Freelancers benefit from pandemic surge says Payoneer

The Payoneer Freelancer Income Report reveals that while global unemployment reached historic highs triggered by the pandemic, freelancers have weathered the disruption relatively well. More than 30% of respondents reported higher demand for their services since the pandemic began, while 45% reported that demand stayed constant without slowing. The fields of programming, marketing, and finance showed the strongest growth.

Marketplaces

Freelancers today get most of their business via online marketplaces. A large majority (71%) of the respondents find most of their work through online marketplaces, while only 10% rely on more traditional sources like word of mouth (often by way of email or social media introductions) and referrals.

Significant Increase in Global Hourly Freelance Rate

Compared with the previous report two years ago, there has been an increase in the average global hourly freelancing rate. Findings show the global average hourly freelance rate is now $28, significantly higher than the $21 average hourly rate reported in the 2020 Global Freelancer Income Report. With 40% of freelancers reporting that they are now charging more for their services than they did at the start of the pandemic, and demand continuing to rise, the opportunity for freelancers to succeed has never been greater. Younger freelancers were the biggest benefactors, reporting both an increase in hourly rates, and in demand.

Gender Pay Gap Persists, with a Silver Lining

The report highlights that the gender wage gap has unfortunately widened slightly since 2020. While there has been an increased number of women entering the world of freelancing, women freelancers’ pay remains behind their male counterparts, with that gap growing over the past two years. The gender pay gap amongst survey respondents is most pronounced in North America, with women reporting earnings of $37 per hour on average, compared to men who reported an average of $52per hour. Indeed, women reported earning less than men in every region of the 100 countries surveyed apart from South America, where women out-earn their male counterparts by $4/hour, likely influenced by the higher paid industries that are more in demand in these regions.

Freelancing Offers Greater Opportunities for Women

As confirmed by research from the World Economic Forum, the pandemic has set back women’s progress in the global workforce overall, in regard to both earnings and employment opportunities. However, one of the more optimistic findings from Payoneer’s report is that women’s participation in the freelance workforce continued to gain momentum and increased from 24% in the 2020 Global Freelancer Report to 29% in the 2022 report. Indeed, a less promising employment market may have opened the door for more women to enter the digital freelancing economy. In addition, women reported higher levels of satisfaction than their male counterparts, revealing the ongoing potential for freelancing to offer women an attractive alternative to the traditional workforce.

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Channable secures over $62M to fuel global expansion

Channable have secured over $62M in Series B funding to fuel global expansion and their newly opened North American headquarters in New York. The cash will help accelerate their R&D efforts, all while building on the company’s global sales and marketing momentum.

The funding was led by Partech with existing investor Peak.

Founded in 2014 by Rob van Nuenen, Stefan Hospes, and Robert Kreuzer, Channable enables ecommerce companies across the globe to effectively sell, advertise, market, and manage their online sales. Since its inception, the company has amassed over 6,000 customers globally, processing more than 55 billion items per day (representing a 91% increase year over year) via 2,500 local and global channels across comparison websites, marketplaces, search engines, and social networks.

You can find out more about Channable and their ecommerce and multichannel philosophy by downloading their ebook from Tamebay – “Busting 5 myths of feed management“

We are excited to partner with Rob, Robert, Stefan, and the team at Channable. The shift to multichannel commerce and the convergence of marketing channels and commerce channels creates complexity for merchants. Channable’s powerful, yet easy-to-use solutions allow brands and retailers to efficiently increase their audience and grow revenues. We are proud to be partnering with this team as they grow and expand into new markets – especially in Europe and North America!

– Bruno Crémel, General Partner, Partech

Supporting its expansion efforts, Channable tapped industry veteran Michael O’Neal who oversees the U.S. office in New York. As VP of Business Development, Michael will lead U.S. sales efforts to bolster Channable’s revenues in 2022.

