Nigerian startup Siiqo launches commerce infrastructure on Telegram, helping users increase their sales and better manage their businesses.
Founded by Okerere Innocent and Linda Kolapa Ogochukwu, Siiqo aims to help users build brands by creating online storefronts and portfolios, and getting discovered by a wider audience. It also allows them to get paid, via fiat or crypto, and manage business operations efficiently and effectively.
The startup has now launched a full commerce infrastructure on Telegram to deepen social commerce in Nigeria.
“We didn’t set out to build on Telegram. Like most platforms in this space, our roadmap assumed the obvious next step after the web was a native mobile app. But the more time we spent with the SMEs and vendors actually using Siiqo, the clearer one pattern became – they weren’t waiting for an app,” said Innocent.
“They were already running entire customer relationships – orders, prices, follow-ups, disputes – inside Telegram and WhatsApp threads, manually, with no system behind any of it.”
That observation is what pushed Siiqo to build a full commerce bot directly inside Telegram, instead of doubling down on app development. Vendors can now list products, take orders, and collect payment without ever leaving the chat interface their customers already trust.
“Critically, we built our escrow-based trust layer directly into that experience, so the same protection against fake payment alerts and scam transactions that defines Siiqo on the web now travels with vendors into Telegram,” Innocent said.
“We think this is a genuinely interesting strategic
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