Cloud based e-commerce technology company uAfrica.com, which helps users easily create online stores, has raised $1.5 million in funding.

The funding has been raised between South Africa’s biggest online bidding website bidorbuy.com and private South African investor Andy Higgins (pictured), who is also the managing director of uAfrica.com.

Andy Higgins also happens to be the founder and former managing director of bidorbuy.co.za

Meanwhile, a press statement says that uAfrica.com has been operating in the e-commerce space since 2004, but the company rebranded from ‘Jump Shopping’ to ‘uAfrica’ after Higgins joined the team in 2012.

“Over the last two years, a substantial portion of locally established online South African e-commerce companies have benefitted from an influx of global investment. This increase is testament to the opportunity the South African market has to offer these investors both from a return perspective and the growth in the number of local skilled experts working on IT and application developments,” said Higgins in a press statement..

Jaco Jonker, chief executive officer for bidorbuy.co.za, says in a statement that the online retail space has become a significant part of South African shopping trends and that online retailers prefer to use more than one channel.

“Therefore, the need to operate or generate sales across multiple web based retail stores or applications will continue to grow, as will the need to manage inventory across these various platforms," said Jonker.

"We made the business decision to partner with the leading e-commerce experts, uAfrica.com, in order to help deliver these specialised services, including multiple channels, to online retailers. This is also fundamental to the future e-commerce growth within the bidorbuy channel." concluded Jonker.