Franco-Nigerian on-demand, last-mile delivery startup, Kwik Delivery, has raised $2 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by XBTO Ventures with participation from new and existing investors like Humla Ventures, Nabuboto, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, and Pulse Africa founder Leonard Stiegeler.
Kwik connects independent delivery partners, either owner and/or drivers of a vehicle, with customers who need reliable, affordable, and flexible delivery solutions.
CEO Romain Poirot-Lellig said, “Our goal is for Kwik to become the prime app choice for African social vendors and traditional merchants going digital. Integrating delivery, payment, and e-commerce tools seamlessly in one easy-to-use mobile app is a catchy proposition,” he said. “This financing round will enable us to expand across all three key verticals and select geographic areas”.
Launched in 2019, Kwik has recorded a good measure of growth with expansion from Lagos to Abuja. The startup also has about 100,000 merchants who rely on its mobile apps to coordinate specifically the logistics needs of their businesses.
“We’re not trying to build a customer super-like app. We want to do a merchant super app. We were building an app that merchants can use to run their online businesses, from selling to delivery to financing, said the CEO, who put €200,000 of his money into the startup in 2019.
“We are purely a software company. We create a community and a matchmaking playground. We ensure that we enforce the rules of the playground, both on the merchants’ side and on the partners side,” Poirot-Lellig added.
Since its launch, the startup has improved on its services, launched several products, integrated a few features into its system and attracted investments.
Speaking on the startup’s current project, Kwik’s CEO said, “The financing part is the last part we’re building. For the moment, we connect riders and financing institutions that are willing to finance bikes. On top of that, we’re going to launch a B2B lending marketplace by the end of the year to enable merchants to get financing.”
Kwik will now deploy the latest funding to expand its customer base and boost its finance operations across Nigeria with an eye on increasing the number of its merchants to 800,000 before the end of 2022.
