MOL PLUS, based in Minato-ku, Tokyo, has invested in Sendy, a Kenyan firm with headquarters in Nairobi.
This is the first investment by MOL PLUS in an African startup.
Sendy operates a platform that connects logistics companies and shippers in Kenya and the rest of Africa. Connecting consumer goods manufacturers and e-commerce companies’ delivery needs with individual delivery companies that own registered motorcycles and trucks, as well as simplifying negotiations between shippers and delivery companies on delivery routes, prices, and so on, contributes to efficiency and cost savings.
sendy
MOL PLUS anticipates that Sendy’s logistics platform will significantly contribute to the enhancement of logistics services in Africa, where demand for logistics is growing rapidly due to economic development and population increase. This will be useful to me.
MOL Logistics, Ltd. (President: Koichi Yashima, Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), a part of the MOL Group, and Sendy will contemplate collaborating on the operation of distribution warehouses in Africa in the future.
MOL PLUS will continue to invest in and engage with start-up firms in order to build synergies between start-up companies’ creative ideas and technology and MOL Group’s resources. We will continue to strive to establish new enterprises.
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
Sendy, a Kenyan logistics firm, has cut off 10% of its 300 staff, according to a company statement. This is the latest public layoff announcement from Africa in the last two months, following the downsizing of Swvl, Vezeeta, and Wave teams to cut expenses amid a series of worldwide downturns and venture capital downturn events.
Sendy made this move in June, according to CEO Mesh Alloys, in reaction to “present realities affecting Internet-based companies internationally.” He also revealed that the corporation decreased its employees in July, “which affected 10% of our workforce.”
Sendy Founder and CEO Meshack Alloys
Sendy was formed in 2015 by Alloys, Kenyans Evanson Biwott and Don Okoth, and American Malaika Judd. By 2020, the startup’s platform included over 5,000 cars transporting various types of goods.
Sendy provides e-commerce, business, and freight delivery services to clients such as Unilever, DHL, Maersk, Safaricom, and the African online retailer Jumia. The business operates on an asset-free approach, with an app that manages hired drivers who own their own vehicles, while also confirming deliveries, producing performance metrics, and managing payment. Some of its competitors include Goldman Sachs-backed Kobo360 and China-backed Lori Systems.
Co-founder Malaika Judd told Bloomberg in 2021 that the Kenyan startup, which facilitates door-to-door delivery between individuals and businesses, was hoping to raise $100 million this year to fuel its development ambitions in West and Southern Africa, mainly Nigeria.
However, as per Crunchbase data, this money has yet to be raised. The logistics startup has raised more than $26 million in funding, including a $20 million Series B round in 2020 from Atlantica Ventures and Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a commercial and investment subsidiary of Toyota. Some of its expansion plans were also shelved.
Sendy, which operates in Nigeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast, and Uganda, is rumoured to be scaling back its operations in Egypt and South Africa.
The rest of the statement on layoffs reads as follows:
“This change was made in accordance with all applicable laws and industry best practises. All contractual and employment termination benefits were provided to all impacted employees. As a corporation, our greatest asset has always been our team. We have always appreciated their various abilities as well as, more importantly, their well-being. Decisions affecting them are not made carelessly. In keeping with our aim to empower people and businesses by facilitating commerce, we will continue to focus on developing solutions for businesses across the continent.”
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
Since the debut of Sendy’s consumer goods fulfillment service 15 months ago, suppliers have processed over $25 million from thousands of retailers.
The CEO of Sendy, Mesh Alloys, confirmed the figures in a recent statement, saying that the platform for ordering and fulfillment is an infrastructure that is intended to bring something bigger in the future.
Suppliers have processed over $25m from thousands of retailers since we launched our B2B commerce platform for consumer goods 15 months ago at Sendy.
It turns out that Ordering + Fulfilment is an infrastructure that is onto something bigger… pic.twitter.com/AzkTTfloxS
Sendy Limited introduced a fulfillment service for online retailers in Kenya, which is a unique feature that allows retailers to focus on growing their businesses and selling more. In a nutshell, it frees online merchants from logistical headaches.
The service, which is intended at e-commerce and direct-to-consumer firms without storage or delivery infrastructure, levies a fee of 13% of the product’s selling price to choose, pack, and ship orders to customers.
Retailers feel that the platform’s success will be built on the foundation of the platform now more than ever because it has developed to be fast, secure, and effective in handling deliveries.
They are protected from the high operational costs associated with logistics by using the service. A state-of-the-art Fulfillment Center has already been established in Nairobi, along with several picking locations.
Image credits: Sendy Kenya
According to Sendy, a big chunk of Kenya’s 1.5 million registered small businesses and growing online entrepreneurs confront high shipping and storage costs, as well as a significant amount of time spent on logistics, without basic fulfillment and logistical skills.
The fulfillment solution appears to be working nicely for Sendy Ltd. This implies that the service’s primary benefactors, retailers, are no longer faced with a slew of transportation, packaging, and shipping issues.
At the same time, the retailer’s ultimate goal of providing products to customers in a convenient and timely manner is met.
