Oumar Basse - Afrikan Heroes

Ivorian Logistics Startup Yobante Express Expands to Morocco and MENA

November 1, 2023

In a groundbreaking development that promises to reshape the logistics landscape across the Middle East and North Africa, Yobante Express (YES), a pioneering African logistics technology startup, has announced a strategic partnership with SAPRESS Logistique & Messagerie, a subsidiary of the Edito Group.

This significant collaboration signifies YES’s expansion into the vibrant Moroccan and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) markets, while also facilitating SAPRESS’s entry into the fast-growing Sub-Saharan African market.

yobante CEO Oumar Basse — Yobante CEO Oumar Basse

Under the visionary leadership of co-founder and CEO Oumar Basse, YES has redefined regional logistics by merging ancient wisdom with cutting-edge technology. The company seamlessly integrates a 5,000-year-old form of shipment with a state-of-the-art technology platform, ensuring unmatched efficiency, affordability, and delivery speed within cities, between cities, and across countries.

With a vast network spanning over 24 African markets, YES operates through 11 offices and a robust mesh network comprising more than 4,000 hubs and 3,500 carriers. This extensive network guarantees swifter, cost-effective, secure, and traceable deliveries, catering to a diverse range of e-commerce, retailers, enterprises, and individual customers.

SAPRESS Logistique & Messagerie, a result of the merger between Sapress and Sochepress, boasts a rich legacy dating back to the 1920s. With significant support from major institutional and financial entities in Morocco, including Banque Populaire, CIMR, and Mamda, the Edito Group has established itself as a formidable player in the logistics sector.

The collaboration between YES and SAPRESS Logistique & Messagerie is expected to facilitate over 2,000 daily deliveries within the initial months, marking a transformative milestone for both companies. The pilot phase, scheduled to commence in November 2023, aims to further enhance its capabilities with the active involvement of Blassa, a company backed by 500 Global that addresses the challenge of delivery failures across the Middle East & Africa.

Blassa, with its streamlined address verification and enhanced delivery information, ensures precise drop-offs through its extensive network of shoppers with verified profiles. By resolving recipient location ambiguities, Blassa plays a vital role in ensuring successful deliveries, reducing losses, and enhancing customer satisfaction.

CEO Oumar Basse has expressed YES’s ambitions beyond the MENA region, with the company venturing into the Southeast Asian market through a pioneering pilot project in Vietnam. This move solidifies YES’s position as the first African tech logistics company to expand its operations into Southeast Asia, marking a historic moment in the industry.

Furthermore, YES is actively pursuing its Series A funding round, aiming to propel the company to new heights and realize its ambitious objectives. As it continues to expand, YES remains committed to reshaping the logistics industry through innovative approaches and strategic partnerships.

Yobante Express

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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

Yobante Express’ $1.2m Funding Round Opens A New Door For Senegalese Founders Outside Of Fintech

September 30, 2021

One of the greatest problems faced by early stage companies in Senegal is inadequate funding. Although Senegal has been receiving a fair share of the investments going into the African startup ecosystem, investors seem mostly to favour fintechs and expat founders. However, with the passage of the Startup Act in the West African country, things are looking relatively different and positive. In a major shift of things, a delivery startup, Yobante Express, founded about three years ago by a local Oumar Basse, has broken a major record, announcing a $1.2m seed funding round.

The investment is record-breaking for a few reasons. First is that this is the first time a sizeable amount would be going to a home-grown startup, in a country where mobility and fintech companies have drawn in most of the investments. Second is also that this is one of the few cases, where external investors would be backing a startup with roots in Senegal — investments in Senegalese startups outside of fintechs and mobility have often been led by local venture capital firms. Third, Oumar Basse has proved with this investment that, indeed, Senegalese founders are investable like their counterparts elsewhere.

Yobante funding — *Oumar Basse is the CEO of Yobante Express. Credits: Basse*

A graduate of the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, Basse previously ran Nano Air, Senegalese startup that provides rural farmers with a device to remotely manage their irrigation systems.

But perhaps for incorporating Yobante Express in Delaware and currently operating, apart from Senegal, in five African markets of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ghana, there may still be a strong case against the influence of Senegal in assisting the startup in landing the latest deal.

The fact that the startup has been active in the African startup ecosystem has also proved helpful towards the latest investment. In 2019, it took part in the Startupbootcamp AfriTech accelerator program in Cape Town.

Investors in this round are serial investor Launch Africa Ventures as well as Grenfell Holdings, R-Ventures, Libertad through its investment arm Aguila Investments and a pool of local and international angel investors.

Yobante Express, which is also planning Series A round of funding by the end of the year, will reach critical mass in South Africa and Nigeria using the latest funding.

“We plan to carry 2 million parcels in 2021,” said Basse. “This bridge round is to fund rollout in South Africa and Nigeria, including building operations, developing the network of relay points and carriers, and acquiring customers.”
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What attracted investors to Yobante is not far-fetched: it had had an annual revenue run rate of $8 million and carried 1.2 million parcels.

A Look At What Yobante Express Does

Founded in 2018, Yobante Express is an online marketplace that connects local carriers with local businesses to improve national, cross-border, and last-mile delivery to emerging countries. It enables local businesses to grow their sales and uses relay points to ship items promptly with the best local carriers.

Yobante funding Yobante funding

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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