The B2B French-Nigeria startup Kwik, has raised $2 million in Series A funding to support its rapid growth as a provider of SaaS logistics services for African to social vendors and e-commerce platforms.
Kwik goes head to head with well-known logistics and delivery providers in Nigeria, such as Gokada, as well as in other African countries, such as Egypt’s YDS and Bosta. As a result, businesses of all sizes are able to find delivery riders of all sizes to transport their products to both business and individual customers through its last-mile delivery service.
A blog post by Kwik reported that “Kwik is focusing on building digital services for the three key pillars of last-mile delivery, e-commerce and fulfillment, and financial services.”
What to know about the Kwik Nigeria Series funding
The two-year-old company, which raised a $1.9 million seed round in March of last year and takes an average commission of 20 percent on each delivery it completes.
The final piece of Kwik’s puzzle, financial services, began to take off toward the end of 2021 after the company launched payment services, which, according to the company, now account for more than 10% of its total gross merchandise volume (GMV). However, there is more to be built around that, and the new investment will aid in the acceleration of growth in that area.
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The Series-A financing round was led by a company called XBTO Ventures, which invests in digital assets and fintech. It also got funds from new and existing shareholders, like venture fund HUMLA Ventures and Leo STIEGELER, founder of Pulse. Africa, the French tech investment group NABUBOTO, and Ubisoft CEO Yves GUILLEMOT are all in this group.
“We are very excited to join the Kwik adventure,” says Philippe BEKHAZI, CEO of XBTO
What Kwik is saying
Kwik made its mark as the trusted digital platform for securing quality last-mile delivery services with its first vertical, launched in June 2019 in Lagos. From bicycles to vans and SUVs to 20-ton trucks, the service has grown tremendously. Kwik has already been adopted by over 100,000 businesses. In addition, in 2021, the company launched a number of payment and financial services that already account for over 10% of its GMV. More than 75% are weekly active users, Poirot-Lellig said.
Romain POIROT-LELLIG, Kwik’s Founder & CEO explains in a blog post “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”.
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Regtechafrica reported that the CEO added €200,000 of his money to the startup in 2019, affirming “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”.
“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.”