Sendy’s fulfillment service will handle the logistics while you, the retailer, concentrate on developing your business. The role of logistics in supply chain management is critical. Sendy will organize and coordinate the timely, safe, and efficient movement of your items.
Given that half of Africa’s population will have internet access by 2025, Sendy’s prediction of continued success in promoting e-commerce might become a reality, with online shopping accounting for $75 billion, or 10% of total retail sales.
Furthermore, in the face of infrastructural issues, difficult operating environments for small enterprises, and a fresh crop of businesses, innovative business models and better-optimized supply chains, including fulfillment, are expected to fuel development.
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
The coronavirus has forced Sendy, the Kenyan logistics startup that raised $20 million in VC funding earlier this year to turn its attention to delivery of groceries and other household items, a move slightly different from its model which is built on offering e-commerce, business and cargo delivery services to customers that include Unilever, DHL, Maersk, Safaricom and the African online retailer Jumia.
Sendy Founder and CEO Meshack Alloys
“As a Kenyan company, we cannot sit back when some are grappling with disruption of their sources of income. Our goal is to continuously innovate in ways that are impactful to those around us,” Sendy Founder and CEO Meshack Alloys said.
Here Is All You Need To Know
Dubbed Sendy Go, the platform gives shoppers access to a wide variety of household supplies from local traders and also enables them to support families in need by matching every order made on the platform with a donation.
“We want to help shoppers buy items and get them delivered at their doorsteps thereby minimizing their movement during this time. We are also going a step further by matching every order made through the app with a donation to a family in need. Our objective is to feed 5,000 families across Nairobi for the next few months,” Alloys said.
The family basket is composed of maize meal, rice, beans, cooking oil and soap enough to last a household of six for one week.
Sendy Go donations will support families living in informal settlements using e-vouchers through a partnership with Sokowatch, a retail e-commerce start-up that has mapped shops across these areas.
Sendy Go will run on Sendy’s extensive and reliable logistics network and has so far partnered with local markets and stores such as Kenyatta Market, City Market, Hardy Fresh, Sweetunda for groceries and household essentials, Goodlife Pharmacy for pharmaceuticals and personal care products, Galana Oil for cooking gas and Sandstorm for protective face masks.
The free-to-download app has been available for Android and iOS users across Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret and Mombasa from April 30th, 2020.
Co-founded Sendy in 2015 by Kenyans Mesh Aloys, Evanson Biwott and Don Okoth, and American Malaika Judd, Sendy allows its users to move almost anything from point A to B at the touch of a button.
The company uses an asset-free model, with an application that coordinates hired drivers who own their own vehicles, while confirming deliveries, creating performance metrics and managing payment.
In Sendy’s business and revenue model, “We take a percentage of each transaction. We also provide services for drivers such as insurance, medical insurance, vehicle financing, vehicle service and fuel credits,” said Alloys.
Sendy has offices in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with 5000 vehicles on its platform that move all kinds of products, according to Alloys.
Reducing logistics costs for manufacturers and SMEs helps reduce product prices and makes goods more widely affordable. Sendy also provides a stable income for drivers on the platform.
This Alloys said is critical to Sendy’s mission.
“We are organizing a market using technology so that companies can efficiently deliver to their customers while reducing overall costs,” he said.
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.
At a time when Nigeria’s logistics and mobility startups are battling with local authorities over unfavourable policies, Kenya’s Sendy, the on-demand logistics startup that connects customers with drivers and vehicles for the delivery of goods, has raised a $ 20 million Series B led by Atlantica Ventures.
CEO Mesh Alloys
Here Is The Deal
This round of funding was led by the newly found US-based VC Atlantica Ventures. Joining this round is Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a trade and investment arm of the Japanese automaker Toyota. Also joining this round is Asia Africa Investment, Sunu Capital, Enza Capital, Vested World and Kepple Capital.
This round of investment brings Sendy’s total financing to $ 29 million, according to CEO Mesh Alloys.
The $ 20 round of Sendy includes an R&D agreement with Toyota Tsusho Corporation, whose investment comes from a risk arm established by the company for Africa, called Mobility 54.
“We will analyze the optimization of the type of trucks that work well in this market … They will also analyze the creation of service centers for vehicles in partnership with us,” Alloys said.
The company plans to use its Series B financing for new hires and update its technology.
“Getting better operational efficiency is super key, so we will invest … in engineering equipment and data equipment … and we will deploy talent to improve the services we provide to our customers,” said Alloys.
Why The Investors Invested
Co-founded in 2019 by former Global Head — Technology, Media & Telecom Group at the IFC, Aniko Szigetvari, Atlantica Ventures is a VC based in Washington DC. Szigetvari confirmed the leadership of the fund in the B Series of Sendy and that Atlantica Ventures will take a position on the board and work on strategic planning and execution with the company.
The newly formed Atlantica Ventures is Africa-focused.
‘‘We are searching for the next generation of African entrepreneurs,’’the VC notes on its website
We are investors that provide capital to early stage companies in addition to growth support, guided by our decades of experience and global relationships.’’
