PAPS, a Senegalese logistics startup, has raised $4.5 million in a pre-Series A round of funding to grow its tech-enabled logistics solution across the Francophone region.
4DX Ventures, a pan-African venture capital firm, and Orange, a regional telecom operator, co-led the investment round.
Existing investors Uma Ventures and Saviu Ventures, as well as new investors LoftyInc Capital, Yamaha Motor, Proparco, To.org, Google Ventures, Kepple Ventures, and Enza Capital, are among the other participants.
“We have been impressed with the Paps team’s performance thus far and their dedication to establishing a truly creative firm in the logistics industry,” Walter Baddoo, co-founder and general partner at 4DX Ventures, said in a statement.
We believe that technology can help modernize Africa’s logistics system, and we look forward to working with Bamba and the paps team on the next phase of their development.”
PAPS, which was founded in 2016 by Bamba Lo, provides end-to-end logistics solutions for businesses that operate both online and offline.
It initially operated a consumer-to-consumer logistics strategy before pivoting after noticing how disorganized and infrequent most requests were, making it difficult to accurately estimate delivery patterns in the market. It now follows a B2B approach in which deliveries are properly planned.
From storage to international shipping to delivery, the platform helps small to large organizations with their logistics needs.
PAPS users have access to visibility tools that allow them to track the status of deliveries from the point of origin to the point of delivery. On the platform, you can also schedule deliveries.
When PAPS was first founded, the chief executive officer, Lo, emphasized that the first thing they wanted to give clients was visibility into their transactions.
They wanted merchants to know when their items are picked up, where they are in transit, and when they arrive.
The warehouses where clients’ goods and parcels are housed are owned by the company. It also has vans, motorcycles, cars, and trucks for inter-city and intra-city logistics.
The logistics organization also offers delivery terminals that serve as a relay network between the takeoff site and the delivery point, where customers can pick up their products.
