Kenya’s MPost, an application that converts your phone to a mobile post office has revealed it raised $100,000 from Leapfrog Ventures founder and CEO Takuma Terakubo last year to enable mobile phone users to convert their mobile phones into virtual post offices and receive their mails on the go.
This revelation comes just three months after MPost announced to have raised an undisclosed amount of funding from South African venture capital firm HAVAÍC. The firm also announced it was targeting a minimum of US$2 million for its Series A round which is coming up.
MPost, as a mobile addressing solution aims to boost ecommerce in Kenya and across Africa, as users turn to the internet for commerce. MPost is also making relevant the old postal corporation which has long been inactive due to the many inefficiencies and a lack of innovation.
According to Terakubo, who launched his African-focused investment fund last year, “Improving distribution can have an enormous impact, accelerating an economy,” and can transform the world by making things more convenient in people’s daily lives. “I think our company can find opportunities there, and if we can find solutions that work in Africa, we can acquire the knowhow to tackle challenges anywhere in the world,” he added.
Terakubo aims to work with MPost to link the postal service with other businesses especially those in ecommerce and platforms such as Gobeba, which do on-demand shopping and delivery for a number of households in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
MPost or simply Mobile Post office is aiming to reach more users to turn their mobile numbers into a formal postal address to access all Postal Services such as deliveries through their mobile phones.
The platform promises users convenience as once mail is received at the Post Office, an SMS notification is sent to the Phone and the mail can be delivered to the user anywhere across the country.
The service is also affordable at just $3 per year which most people could afford in the country, hence its ability to addressing inclusion of almost the entire adult population of any emerging market.
Last year, MPost emerged the winner of the ‘South Africa Innovation Summit – an African startup competition that was held in Cape Town, South Africa, beating 25 finalists from across Africa.
With the win, MPost went on to represent Africa at the Startup World Cup in San Francisco, USA, in May 2019.
On the win, Abulaziz Mohammed, the Chief Executive Officer of Taz Technologies, the company behind MPost, said, “This win crowns our journey of resilience and focus. We are privileged to carry the Kenyan and indeed African flag to the Startup World Cup. We thank all our clients, supporters and indeed the organisers of the South Africa Innovation Summit for believing in us. We couldn’t have gotten here without your support.”
Developed in Kenya, MPost was initially started on the USSD platform and is now on Android and iOS platform and via its web platform at here.
MPost has won more than six continental awards, registered thousands of Kenyans to the virtual postal services to help users track their parcels or deliveries from across the country. MPost has now signed up around 40,000 users so far.
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This article has been updated to clarify that the firm raised the funds last year but the information has become public right now. We regret any inconvenience caused.