In October of 2019, Goodwell Investments also led a $2 million in Sendy.
“Sendy is already a game-changer in the logistics sector,” commented Joel Wanhoji, senior investment manager of the Goodwell East Africa team on the occasion of its investment in Sendy in 2019 “Its cutting-edge technology brings efficient capacity utilization and transparent pricing to a sector that was previously seen as being beyond change. Sendy’s platform is enabling savings of more than 20% on the logistics costs, which makes Sendy a good fit within Goodwell’s uMunthu mandate of providing basic goods and services to people on low and middle incomes — the majority.”
A Look At What Sendy Does
Co-founded Sendy in 2015 by Kenyans Mesh Aloys, Evanson Biwott and Don Okoth, and American Malaika Judd, Sendy allows its users to move almost anything from point A to B at the touch of a button.
The company uses an asset-free model, with an application that coordinates hired drivers who own their own vehicles, while confirming deliveries, creating performance metrics and managing payment.
In Sendy’s business and revenue model, “We take a percentage of each transaction. We also provide services for drivers such as insurance, medical insurance, vehicle financing, vehicle service and fuel credits,” said Alloys.
Sendy has offices in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with 5000 vehicles on its platform that move all kinds of products, according to Alloys.
Already, Sendy offers e-commerce, business and cargo delivery services for a list of customers that includes Unilever, DHL, Maersk, Safaricom and the African online retailer Jumia.
Reducing logistics costs for manufacturers and SMEs helps reduce product prices and makes goods more widely affordable. Sendy also provides a stable income for drivers on the platform.
This Alloys said is critical to Sendy’s mission.
“We are organizing a market using technology so that companies can efficiently deliver to their customers while reducing overall costs,” he said.
It Seems Investors This Year Will Be Turning More Attention To The Logistics Sector Aside Fintech
Sendy’s investment comes within six months after Kobo360, a Nigerian truck logistics startup secured $ 20million in Series A funding round backed by Goldman Sachs. Also, in November 2019, East Africa’s on-demand delivery company, Lori Systems, raised $ 30 million with the support of Chinese investors.
With this round, Sendy improves its competitive position in the main logistics space of the continent. The company plans to expand to West Africa in 2020, CEO Mesh Alloys.
On how Sendy will overtake rivals like Kobo360 and Lori Systems, Alloys points to the startup platform.
“Our customer service is superior and that is driven by our technology … I think today we are well ahead of our competition when it comes to technology,” he said.
Sendy’s latest investment shows that the African logistics landscape is still up for grab. Whoever shows up on the continent’s top business centers: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Ghana, will bite off the big pie well enough in time.
Although logistics services are not factors usually considered when ranking countries on the Ease of Doing Business Index by the World Bank, the sector is most expensive in Africa compared to other parts of the world.
At their early days, pioneer e-commerce companies Jumia and Konga were forced to burn capital by forming their own delivery services.
Even years later, including taking into account Jumia’s recent listing on the New York Stock Exchange and subsequent expansion to several countries in Africa, compliance costs related to delivery still remain one of the company’s biggest expenses.
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.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com
Kenya is squaring up to claim back its 2018 title as Africa’s top destination for startup fund raising which it is either losing to Nigeria or South Africa this year. Barely a day after Twiga Foods closed a $30 million Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs, on-demand deliveries startup Sendy has raised US$2 million in funding from Goodwell Investments to help it expand further across East Africa.
Today in East Africa, logistical costs account for a staggering 40%-plus of the consumer price, due to poor infrastructure, limited use of technology, inefficient capacity utilization and a lack of pricing transparency. Food prices and prices of household goods and health services are therefore heavily inflated, negatively affecting the standard of living of at least 170 million people in East Africa.
“Sendy is already a gamechanger in the logistics sector. Its cutting-edge technology brings efficient capacity utilisation and transparent pricing to a sector that was previously seen as being beyond change,” said Joel Wanhoji, senior investment manager of the Goodwell East Africa team.
“Sendy’s platform is enabling savings of more than 20 per cent on the logistics costs, which makes Sendy a good fit within Goodwell’s uMmunthu mandate of providing basic goods and services to people on low and middle incomes — the majority.”
A Look At What Sendy Does
Launched in 2014, Sendy offers a marketplace for last-mile package delivery and logistics services, allowing customers to send packages and documents using a mobile application that connects them to motorcycle riders, and drivers of vans and pickup trucks.
The startup claims in its first year, to have completed 12,000 deliveries, had 27 drivers on its platform and revenues totaled USD 45,000. In the three years since, the company has grown fast. It has now completed over 180,000 deliveries, has more than 700 drivers on its platform and posted revenues of USD 1.5 million in 2018. Despite this, the growth potential remains massive. As well as seeking to grow through geographic expansion, Sendy is also exploring new distribution models. The startup is doing so by piloting a so-called ‘agency model’ in which packages are aggregated at a central collection point before delivery to the customer. This increases efficiency and improves margins.
Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Sendy was the first company to offer an on-demand delivery platform in the region and while it currently covers Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, it plans to cover all East Africa in the near future.
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
