- Among the over 20 major businesses the startup is currently working with are pan-African fast-food giant Simbisa Brands, fast-moving consumer goods conglomerate Chandaria Industries, whose family office invested in its latest round, B2B e-commerce distribution platform Twiga, and ShopZetu, a fashion marketplace.
Leta, a Kenyan B2B supply chain and logistics SaaS provider launched last year to optimize fleet management, is looking for growth opportunities in West Africa, even as it scales operations in its existing five markets.
Leta’s proprietary route and load optimization technology is designed to boost efficiency in the delivery of goods to customers, and reduces the number of vehicles needed for distribution, leading to cost savings and increased competitiveness.
In its expansion phase, backed by a $3 million pre-seed funding, the startup looks to tap some of the biggest distributors and e-commerce players in Ghana, and later Nigeria, to grow beyond Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The 4Di Capital, Chandaria Capital, Chui Ventures, PANI, Samurai Incubate, and Verdant Frontiers Fintech participated in the round. Cellulant co-founder Ken Njoroge, and Google executive Charles Murito made investments too.
A SaaS provider for businesses, logistics providers and marketplaces
Joshi founded Leta after a two-year stint as the VP of product at Delivery.com in the US, where he worked with various providers to help the marketplace gain last-mile efficiency in over 35 states. He said the job made him realize how delivery problems are dynamic and will continue to be a challenge everywhere.
This experience inspired him to relocate back home to launch Leta, as a transformative support service for businesses, logistics providers and marketplaces like Sendy and Amitruk.
“We are an operating system for logistics, and our software is able to show distributors the most efficient route to serve the customers quicker, and enables them to use less assets (vehicles) to serve more customers,” said Joshi.
“It also makes it possible to track the driver, the specific goods carried, the loading of the truck to know if space use is maximized, the time spent during the journey, and distance traveled,” he added.
Businesses are also able to measure other vehicle metrics like speed, braking and idle time, among other data points that define efficiency in operations.
Haulers use the driver app, which shows them all the different stops they need to make, in sequence, and sign off form for proof of delivery. Customers, on their part, receive a web link to track the delivery of their orders.
Since launch, Leta says it has optimized over 500,000 deliveries, delivered more than 20,000 tons of goods, and managed 2,000 vehicles.
“As a leading FMCG player in the region, we are continuously focused on optimizing our business to best service the growing demand. Leta has played a pivotal role in helping us streamline our last mile distribution, and we’re seeing meaningful savings on our logistics costs in addition to an improved service delivery time. After working closely with the Leta team, we were impressed with the team, the technology they are building, and the scale of the problem they are solving, which prompted our investment from Chandaria Capital.” said Darshan Chandaria, CEO of Chandaria Capital.
Joshi said Leta has a first mover advantage in the region and will continue to build and refine its technology IP, and products, to serve the massive gaps he sees in the market.
