After raising $10,000 from an angel investor, the Abeokuta Ogun State based transport and logistics startup, Pickmeup, is planning to expand their services outside Nigeria to other African countries. The startup was founded in 2017 BY Adeitan Abimbola and Adewale Oretuga. and commenced business from its hub in Abeokuta, Ogun State as a transport business helping users schedule rides and charter vehicles.
In 2018, it launched a laundry arm in a bid to increase revenues, and in early January of 2019, added logistics to its chain of businesses. Then in August, Pickmeup introduced Pickmeup Ride, an online ride-hailing service, and its food delivery service in Abeokuta.
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The founders say that in order to maintain the quality of its services and expand, the startup had to raise $10,000 this year from an angel investor—half in May, and the other half this month. With the investment, Pickmeup has introduced other services to an already robust platform.
“Pickmeup has been making life easy for logistics and transportation systems in Nigeria, Africa and beyond. Earlier this year we introduced our International Delivery from Nigeria to anywhere in the world,” says Adewale Oretuga.
The International Delivery service allows Pickmeup users to send packages in 2-3 days from Nigeria to other countries around the world. Similarly, the startup launched a cargo delivery service allowing users to send packages from Nigeria to the US, UK and Canada.
Also this July saw the three-year-old startup expand its food delivery service to Lagos. And with an active presence in Lagos, Abeokuta, and Ibadan, here’s how its milestones line up according to Oretuga.
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In Lagos, up to 50,000 deliveries have been made; in Abeokuta, approximately 7,000; and in Ibadan, more than 5,000. Also, for its ride-hailing business in Abeokuta, Oretuga claims completed rides have crossed the 10,000 mark.
Other metrics include an active customer base of 50,000 and completing more than 10,000 deliveries outside the country.
Not resting on its laurels, Oretuga says the next goal is to begin operations outside the country.
“The funding is to scale up and also extend our tentacles and we are looking to launch in Ghana and Cameroon by the first quarter of next year. As we speak, series of meetings have been held to get our operations to start in Ghana next year,” he adds.
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Albeit little, Oretuga argues that the new investment along with added revenue from the business will be enough for the startup to scale into these countries.
According to him, in order to accomplish this, the startup will get more bikes, increase its marketing budget, and make ‘strategic’ partnerships.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry