Josh Sandler, Lori Systems co-founder and CEO is hanging his boots as the CEO of the e-logistics platform and will be replaced by Uche Ogboi who served as a Principal, Investments at the pan-African venture capital firm, EchoVC Partners.
Prior to joining EchoVC, Ogboi worked at Citi as an Investment Banker and was involved in deploying over $8 billion of capital across various regions including Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.
Sandler, who will be moving on to serve as Executive Chairman of Lori’s board, noted that Ogboi who has been the company’s Chief Operating Officer since 2019 has been a key part of this success story.
“I am confident that as CEO, she will drive Lori into a period of unprecedented innovation and growth,” he wrote. “There’s no better person to mobilize the market opportunity and execute on our mission to lower the cost of goods in frontier markets.”
Founded in 2016, Lori is an East African logistics platform competing with the likes of Sendy, TradeDepot, Trucker, Senga, Kobo360, Amitruck among others in coordinating haulage in frontier markets. Lori provides supply chain management solutions to cargo owners, ensuring flexibility, reliability, and cost savings. In 2020, the company was selected as a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum.
The Kenyan founded startup with operations in Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan in 2018, and in 2019 expanded to Nigeria. It is also a serial fundraiser, bagging a sizeable multi-million Series A funding round in 2019, and also took on further investment from Imperial as part of its strategic partnership.
Speaking on the appointment, Mengqiu Wang, Lori Board Member and Founding Partner of Crystal Stream Capital said, “On behalf of the Board of Directors, we are delighted to announce Uche Ogboi as Lori’s incoming CEO. With Uche’s operational excellence and strong vision, we are confident she will continue to advance Lori’s commitment to sustainable growth.”
Ogboi also stated, “I joined Lori because I was deeply captivated by the mission and inspired by the team driving it. Josh is a visionary and has built something radically special in Lori. As CEO, I am committed to continue executing on our vision and scaling the platform to new markets. I am grateful to Josh, Jean-Claude, and the board for this tremendous opportunity and excited to start delivering on the exciting plans ahead.”
As Lori’s COO, Ogboi has recorded significant success growing Lori’s Nigeria business 10X in less than a year.
In East Africa, loading times and border crossings improved to 6 hours, whereas it was 72 and 48 hours respectively when Lori started.
“Time and time again Uche has proven herself to be a brilliant operator and strategic partner, outperforming during times of market stability and difficulty. The immense trust and confidence I have in her was the key reason I was able to make the difficult decision to transition from the role of CEO. Building Lori has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, and I feel lucky that Uche has agreed to lead Lori into the next chapter. I am excited to continue to support Uche, our team, and mission as Executive Chairman,” said Sandler.
E-logistics companies have become some of the highest growing startups globally, and in Africa, Lori is at the forefront. Ogboi will assume the position of CEO effective July 1.