Barely a year after it secured funding from Africa-focused early stage investor GreenTec Capital Partners, Nairobi-based trucking logistics startup Amitruck has landed an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding led by US- based Dynamo Ventures with participation from Plug and Play Ventures and a host of other strategic angel investors.
“I look forward to working with Dynamo Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures who alongside their investment bring a huge amount of experience building and scaling companies and access within the logistics sector,” said Mark Mwangi, the founder and CEO of Amitruck.
Here Is What You Need To Know
- Although the exact amount involved in this round of founding was not disclosed, lead investor Dynamo Ventures had recently participated in Philadelphia-based YC-backed logistics startup nextmv’s $8m Series A funding round. It also participated most recently in MadeiraMadeira, a Brazilian online home goods platform’s $190 million funding round that valued the startup above $1 billion. To date, the VC has more than 40 investments to its credit.
- The investment will boost Amitruck’s efforts at growing its client base in the East African market where the likes of Lori Systems and Sendy (two well-funded logistics startups) are already making headway.
- Last year, Amitruck raised an undisclosed amount of investment from GreenTec.
- In 2018, Amitruck was accepted into Newchip’s online accelerator. It also completed Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program last year.
Why The Investors Invested
As a sector-focused investor, Dynamo Ventures invests in supply chain and mobility startups across the world. The VC is known for its early investment in Sennder, Europe’s largest digital freight brokerage, which recently purchased European operations from Uber Freight and raised $160 million with an over $1B valuation. Investment in Amitruck is its first outing in Africa and is also a game changer. The VC joins other investors in the African logistics startup space, such as Chinese investors Hillhouse Capital and Crystal Stream Capital; Nigeria and U.S.-based EchoVC; US-based VC Atlantica Ventures; Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a trade and investment arm of the Japanese automaker Toyota; Asia Africa Investment and Consulting, Sunu Capital; Enza Capital; Vested World; Kepple Capital; TLcom Capital; Goldman Sachs; Y Combinator; the International Finance Corporation (IFC), among others
“We are excited to be investing in Amitruck given the momentum it has achieved over the last 12 months particularly in light of the challenges associated with COVID-19. We see many similarities between Amitruck and Sennder which we invested in at a very similar stage of their lifecycle” said Barry Large from Dynamo Ventures who previously was a board director at Sennder “and believe Amitruck has the potential to become equally as successful.”
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On the other hand, Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play Ventures is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in emerging growth companies. This is the venture arm of Plug and Play, an innovation platform, bringing together startups and the world’s largest corporations. Last year, the investor announced it would open its first African office in Johannesburg. Across the world, it has a portfolio of over 20000 startups, 400 major corporate partners and over 180 venture capital firms in 35 global locations. Investment in Amitruck is not its first in Africa. Its previous investments include those in Flutterwave, WorldCover and HealthLane.
“We are extremely excited to invest in Amitruck. We have been in contact with Mark for the last 10 months and we are not only impressed by his incredible growth, but also by his story and ambitions,” said Alberto Anton, Analyst for Plug and Play Ventures. “Amitruck brings efficiency and transparency to the supply chain and we are convinced that Mark and his team will be able to lead the logistics market in Kenya and East Africa.”
Investment in Amitruck also follows the coming into force on the 1st of January, 2021 of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which covers a market of 1.2 billion people and a combined gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion — making Africa the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization seven decades ago. AfCFTA will greatly assist startups in Africa — especially those in the logistics sector — in their quests for international expansion, by, among other things, reducing the regulatory and financial costs of such expansion.
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A Look At What Amitruck Does
Founded in 2018 but launched in January, 2019 by two brothers Mark and Timothy Mwangi, Amitruck is a trucking logistics marketplace that connects truckers with shippers using its web and mobile application, side stepping middlemen and brokers.
In simple terms, the Amitruck app works like this:
- A customer books a delivery using the mobile app.
- The trucks in the area get notified and their quotes are sent to the customer through the app.
- The customer chooses a quote, date and time for the delivery to be made.
- Payment is made but only released to the driver upon confirmation of delivery.
Goods shipped using the Amitruck app are also insured up to Kes 500,000 ($4.5k) for free, with options for a small premium to raise cover above this.
“Approximately 60% of the total cost of transported goods in Kenya is attributable to ineffeciencies in the logistics supply chain. There are typically 2–3 ‘middle men’ involved in most off-platform delivery transactions, and our digital platform removes that expensive and unnecessary cost,” said Mark Mwangi, Amitruck’s Founder and CEO.
Last year, the startup announced it saw revenues from its business rise by 300%, with its app downloaded more than 10,000 times since it was launched.
The latest investment in Amitruck comes barely a year after Sendy, another Kenyan logistics startup that raised $20 million in VC funding. In 2019 Kobo360, a Nigerian truck logistics startup, secured $ 20million in Series A funding round backed by Goldman Sachs. This was immediately followed by East Africa-focused on-demand delivery company, Lori Systems, which raised $30 million with the support of Chinese investors. Amitruck will, in the coming months, hope to find a strong presence amidst the competition.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer