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Nigeria: Nigerian last-mile delivery startup Kwik raises $2million in funding for its logistics management business

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Nigerian last mile delivery startup Kwik raises 2million in funding for its logistics management business
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The new round, a Series A, was led by XBTO Ventures, a VC fund focusing on digital asset ecosystems, financial products, AI, and financial inclusion. New and existing investors who participated in the round include; Humla Ventures, Nabuboto, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, and Pulse Africa founder Leonard Stiegeler.

Launched in June 2019 and opened to B2B customers in Lagos, Nigeria, Kwik’s last-mile delivery service connects businesses to independent delivery riders dubbed Kwiksters to transport their products to their business and individual customers.

Between then and now, the company has rapidly expanded both in terms of customer base and services, with the CEO, Romain Poirot-Lellig, publicly disclosing that its gross merchandise value (GMV) and revenue grew by over 400 per cent year-on-year in 2021.

Speaking to Techcrunch about the new funding round, CEO Romain Poirot-Lellig, said his company wants to “bring the informal economy into the formal economy,” focusing on last-mile delivery, e-commerce (warehousing and fulfilment) and financial services.

“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”.

Romain POIROT-LELLIG, Founder & CEO of Kwik Delivery Kwik Delivery

When asked about how the company plans to use the financing round to grow its service faster to disrupt and conquer new markets and expand, Poirot-Lellig said, “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, and we ensure that we enforce the rules of the playground, both on the merchants’ side and on the partners’ side.”

Poirot-Lellig also noted that the majority of the startup’s revenue today comes from international markets, especially North America. According to him, their service is especially popular among FMCG, retail and e-commerce firms, as well as those who need distribution partners.

Speaking on the launch of their financial service offering, Poirot-Lellig said the payment service now represents more than 10% of its GMV.

“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.”

GMV is a growth metric that shows the total value of merchandise sold over a given period of time through a customer-to-customer exchange site.

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