Ecommerce companies are dealing with increasing product and data volumes. Channable continues to develop the necessary solutions enabling these companies to scale and easily handle and grow their business. With its best-in-class technology, we’re excited to further fuel the company’s growth, as its vision has demonstrated a positive impact on today’s digital marketers, brands, and online retailers.

– Stefan Bary, Managing Partner, Peak

As ecommerce continues to grow exponentially, digital marketers, brands, and online retailers are increasingly challenged with the immense amount of products to list, advertise and market on a daily basis. Channable’s unique solutions include product feed management, PPC ad campaign automation, order, and stock synchronization, and re-pricing products in real-time —making the impossible possible.

We want to establish Channable as essential for any e-commerce company. Considering the increased demand in e-commerce it can get complicated without the right toolset. This latest round of funding will help us make e-commerce easier by serving more clients globally, while building on our innovative, ready-to-use technology, and best-in-class support. We are proud to have partners like Partech and Peak as they bring their extensive knowledge to the table taking companies like Channable to the next level.

– Rob van Nuenen, Co-Founder and CEO, Channable

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Rewatch Tamebay Live Masterclasses On Demand

Tamebay Live may be over for January 2022, but you can now rewatch Tamebay Live masterclasses on demand right here on Tamebay as well as on the event website.

The educational content includes three sessions from title sponsor Amazon, including:

• Quick tips for more effective advertising with Amazon Ads with Bianca Butler, Marketing Specialist, Amazon Ads
• Learn how to grow your brand on Amazon with unique tools for brands owners and representatives with Thomas Poulain, Senior Marketplace Consultant, Amazon Marketplace EU
• Expanding Your Business to Europe with Amazon New Cross-Border Fulfilment Programs with Oscar Webb, Senior Account Manager

Sessions delivered by other marketplaces included:

• How to reinvigorate your EU sales and beyond – Making your inventory available to a Global Buyer base with eBay’s Will French, Senior Manager – Fulfilment & Logistics & Irene Keay, Senior Manager – Shipping & Logistics
• eBay Ads – Promoted Listings family with Rufus Bazley & Ellen Mikals
• Why you need to be selling your products on Fruugo in 2022 with Håkan Thyr
• Unlocking access to a new online customer with EnableAll with Kevin Cooper and Mike Adams
• Live Streaming for Brands with Alibaba’s Zarina Kanji
• Lessons from China also with Zarina Kanji

As well as the sessions delivered by marketplaces, rewatch Tamebay Live masterclasses delivered by retailer colleagues and industry leaders. We were thrilled at the number of retailers giving up their time to presents at Tamebay Live, including:

• Robin Phillips, CEO, WatchShop
• Shahin Sacki, Managing Director, Rex Brown Ltd
• Al Shariat, Director, Coconut Merchant Ltd
• Patrick Gore, Managing Director, Hampers.com
• Hannah Lia, Operations Director, Hampers.com
• Eric Finkelman, Founder & CEO, Cali Weights
• Arjun Sofat, CEO, Free Soul
• Louise Cheadle, Co-founder, teapigs
• Benji Lamb, Director of China, Vitabiotics

If you would like to rewatch Tamebay Live masterclasses you attended, or catch any sessions that you missed, you can access them all here.

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TechCrunch+ roundup: 3 customer experiments, Citrix-Tibco merger, building fundraising momentum

Stating the obvious: customer discovery is essential for startups that hope to achieve product-market fit.

Unfortunately, most of us are not skilled when it comes to talking to strangers. Each member of a startup’s founding team was hired for a specific reason, but customer outreach rarely leads the list.

Early-stage startups that hope to refine their value proposition and triangulate target users cannot afford to sit back and wait for customer intelligence to roll in.

Instead, founders need to conduct their own product and marketing experiments using robust methodology that produces actionable insights. If that sounds like extra effort, it shouldn’t: it’s an essential aspect of your job.

