- PAPS, a logistics and delivery company established in Senegal, has announced that it has raised US$4.5 million in a pre-Series A round of funding to develop its tech-enabled logistics solution throughout the Francophone area.
This pre-Series A round will be used to grow the company’s IT staff, expand its physical infrastructure to onboard more warehouses, hubs, and fleets, and expand its offering to more African businesses.
4DX Ventures (Brooklyn, USA), a pan-African venture capital fund, and Orange, a regional telecom operator, led the investment.
Existing investors Uma Ventures (Texas, United States) and Saviu Ventures (France) are among the participants, as are newcomers Yamaha Motor (Japan), LoftyInc Capital (Nigeria), Proparco (France), Google Ventures (USA), To.org, Kepple Ventures (Japan), and Enza Capital (Kenya).
PAPS was formed by Bamba Lo in 2016 to provide end-to-end logistics solutions for firms who operate both offline and online.
PAPS began with a consumer-to-consumer logistics concept. However, after noting how sporadic and unstructured most requests were, it quickly shifted.
The startup has acquired considerable traction since it was first founded. PAPS claims to have the largest last-mile fleet in Senegal, having made over 10 million deliveries in its two markets since its establishment, according to a statement.
CEO Bamba Lo claims that the company’s delivery figures are up 150 percent year over year.
Clients of PAPS come from a variety of industries, including banking, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals (Lo said that the company currently handles distribution for 70 percent of all pharmacies in Senegal).
PAPS is utilized by major logistics companies like DHL and FedEx, as well as consumer and business-focused e-commerce enterprises like Jumia, Glovo, and Sokowatch in Senegal and Ivory Coast, according to the company.
“We have been impressed with the Paps team’s execution thus far and their dedication to creating a truly innovative business in the logistics space,” Walter Baddoo, co-founder and general partner at 4DX Ventures, said in a statement.
“We believe technology has a critical role to play in modernizing Africa’s logistics infrastructure and we look forward to further partnering with Bamba and the paps team on this next phase of their growth.”
PAPS, according to its CEO, intends to provide that infrastructure and an enabler for businesses to reach clients they can’t reach now due to logistics.
“The gap that we are filling is one that all these big corporations didn’t want it to address, which is the domestic market. No one addressed the domestic market except PAPS and that’s why we want to give quality and reliability,” Bamba Lo added.
