Kenyan on-demand deliveries startup Sendy has raised US$2 million in funding from Goodwell Investments to help it expand further across East Africa.
The startup’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Meshack Alloys confirmed to Disrupt Africa the funding is part of a larger round to be announced in the coming weeks.
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 is currently active in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, but plans to cover all East Africa in the near future. This expansion will now be sped up thanks to the US$2 million secured from Goodwell, an Amsterdam-based impact investment firm that has previously backed the likes of Copia, Max.ng, Nomanini and Inclusivity Solutions.
It is the latest funding round for Sendy, which in November 2015 became the first startup to receive funding from the US$1 million Safaricom Spark Fund, which it followed up by banking US$2 million in investment in 2017.
Providing a state-of-the-art platform that matches cargo and parcel owners to third-party transporters, taking the friction out of supply and demand, Sendy has so far completed over 180,000 deliveries, has more than 700 drivers on its platform, and posted revenues of US$1.5 million in 2018.
However, it still sees more growth potential, and is planning to expand geographically and launch new distribution models. Sendy is already piloting a so-called “agency model” in which packages are aggregated at a central collection point before delivery to the customer.
“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.”
