lost premiums, Sabi’s real product isn’t minerals. It’s trust. And in 2025, that might be the continent’s most valuable export.
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