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Elise King, program director of Human Ventures’ entrepreneur-in-residence program, interviewed three founders from her company’s portfolio to learn more about the tactics they used to acquire data:

• Pre-MVP/customer discovery phase: Tiny Organics
• Mid-MVP phase: Tabu
• After product is in-market: Teal

“The overarching theme seems to be this: Listen to your demographic, learn from their experiences in order to find a way to truly service them, and don’t be afraid to pivot if needed,” advises King.

Product experiments are easy to manage, but they’re most effective when multiple team members are involved. Instead of having one person share their findings with the company, rope as many stakeholders into the process as possible.

I managed customer listening sessions at one startup that were so fruitful, our product managers, designers and engineers started attending. The direct interactions they had with early users helped us make smarter choices and fueled growth.

Go talk to some strangers: what might you learn from your earliest, most loyal customers?

Thanks very much for reading; I hope you have a great week.

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

3 experiments for early-stage founders seeking product-market fit

Will the Citrix-Tibco merger create enterprise magic? Vista clearly thinks so

Image Credits: Bloomberg (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Most companies find it difficult to adapt to changing environments, but for legacy enterprise giants like Citrix Systems and Tibco, change is a mountain that keeps getting taller.

Where some see problems, though, others see opportunity: Vista Equity Partners and Elliot Management are betting that merging Citrix and Tibco to create an enterprise giant with leading products will help open cross-selling opportunities and market share, Ron Miller and Alex Wilhelm report.

“Both companies are now on make-it-or-break path, [but at least they are] no longer lingering on the doldrums of slow innovation,” said Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research.

Will the Citrix-Tibco merger create enterprise magic? Vista clearly thinks so

How to build and maintain momentum in your fundraising process

Image Credits: ozgurcankaya (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Capturing investors’ attention isn’t enough when you’re raising money — often, you have to convince them your funding process is efficient and that you’re talking to other investors.

Momentum is key to building this level of interest, writes Nathan Beckord, CEO of Foundersuite.com, and that energy will propel your entire fundraising process.

After opening with a “great hack for asking for email introductions,” Beckord shares five hustle tips for maintaining and capitalizing on momentum that will maximize investor interest and appeal.

How to build and maintain momentum in your fundraising process

Bullish or bearish? What to expect for Europe VC activity in 2022

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

European venture capital had a stellar 2021, recording investments of €102.9 billion, up 120% from 2020.

Ample capital, great quality startups, and healthy deal flow are a few factors that will drive the European startup market to even greater heights, Nalin Patel, EMEA VC Analyst at PitchBook, and Christoph Janz, co-founder at Point Nine Capital, told Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm.

However, a slow-down is also likely, as changing exit expectations linked to public market declines may trickle down to early-stage venture investment in Europe, Janz said.

“There’s institutional momentum in the market via funds that VCs have already raised, and FOMO won’t die out overnight. On the other hand, public markets are jitter-inducing and exits are on hold,” Alex and Anna wrote.

Bullish or bearish? What to expect for Europe VC activity in 2022

To cool down China’s overheated robotics industry, go back to the basics

Image Credits: FABRICE COFFRINI (opens in a new window)

Robotics and software may be lumped in together when we talk about tech, but the investment philosophies for each are wildly different.

So while China sees a bubble of rapid investments in robotics startups whose valuations are rising even faster, software investors must work to understand the robotics industry, its financial needs, and timelines before they jump in, says He Huang, partner at Northern Light Venture Capital.

“Investors and companies need to go back to business basics and resist the industry’s typical impatience for exits on both sides of the negotiation table.”

To cool down China’s overheated robotics industry, go back to the basics

Joe Rogan, economics, and why capitalism is making people blame the CCP

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

Streaming platforms love exclusive content — at this stage in the industry’s development, these deals are the only things that distinguishes one company from the next.

In 2020, Spotify licensed Joe Rogan’s iconoclastic podcast for more than $100 million.

