Multinationals such as Amazon and Alibaba are leveraging logistics infrastructure such as UPS and FedEx to create large companies. Not the same in Africa, where there are few third-party infrastructure players to offer. End-to-end logistics for e-commerce companies.
PAPSA Senegal-based logistics and shipping company, is bridging this gap in the region by offering a variety of logistics services to its customers. Today, the company announced that it has raised $ 4.5 million prior to a Series A round to expand its technology-enabled logistics solutions throughout the Francophone region.
The round was co-led by a pan-African venture capital firm 4DX Ventures And local carrier Orange. Participating investors include existing funds Uma Ventures and Saviu Ventures, as well as new investors Yamaha Motor, Lofty Inc Capital, Proparco, Google Ventures, To.org, Kepple Ventures and Enza Capital.
Bambaro Founded PAPS in 2016 to provide end-to-end logistics solutions to enterprises operating offline and online.
Initially, PAPS operated an inter-consumer logistics model. but, I immediately pivoted after noticing how often and disorganized most requests were. It was difficult to predict accurately Unlike the B2B model where delivery is planned, delivery flows in space.
The platform caters to small to large enterprises and supports their logistics needs, from storage and international shipping to last-mile delivery.
PAPS also provides merchants with visibility capabilities to track and understand the status of deliveries from takeoff to destination. Merchants can also schedule deliveries on the platform.
“When we launched PAPS, the first thing we wanted to tell our clients was the visibility of their transactions. They were when the driver received the goods and where the goods were in transit. , And I needed to know when it arrived, “Lo, CEO, told TechCrunch by phone. “That’s what we’re trying to build. It’s an infrastructure that can serve all B2B clients, from warehousing and shipping to last-mile delivery.”
The Senegalese company owns a warehouse used to store customers’ goods and parcels. We also own motorcycles, vans, cars and trucks for performing intercity and intracity logistics and delivery…In addition, logistics companies have a hub relay network nearby A client that acts as a delivery point.
CEO said PAPS wants to create infrastructure and enablers to accessing clients that are unreachable today due to logistics.
“The gap we are filling is something that all these big companies didn’t want to deal with. It’s the domestic market… No one was working on the domestic market other than PAPS, so we want to provide quality and reliability, “he added…
PAPS clients span a variety of industries such as banking, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals (according to Lo, the company currently handles 70% distribution of all Senegalese pharmacies).
According to the company, major logistics companies such as DHL and FedEx, as well as consumer and business e-commerce brands such as Jumia, Globo and Sokowatch, are also using PAPS to do business in Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire.
In a statement, PAPS claims to be Senegal’s largest last-mile fleet and has since delivered over 10 million deliveries in two markets. Inception. According to Lo, the company’s deliveries have increased by 150% year on year.
The company will use the pre-series A round to strengthen its technical team, build physical infrastructure, equip more warehouses, hubs, and fleets, and serve more African companies.
Walter Baddoo, co-founder and general partner of 4DX Ventures, said in a statement: I was impressed The execution of the Paps team so far and very Innovative business in the field of logistics. we believe Technology has played a key role in the modernization of Africa’s logistics infrastructure and we look forward to further partnering in the next phase of growth for the Bamba and paps teams.”
