Kenya: Trucking Startup Amitruck Raises Sh454mn As It Eyes Regional Market

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 2 – Kenya-based digital trucking logistics startup Amitruck announced Wednesday that it had secured USD 4m in a seed funding round that had the participation of investors from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.

Amitruck’s CEO and Founder, Mark Mwangi, said the funding will be used to lead the startup’s expansion across Africa and to hire teams across its technical, operations, and sales units, including senior leadership.

“We are thrilled about the positive response that Amitruck has received from cargo owners and transporters alike. Transport touches on almost every sector of the African economy and is crucial to its development, we look forward to expanding our footprint across Africa and bringing more carriers and shippers to our marketplace,” he said.

BTV’s General Partner Jake Gibson said Amitruck was selected for investment due to its high level of innovation and a growing need for its services.

“As an investor in unicorn CloudTruck startup here in the US, we have in-depth knowledge of the operational and financial requirements from truckers. While the trucking and logistic business in Africa has grown tremendously over the years, the pace of innovation particularly in its administration has been slow. Amitruck’s solution is ideal for bringing the industry into the 21st century,” he said.

The fundraising was led by Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV), a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that targets early-stage startups.

Also in the round were supply chain and mobility venture capital Dynamo Ventures, an investor to Berlin-based Digital Freight Forwarding unicorn, Sennder GmbH.

Other investors included Rackhouse Ventures, founded by Kevin Novak, one of the early members of Uber Freight; Flexport Inc, a digital freight forwarding and customs brokerage company based in San Francisco; Knuru Capital, Launch Africa Ventures, the Uncovered Fund, and several strategic angel investors.

Amitruck was founded in 2019 to streamline the trucking business in Africa, which had, hitherto, been informal, fragmented, and based on archaic manual systems that unnecessarily increased operating costs.

It  is eyeing market dominance in the Africa trucking and logistics market, which accounts for almost 80 percent of transported goods.

source: capitalfm.co.ke