But today, hundreds of scientists and doctors say Rogan is using his perch to spread COVID-19 misinformation, and the resulting furor has led several musicians to pull their work from the platform.

“This put Spotify in a pickle,” writes Alex Wilhelm in The Exchange.

“The company wants to have both a commodity music business and an exclusive podcasting business. But instead, its exclusive podcasting strategy was undercutting its core value proposition and revenue driver, namely offering most recorded music for a regular fee.”

Joe Rogan, economics, and why capitalism is making people blame the CCP

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Camila Cabello, Mindy Kaling, Gwyneth Paltrow pour capital into Olipop’s mission to change soda

Soda that serves a purpose, whether that be more healthy or even functional, is the new wave of drinks disrupting the $38 billion U.S. soft drink industry.

In Olipop’s case, the three-year-old brand is going after function, with a line of sodas aimed at supporting digestive health. The company is the second venture in the realm of “functional soda” for co-founders Ben Goodwin and David Lester, who have worked together for nearly a decade.

The two built the functional soda category, Lester told TechCrunch via email, and Olipop now accounts for two-thirds of the niche’s revenue today. The soda is made using plant-based fiber, prebiotics and other botanical ingredients.

Popularity for the brand has increased in the past three years since Olipop launched in 45 stores in northern California. It is now in more than 10,000 grocers nationwide, including Kroger, Target, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Safeway and Wegmans. Lester touts the company’s success as “the first major disruptive innovation in the soda category in over 40 years since Coca-Cola launched Diet Coke in 1981.”

“Functional soda is fundamentally about two things: meeting the consumer where they are with a delicious drink that doesn’t force them to compromise on a category they enjoy, and two cutting-edge health benefits backed by rigorous science,” he added.

Russell Westbrook, Chainsmokers join group pouring $13.5M into prebiotic soda brand Poppi

Image Credits: Olipop

Though competitors are copying its flavor profiles that include Cherry Vanilla, Orange Squeeze and Ginger Lemon, CEO Goodwin says they are not matching Olipop on taste, something he personally formulates using his knowledge of microbiomes and fermentation over the past 16 years.

The “backed by rigorous science” aspect comes from implementing a scientific advisory board led by researchers in the microbiome and digestive health field and will eventually expand to include other health issues. Last year, Olipop completed successful in-vitro clinical trials with Baylor and Purdue Universities, and has a human clinical underway. This year and 2023 will also include an increase in research and partnerships, Goodwin said.

After raising some $13.5 million in funding since 2018, according to Crunchbase data, Olipop announced $30 million in Series B funding on a $200 million valuation. The round was led by Monogram Capital Partners and includes a star-studded lineup of backers, including Camila Cabello, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas, Kevin Jonas, Mindy Kaling, Logic and Gwyneth Paltrow. Also participating in the round were existing investor Rocana Venture Partners, Raj Nooyi and former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, A-Series Management & Investments founder Anjula Acharia, ClassPass founder Payal Kadakia, Beautycon co-founder Moj Mahdara and LANY lead singer Paul Klein.

Olipop anticipates achieving a $100 million run-rate by the end of 2022. Lester said the company eclipsed its growth targets for 2021 and grew top line revenue by three times. The company is not yet profitable, but he said it is headed there. As such, the new funding will go toward new hires, marketing investment and product inventory as the company rapidly expands distribution, Goodwin added. It currently has around 60 employees, up from 30 the year prior.

Meanwhile, the pandemic accelerated certain tailwinds for the company, among them consumer interest in digestive health, which grew by 3,000% the first year of the pandemic, concerns about sugar intake and how the company would operate as both its employees and the country were strained.

“We saw the pandemic as both a significant challenge and opportunity, and that’s exactly what it was,” Goodwin said. “It also challenged us to build out a robust direct-to-consumer platform to better serve our customers and forced us to lean into building a great culture in a remote environment. We also got good data points around our relationship with our customers and found that Olipop was a product people could turn to for some joy and comfort, while staying healthy, during a time of increased stress.”

