Nigerian cross-border freight startup, Kobo360 has raised $30 million in its series A
Freight logistics startup, Kobo360 has raised a $20 million Series A round led by Goldman Sachs and $10 million in working capital financing from Nigerian commercial banks.
The Lagos based company connects truckers and companies to delivery services in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Kenya. Since its launch in 2017, Kobo360 has maintained steady growth in the industry and claims to have a fleet of more than 10,000 drivers and trucks operating on its app.
According to the company’s CEO/Co-founder, Obi Ozor, Kobo360 has moved over 500Mkg of goods and serviced SMEs and large enterprises such as Dangote Group, DHL, Unilever, Olam, African Industries, Flour Mills of Nigeria, and Lafarge. “…We’re disrupting third-party logistics by handling the movement of goods, tracking, warehousing, sales and accounting. From start to finish, we are supporting our customers and making logistics work for them. We are two years in; we want more of the same, at scale, across the continent. We are excited to think where we will be in ten years’ time.”, he explained in a recent blog post.
In another chat with the press, Obi Ozor explained that the startup would make final decisions on 10 new countries to launch in, by the first quarter of 2020, as they look to benefit from Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA), signed this year by all the continent’s 54 countries to reduce barriers and friction on Pan-African commercial activity. “We’re going to do some policy work through the IFC so we can help shape AFCTA. The key to the deal is really logistics, so if the logistics component doesn’t work out the deal isn’t going to work,” Ozor said.
The cross-border freight service will also use part of the funds from the new investment to build its Global Logistics Operating System (GLOS), a blockchain-enabled platform that will help the company transition to more supply-chain activities.
According to reports, Kobo360’s $20 million Series A is the 5th largest investment in an African startup this year, after Egyptian ride-hail company Svwl’s $42 million raise in June. The startup’s existing investors IFC, TLCom Capital and Y Combinator also joined the round.
