After a series of investments for Twiga Foods that links farmers and vendors for improved supply chain practices, delivery firm Sendy has announced the second round of fundraising that will see the firm expand its turf outside Kenya to the larger East African region.
Sendy’s did their first round of investments less than half a decade ago. This does not mean that the firm has not been receiving investments from interested partners. In November 2015, the logistics startup was a beneficiary of Safaricom’s Spark Venture Fund that set aside $1 million for local techpreneurs to get access to financing, mentorship, and resources to scale their businesses. The funds allowed the tech firm to expand to Kisumu and celebrated one year of operations with free shipping on a particular weekend.
What’s more, the service, which is used by near 4000 businesses and 50,000 people announced plans to venture into the taxi-hailing business that saw the launch of its Boda Boda (motorcycle) hailing service in mid-2016. The taxi venture was shaky at best that necessitated an exit.
Amid stern warnings from the Communications Authority of Kenya over its international courier license, Sendy announced admirable returns in early 2018 that were also attributed to global financial support. It is at this time that Sendy hinted plans to expand its operations to other East African states.
That aside, the series B investment is planned before the year-end. The target amount has not been made known to us, although the firm has raised more than KES 300 million so far. Offering its services outside the country will help the service’s perception a global business and not a family logistics firm.
Sendy says that interest from global partners and funders has also played a key role in pushing for regional operations.
Other than Safaricom, Sendy has received investments from DOB Equity and Toyota East Africa.
