Sendbox Raises $1.8 Million To Enable Deliveries For SMES In Africa

Sendbox said it has raised $1.8 million to enable deliveries for SME’s in Africa.

According to Sendbox, the round had 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs and Golden Palm Investments as investors. Sendbox’s total investment raised has now reached $2 million following a pre-seed round from Microtraction and 4DX Ventures in 2018. Meanwhile Flexport and YC Combinator — as part of its 2021 winter cohort, participated.

Since 2018, the company has provided affordable access to local and international delivery options for small-scale merchants selling on e-commerce and social media platforms. Sendbox intends to use this funding to expand its operations in other countries across West Africa, develop its product range and hire new talent.

Sendbox stated that the new funding will be used to expand the company’s operations in other countries across West Africa, bolster the development of its product range, and hire new talent.

Emotu Balogun, CEO and Co-Founder of Sendbox said: “With this fundraise our aims is to support more and more SMEs and help them grow both locally and internationally, scaling alongside them as we connect African merchants with a global community of consumers.”

“No matter where in the world customers are, we want African SMEs to be able to reach them. Deliveries in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan have made up a large proportion of business for our domestic merchants. On top of that, affordable access to the UK, EU, US and Canada has created an opportunity to sell products to hundreds of millions of previously unreachable buyers,” Balogun added.

Over 10,000 Nigerian SMEs have sent 200,000 products through Sendbox, saving on average 30-40% per item by eliminating the need to work with separate logistics providers.

Through its delivery management platform, which aggregates logistics providers and enables tracking, the company also offers a solution for merchants who lack the high volumes required to attract discounted delivery fees.

Starting with logistics and fulfillment, Sendbox is building the operating system for e-commerce in Africa.

Walter Baddoo, Co-Founder and General Partner at 4DX Ventures commented:”African e-commerce is accelerating faster than anybody could have imagined a decade ago and it needs smart solutions to ensure that logistics and fulfillment capacity doesn’t lag behind.”

“Not only were we impressed by Sendbox’s 300% year-on-year growth since launch, but we’re seeing the market potential balloon with over 40 million Nigerian SMEs and a projected industry value for social and e-commerce reaching $45 billion on the continent by 2025,” Baddoo said.