Up next, the company will scale its mainstream distribution and marketing strategies that were tested last year, along with the supply chain structures needed to support that rapid growth, he added. In addition, Olipop will be doubling down on its R&D of new flavors.

What’s beyond Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods in the future of food?

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Wayflyer raises $150M on a $1.6B valuation for a new spin on providing loans to e-commerce merchants

E-commerce has continued to boom in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, but running an e-commerce business has also become significantly more chaotic, with unpredictable supply chains, logistics hiccups, and overall higher costs upending even the best-laid plans. To underscore the demand for solutions to address this, today a startup called Wayflyer — which has built a new kind of financing platform, using big data analytics and repayments based on a merchant’s revenue activity — is announcing a big round of funding, $150 million. It plans to use the funds to double down on its business after a strong year of growth, with average monthly capital deployments (that is, loans) on the platform reaching $100 million, up nearly 1,000% on the year before.

The Series B funding values the Dublin-based startup at $1.6 billion.

DST Global and QED Investors co-led the all-equity round, with Prosus, Madrone Capital Partners and J.P. Morgan — all new backers — also participating, alongside previous investors Left Lane Capital and Guillaume Pousaz (the founder of Checkout.com). J.P. Morgan is something of a strategic investor here: it’s not a direct partner (yet?) of Wayflyer, but in addition to being a major financier of tech startups, it’s also the world’s biggest bank and has been buying up fintechs to grow that part of its business.

Some 65% of Wayflyer’s customers today are in the U.S. and North America, with the remainder in Western Europe (mainly UK) and Australia. The plan is to continue investing both in the technology that Wayflyer uses to evaluate and make loans; and to continue growing its business overall, in particular with more partnerships to serve merchants. (Those partners today include Adobe, Sezzle and eBay UK.)

Wayflyer is not yet profitable, said CEO Aidan Corbett in an interview. But he noted that the startup has hardly touched the $76 million in funding that it raised in May 2021, and could potentially be profitable this year if it chooses. Along with the $76 million equity round in May, the startup also secured $100 million in debt to provide financing; we’ve asked whether there is another debt component in this latest round and will update the story as and when we learn more.

The valuation is a big one for an Irish startup, but it is all the more notable because Wayflyer, founded in September 2019, has only been around for just over two years. Yet in that time it has grown substantially. Corbett (who co-founded the company with president Jack Pierse) said that currently the company has “thousands” of customers — exact number undisclosed — who typically take out loans of between $300,000-$400,000 to cover things like inventory purchases, shipping costs and other big-ticket items necessary for running an e-commerce business.

The crux of the problem that Wayflyer is addressing is a persistent one in the world of e-commerce, but it has definitely become more exacerbated in the last couple of years. E-commerce businesses regularly face shortages with working capital, with funds coming into their accounts often not matching up with expenditures because outgoings need to be made on a regular basis, but incoming funds face reconciliation and other delays.

Corbett said that the Covid-19 pandemic made this an even more acute situation, with e-commerce merchants facing “three hits” that got especially rough in 2021. (Ironically, he noted that 2020 was a lot less difficult because it was just pure boost in demand with the knock on effect in supply chains taking longer to play out. 2022 is looking “better,” he added.)

“Raw material prices went up, there were supply chain delays so getting things took longer, and the cost of freight has gone up,” he said of last year. “It was a triple blow and they needed our funding more because the time in which they were paid or recognized revenue was elongated.” Specific costs simply went haywire: for example, the price of a container — an important item especially for smaller merchants that don’t charter their own shipping frigates — jumped to $14,000 from $4,000 last year. And supply chain delays jumped to 12 weeks from four.

“We have thousands of customer stories” detailing the problems, he said.

The company’s technology is a classic big-data play: it uses a number of sources of data, from Shopify and Woo Commerce through to TrustPilot reviews and Google Analytics and even wider information about how shipping services are performing, to determine how a merchant is doing as a business. It considers data not as a static but dynamic resource, which in turn becomes the basis on which repayments are made.

