Senegalese Logistics And Delivery Company PAPS Raises $4.5M

PAPS, a Senegal-based logistics, and delivery company fills this gap in its region by offering customers various logistics services.

First launched by Bamba Lo in 2016 to provide end-to-end logistics solutions for businesses with offline and online operations – the company has gone from strength to strength in the last few years.

On Wednesday – it announced a $4.5 million pre-Series A round to expand its tech-enabled logistics solution across the Francophone region.

The round was co-led by pan-African venture capital firm 4DX Ventures and regional telecom operator Orange.

Also participating in the round included existing funds Uma Ventures and Saviu Ventures and new investors Yamaha Motor, LoftyInc Capital, Proparco, Google Ventures, To.org, Kepple Ventures, and Enza Capital.

PAPS journey

At first, PAPS operated a consumer-to-consumer logistics model. 

But immediately after its launch, it soon pivoted after noticing how infrequent and disorganized most requests were. It was reportedly difficult for them to precisely predict the delivery flows in the space, which is different from the B2B model, where deliveries are planned. 

The platform now caters to small to large businesses, assisting them with their logistics needs, from storage and international transport to last-mile delivery.

PAPS also provides merchants with visibility features to track and know the status of deliveries from takeoff to the point of destination. Merchants can also schedule deliveries on the platform.

“When we launched PAPS, the first thing we wanted to give to our clients was visibility on their transactions, they had to know when the driver has picked their goods up, where the goods are during transit, and when it arrives,” Lo, the chief executive, told TechCrunch.

“So that’s what we are trying to do to build — an infrastructure that can serve all B2B clients from warehousing and dispatching to the last-mile delivery.”