Leta, a Kenyan B2B supply chain and logistics SaaS company that debuted last year to optimise fleet management, is searching for expansion prospects in West Africa while scaling operations in its current five countries. To that end, the company has raised $3 million in pre-seed capital.
The round was attended by 4Di Capital, Chandaria Capital, Chui Ventures, PANI, Samurai Incubate, and Verdant Frontiers Fintech. Ken Njoroge, co-founder of Cellulant, and Google executive Charles Murito also made investments.
Why The Investors Invested
Since its inception, the firm has gained significant traction. To date, Leta claims to have optimised over 500,000 deliveries, delivered over 20,000 tonnes of products, and controlled 2,000 trucks. Pan-African fast-food conglomerate Simbisa Brands, fast-moving consumer goods conglomerate Chandaria Industries, whose family office invested in its latest round, B2B e-commerce distribution platform Twiga, and ShopZetu, a fashion marketplace are among the over 20 major businesses with which the startup is currently collaborating.
The founder also has extensive industry experience. Nick Joshi created Leta after serving as the VP of product at Delivery.com in the United States for two years, where he collaborated with numerous providers to assist the marketplace improve last-mile efficiency in over 35 states. He stated that the job taught him how dynamic delivery challenges are and will continue to be. This experience motivated him to return home and establish Leta, a disruptive support service for enterprises, logistics providers, and marketplaces such as Sendy and Amitruk.
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“As a leading FMCG player in the region, we are continuously focused on optimizing our business to best service the growing demand. Leta has played a pivotal role in helping us streamline our last mile distribution, and we’re seeing meaningful savings on our logistics costs in addition to an improved service delivery time. After working closely with the Leta team, we were impressed with the team, the technology they are building, and the scale of the problem they are solving, which prompted our investment from Chandaria Capital.” said Darshan Chandaria, CEO of Chandaria Capital.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Leta, which was established in 2021, has developed a proprietary route and load optimization technology that is intended to increase delivery efficiency and lower the number of vehicles required for distribution, resulting in cost savings and improved competitiveness.
In order to expand beyond Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the startup is looking to partner with some of the biggest distributors and e-commerce players in Ghana and later Nigeria.
“Our next year is going to be fairly big for us. Our product has stabilized and we have a very good understanding of our sales process and our go-to-market strategy. The capital we have raised will help us to quickly scale into new markets beginning with Ghana, where we will launch in December,” Leta founder and CEO, Nick Joshi said, stating that the startup is developing a transport marketplace, as well as fintech products.
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“We are an operating system for logistics, and our software is able to show distributors the most efficient route to serve the customers quicker, and enables them to use less assets (vehicles) to serve more customers. It also makes it possible to track the driver, the specific goods carried, the loading of the truck to know if space use is maximized, the time spent during the journey, and distance traveled,” he added.
Other vehicle parameters that determine operational efficiency include speed, braking, and idle time, which may all be measured by businesses.
Haulers use the driver app, which displays all the necessary stops in order, and sign off a paper to prove delivery. Customers obtain a web address to follow the delivery of their orders on their end.
Leta, according to Joshi, has an early-mover advantage in the area and will keep developing and improving its technology, intellectual property, and products to fill the enormous holes he sees in the industry.
When their fleets are insufficient, the clients of the company will be able to request additional delivery vehicles through the launch of the transport marketplace.
“Through our software, there will be a way that they can then request more vehicles, and we will be able to quickly connect them to additional providers. Our platform also tracks things like utilization and we can match them (distributors) with the best of the available suppliers. Why this is interesting is, instead of doing similar to what other marketplaces do today, which is renting a truck to a customer for one service. A truck could do multiple loads because we have the load utilization ability,” Joshi said.
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The startup is also in discussions with lenders to offer asset-financing to clients so they can increase the size of their fleets.
“We want to do it in a very structured way and our technology is a great foundational layer to enable us to build other products.”
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh