Kenyan logistics startup, Sote, secures $3 million in seed funding to support its Nairobi and San Francisco operations. The round which brings its total raise to date to $4.4 million, was led by MaC Venture Capital and joined by investors including Acceleprise, Backstage Capital, Future Africa, and Rob Solomon — Chairman at GoFundMe.
In addition to the funding announcement, Marlon Nichols — Managing General Partner at MaC VC — also joins Sote’s Board of Directors.
Sote was launched by Felix Orwa and Meka Este-McDonald in Kenya and it is Africa’s first licensed tech-enabled customs clearing and forwarding service created to build its digital logistics infrastructure up.
“We are positioning ourselves as a technology company that happens to provide supply chain services,” said Sote co-founder/CEO Felix Orwa. “By providing tech-enabled supply chain services, we introduce meaningful visibility and transparency to industrial importers and exporters such as
manufacturers and retailers in a space that traditionally runs on calls, text, emails, and paper.”
According to Sote, the company has been growing at 33 percent month over month as its innovative technological solution has allowed them to scale fast at a rate 10 times more efficient than a traditional customs clearing and forwarding company
“Sote’s central position in Africa’s supply chain is an opportunity to unify all the supply chain players in a single platform and provide ERP solutions to their customers and supply chain partners,” said MaC VC Founding Partner and Sote Board Member Marlon Nichols.
With the funds raised in this seed round, Sote will be able to introduce new software solutions to its customers and supply chain partners, expand to new markets, and scale its customer base over the next year targeting the 20 million import and export containers available in Africa.
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