Yobante Express, a Senegalese logistics startup, has raised a $1.2 million seed round led by Grenfell Holdings, Launch Africa Ventures, R-Ventures, Libertad Ventures, and Aguila Investments. The round was joined by unnamed local and high international angel investors.
Yobante participated in the 2019 Startupbootcamp AfriTech accelerator programme in Cape Town. This startup today is now active across five African markets namely Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.
Commenting on the new funding, Oumar Basse (CEO) disclosed that the startup raised an annual run rate of $8 million and had carried over 1.2 million parcels.
He expressed an intention to transport over 2 million parcels in 2021. This seed round by Yobante Express will scale into countries surrounding those locations. He also expressed their intent to create a Lagos to Dakar corridor and Cape Town to Dakar thereafter.
The Series A round Yobante Express plans to raise later this year will be used to scale into countries surrounding all its existing locations.
“Within six months, we should be able to connect Lagos to Dakar using Yobante for the entire journey. Within three years, we should be able to send a parcel from Cape Town to Dakar,” Basse said.
