Wezesha Soko
A B2B marketplace connecting buyers and suppliers across Kenya. Building the trust layer that makes commerce work — supplier onboarding, verification, and the business workflows that neither side wants to think about.
Deep Architectural Overview
Wezesha Soko is a B2B marketplace built for the Kenyan market, where the gap between buyers and suppliers isn't just a discovery problem — it's a trust problem. The product is focused on the mechanics of verified commerce: who you're buying from, whether they can deliver, and the workflow that makes a transaction feel safe on both sides.
The Technical Challenge
B2B trade in Kenya happens through personal networks, phone calls, and informal vouching. The informal structure keeps out smaller suppliers who can't afford a reputation, and forces buyers to take risks they'd rather not take. There's no neutral infrastructure for establishing trust at scale.
Our Engineering Solution
Wezesha Soko provides the scaffolding that makes marketplace trust legible: supplier onboarding with document verification, tiered credibility signals, and business workflow systems that give both sides visibility into where a transaction stands. The design goal is to make the implicit explicit — the things that made informal trade work, formalized without losing their meaning.
Tech Stack
- Java
- Spring Boot
- PostgreSQL
- Next.js
- TypeScript
Architectural Layout
- Supplier Onboarding: Multi-step verification flow with document upload, review states, and credibility tiers that surface trust signals contextually.
- Business Workflow Engine: State machine-based order lifecycle tracking giving buyers and suppliers a shared view of transaction progress.
- Backend Services: Spring Boot microservices on PostgreSQL handling supplier profiles, inventory, and transaction records with strict data integrity.
- Buyer-facing Interface: Next.js frontend optimized for low-bandwidth connections, with search and filtering across verified supplier inventory.
Key Impact
- Designed supplier verification and onboarding systems that reduce fraudulent listings and build marketplace credibility from the ground up.
- Modular workflow architecture allows new transaction types to be added without rebuilding the core trust layer.
- Built to serve markets where connectivity is inconsistent — lightweight payloads and graceful degradation throughout.