Spring In The Step For Africa's E-Logistics Startups

A steady flow of big-ticket investments is ensuring the wave of digitisation in Africa is more than a passing one. Logistics startups riding high on the back of technological support are building solutions to identify and bridge gaps in the supply chain. The challenges for these startups go beyond mere lack of infrastructure, and the inflow of capital is making sure their eyes are on the goal of making logistics accessible, Blessy Chettiar reports.

- Blessy Chettiar

Kenya’s Twiga Foods raised $30 million from lenders and investors led by Goldman Sachs in a Series B round. The funds will allow the B2B food distribution company to expand in Nairobi with a distribution centre. According to Crunchbase, Twiga’s Series B is the biggest financing round raised by a Nairobi-based company in 2019, and the third-largest round of all time for the city.

Pan-African e-logistics company, Lori, will expand to Nigeria, almost a year after completing a successful pilot in Nigeria with some top cargo companies including Olam, Honeywell Flour Mills, and Flour Mills Nigeria. The ‘Uber of trucks’ acts as a matchmaker between truckers and companies that want to move cargo. While Lori has never made its financing public, it is said to have raised more than $20 million from Asia-based Hillhouse Capital, Africa-focused venture capital fund EchoVC, and members of the Cargill family, owners of the US agricultural commodities group which uses its services.

Kobo360, a Nigerian digital logistics platform backed by the International Finance Corporation, recently secured a $30 million Series A funding from US investment bank, Goldman Sachs, TLCom Capital, YCombinator and some Nigerian banks. The funding will be used to scale operations, accelerate supply growth and develop the technology offering on the platform.

Bwala Africa, a Nairobi-based last-mile logistics startup has secured a deal with an undisclosed European tech firm to develop a new tech platform for the startup. The deal is valued at $8,00,000. The deal comes as Bwala Africa opens its Series A round to investors. The startup aims to raise between $5 million and $8 million and is in talks with various venture capital companies and private equity firms.