With a degree in Journalism from City University, London, Jessica Anuna’s career journey has been on a path totally different from what she studied.
Jessica 28, is the founder and CEO of Klasha, a fast fashion online retailer specifically designed to bring exciting and affordable fashion to highly connected millennial women in emerging markets namely Africa.
In what many would consider to be a very young age for a professional woman, Jessica has already accrued a lifetime of accomplishments: worked for two of the world’s most prestigious online businesses and founded three online businesses.
While working for Net-A-Porter and then Amazon, Jessica started studying Mandarin Chinese at Imperial College London and Kings College London before deciding to move to Shanghai to study at Jiao Tong University where she continued her Chinese language studies then later at the London School of Economics Confucius Institute for Business.
In 2015 Jessica started, RestockChina, a product sourcing company exporting FMCG to the UK and US and eventually spent three years working in China.
In 2017, Jessica started Klasha, an online retailer devoted to women aged 18-28 that offers affordable fashion with fast delivery to Africa, easy payment options in local African currencies and excellent customer care.
While getting Klasha off the ground, she was one of ten companies invited to join the first Techstars Dubai Accelerator program and today Klasha’s office is headquartered in this dynamic Middle East city. In 2017, Jessica was selected as one of 25 African entrepreneurs to join the first eFounders initiative, sponsored by Alibaba and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
She has been featured in Forbes Middle East, WWD, The Guardian, Elaph, The Telegraph, BBC London News, BBC Radio 5 Live, and The Sun. Management Today named her one of their “35 under 35 Ones to Watch”, the US Embassy in London named her as one of its Young Global Leaders and she was Stylist Magazine’s Woman of the Week in September 2018.
She was named by Management Today as one of their 35 Women Under 35 to watch, and the US embassy in London named her as one of its global leaders.
Featured as one of Forbes Woman Africa’s New Wealth Creators in March, Anuna got an investment of $120,000 from Techstars Dubai, an international startup accelerator, funding and mentorship organization to run 2017 with Klasha
After living in China at age 23, she grew up admiring how they did business and decided to do the same in her country.
Anuna currently employs a team of six women, all under the age of 27.
Her platform allows fashion buyers to buy items with the South African rand, Nigeria naira, Kenyan shillings, Ghanaian cedi and three international currencies, with a delivery time of one to five days.
“I do believe Africa has the power to change and be a force economically…” she says.
Anuna, who can speak fluent French and Mandarin, plans to grow the company global.