This year, transport and logistics startups in Africa seem to be having a field day raising funds to scale their businesses. Algeria’s ride-hailing startup TemTem is the latest to join the train of fund raisers. The startup has raised $4 million in a Series A round.
“Today, TemTem has all cards in hand to become the market leader in the Algerian mobility sector,’’ said CEO Kamel Haddar. ‘‘This new fundraising round confirms TemTem’s competitive position, the relevance of its strategy, and investor confidence in its strong growth potential. With this new capital, TemTem, will lunch two new innovative services centered around improving the daily lives of Algerians,”
Here Is The Deal
- The investment was led by Tell Venture Automotive (that’s apparently associated with Tell Group, a Luxembourg-headquartered financial services company), with other undisclosed investors joining.
- The startup claims it has plans to expand the services to ten more cities in Algeria without disclosing which cities, to be precise.
“We are going to first and foremost focus on boosting growth by diversifying our products, scaling up our marketing campaigns, in particular with the help of a major telecom company, and recruiting top talents. The goal is clear: to become the market leader,” said TemTem’s CEO.
- TemTem claims this is the largest Series A investment raised by any Algeria startup.
- The latest investment comes a little over a year after TemTem announced its $1.7 million seed round.
- The latest investment also brings the total amount of funding raised by the startup so far to $5.7 million, making TemTem the best-funded startup in Algeria.
Why The Investors Invested
Yacine Maireche, General Manager of Tell Venture Automotive, noted that:
“Algeria and Africa represent great opportunities of growth for TemTem. We are delighted to team up with TemTem to support its growth and help improve customer mobility.”
Read also: Nigerian Logistics Startup Kobo360 Is Changing The Game With Its Latest $30m Funding
What Tem Tem Does
- Founded last year by Kamel Haddar, a serial entrepreneur who has previously founded some other digital ventures (and continues to lead them), TemTem offers ride-hailing services (of regular taxis, different types of cars, and bikes) to both individuals and businesses in Algiers, Oran, and Constantine.
- TemTem works directly with over 150 companies to offer different types of ride-hailing services to their employees with the businesses getting invoiced for it at the end of every month. The startup has recently also launched delivery services for businesses.
- The startup that currently employs a team of 40, according to the statement, has served over 200,000 customers to date and has over 4,000 drivers in its network.
- The startup said in a statement it offers its drivers discounts on TemTem, car insurance, after-sale service with car manufacturers, and different benefits for their families.
Kamel Haddar, said the startup’s drivers are the backbone of the business.
‘‘It is essential to value them and give them concrete perspectives in their daily lives. This is also why our partners and their families will soon be able to subscribe to dedicated health insurance,” he said.
The Algerian startup also has plans to expand to other African markets but for now, it’s focusing only on Algeria.
The CEO noted that international expansion has always been in TemTem’s mid-term development outlook and once they have covered the Algerian market, they would want to work to solve urban transportation issues in different cities of Africa.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world