Revenue finance, as this is called, is not completely a new concept, but with the rise if big data analytics, it has become increasingly more ubiquitous and stands in contrast to how a traditional bank might have made a loan in the past.

“This gives founders downsize protection,” Corbett notes. “So say a shipment is late, you pay less money back that month. I am taking a performance risk on you.”

But this is also variable and can work in Wayflyer’s favor, too. “If they do well and outperform, we get paid back faster. It’s a lovely alignment on both sides,” he said. It’s not unlike the financing model adopted by other kinds of startups like Lambda School.

Its big data approach has some other benefits, too. Wayflyer can forecast when a merchant might be seeing more issues down the line, and so it nudges customers to put in orders earlier in those cases. It also has an interesting view on what is driving sales for businesses. Right now, for example, among social channels, TikTok is outpacing Snapchat and Pinterest for referrals and giving Facebook and Instagram a big run for their money.

In terms of competitors, the size of the loans it typically makes, and the frequency — depending on the nature and size of the customer, loans could be made as frequently as monthly — has partly meant that Wayflyer doesn’t compete, but complements, some of the other companies that have emerged as financiers to e-commerce businesses. Those include the likes of Stripe and Square, or those issuing credit cards to merchants, all of whom also base their loans on data from their platforms detailing what kind of incomings and outgoings a company is seeing. These tend to be much smaller amounts of money, however, and not aimed at helping a merchant run their supply chains. The bigger players in those categories might potentially become partners, or even try to acquire companies like Wayflyer as they grow and seek to diversify their own revenue streams.

More directly, Wayflyer competitors include the likes of Clearco and Uncapped.

“Aidan, Jack and the Wayflyer team remain focused on helping eCommerce companies grow and maximise their potential,” said Tom Stafford, co-founder and managing partner at DST Global, in a statement. “We are impressed by their commitment to building the best products for their customers and proactively helping their customers grow via analytics, practical insights and attractively priced funding. We are pleased to continue supporting the team, as Wayflyer expands globally to provide innovative financing and growth solutions for eCommerce businesses around the world.”

“The pandemic has accelerated eCommerce adoption globally and Wayflyer is transforming financial services for eCommerce businesses wanting to scale quickly, helping them to gain access to capital, inventory and insights at attractive terms,” said Sandeep Bakshi, head of investments for Europe at Prosus Ventures, in a statement. “Aidan, Jack and their team have a deep understanding of what will drive value for their customers, and the financial and business innovation that Wayflyer provides will help to fuel eCommerce ecosystems globally.”

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Kenyan tech-enabled logistics platform Amitruck raises $4 million, embarks on Uganda, Tanzania expansion

The shipping business in Africa has for years been inefficient and costly due to the traditional ways of managing operations – traditional in the sense that a shipper has to physically look for a transporter, sometimes through a middle-man, and often, once goods are delivered, the trucks almost always make the return trip empty.

For a continent like Africa, where roads are heavily used to ferry goods, any inefficiencies encountered translate into higher prices of goods for the end-customer. However, over the last one decade, tech solutions are emerging to bring efficiency into the sector and make shipping cheaper, while increasing the availability of options for shippers.

Amitruck, a Kenyan tech-enabled logistics platform, is one such provider of solutions that streamline the shipping market. The startup, which has achieved a great take-off in Kenya, is set to strengthen its technical, operations and sales team to lay ground for its entry into Tanzania and Uganda markets, after raising $4 million in seed funding bringing the total funds raised to date to $5 million. The expansion plans come as it looks to be the regional go-to platform for shippers and transporters doing in-country and cross-border business.

“The most important purpose of this round is hiring. We are also improving our technology as we start our expansion into other countries in Africa,” Amitruck founder and chief executive officer Mark Mwangi told TechCrunch.

Image Credits: Amitruck

The seed round was led by Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV), with the participation of Dynamo Ventures, Rackhouse Venture Capital, Flexport Inc, Knuru Capital, Launch Africa Ventures, Uncovered Fund, and a number of angel investors.

BTV’s general partner Jake Gibson said, “As an investor in a unicorn CloudTruck startup here in the US, we have in-depth knowledge of the operational and financial requirements from truckers.”

“While the trucking and logistic business in Africa has grown tremendously over the years, the pace of innovation particularly in its administration has been slow. Amitruck’s solution is ideal for bringing the industry into the 21st century,” he said.

Launched in 2019, as a digital logistics marketplace, Amitruck connects shippers with transporters operating trucks, vans, tuk-tuks (three-wheelers), pick-ups and motorbikes, allowing them to negotiate the rates of haulage. The platform also lets shippers customize services, for example, to add off-loading charges. The platform includes a transporter’s rating and the mean number of trips made, data that helps shippers narrow down their choices. The process begins once both parties reach an agreement.

“Amitruck connects shippers directly with transporters and provides a platform where you can get secure competitively priced transport,” said Mwangi.

“In an informal setting, you can have up to three middlemen between a transporter and the cargo owner or shipper. And these guys can cause several problems; including claiming up to 60% of the delivery fee, and if something happens to your load (loss or damage), it’s very difficult for you to get compensated. For shippers, it is very hard for them to compare the quality and level of service they’re going to get. So, it’s quite manual, tedious, and very difficult to know who’s good [at what they do] and who’s not.”

Some of Amitruck’s over 300 B2B customers in Kenya include FMCG firm Unilever, L’Oreal; a beauty company, SkyGarden; an e-commerce platform and Twiga; a fresh produce marketplace. They also work with individual customers, who are, for example, moving houses.

The goods ferried by Amitruck’s partners are insured. Besides, the startup provides operational support.

“We’re a one stop shop, when you connect with us, you literally offload the headache of transport,” he said.

Mwangi, a former investment banker, wasn’t always in the logistics sector, except for the period when, following the demise of his father, he had to take up a night job driving trucks to pay his tuition fee at the City University of London, where he pursued a degree in mathematics.

After his studies he joined Bluecrest Capital Management, a British-American hedge fund, as part of the executive team involved in the operations of a number of private holdings in Canada, Ecuador and China. He later left for the Pictet Asset Management firm, where he rose through the ranks to become an Equities portfolio manager, a position he later left in 2017 to pursue entrepreneurship.

“By the time I was leaving Pictet in 2017, I was part of a team of four running a €5 billion ($5.6b) portfolio, but then I wanted more out of life. I wanted to build something, I wanted to do something more meaningful with an impact, and so I stepped down. On my visit home, I was talking to a family friend…and the gap in trucking just seemed so obvious,” said Mwangi.

Amitruck is preparing to enter Tanzania and Uganda markets. Image Credits: Amitruck

Mwangi is optimistic about the future saying that the logistics sector offers enormous opportunities to companies like his, which are trying to bring order to the industry. In his journey, he has to deal with competition from other startups like Lori Systems, which started out in Kenya before expanding to Nigeria, and Kobo360 and TradeDepot, which are both based in Nigeria.

It has over 8,000 vehicles registered on its platform, and Mwangi says the company’s revenue grew 1,000% in 2021 from 400% in the previous year, as Covid made apparent the need to digitize supply chain processes.

“The opportunity is massive. The majority of this market is still controlled by the middlemen. Followed closely by our customers’ own vehicles. In Africa, 99% of goods have to use a vehicle of some type. We really don’t use that much in terms of waterway or air. And at the moment, it can cost up to five times more than it does in more developed markets to move those goods,” said Mwangi.

Africa’s transport and logistics sector is expected to grow massively especially after the implementation of the already signed African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which will make the continent the largest single market in the world.

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