In a press release issued on Wednesday, Leta, a Kenyan supply chain and logistics software firm, announced the completion of a $3 million pre-seed financing round.
The round’s investors include 4Di Capital, Chandaria Capital, Chui Ventures, PANI, Samurai Incubate, and Verdant Frontiers Fintech.
Leta, which was founded in 2021, improves African supply chains by utilizing route and load optimization technologies.
Other platform features include fuel and distance tracking, allowing for more analytics and supervision. According to the company, the program can also be integrated with warehouse management, corporate resource planning, and point-of-sale systems such as SAGE, SAP, and Shopify.
Leta also claimed to have optimized over 500,000 deliveries in five different countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Zambia. According to the release, this equates to about 20,000 tons of merchandise delivered by more than 2000 automobiles.
Leta founder and CEO Nick Joshi stated, “We are proud to be building Africa’s backend of supply chain and logistics, saving our customers 20%-30% on their logistics costs.”
“The African supply chain and logistics industry, like that of the US and Europe, is highly fragmented and inefficient.”
However, supply chain and logistics costs in Africa are sometimes 60-70% higher, which is then passed on to the end customer,” he explained. “We hope to create a durable and easy alternative for moving goods in a considerably more efficient manner using Leta.”
Leta works with companies that provide food and beverages, agricultural products, manufacturing, construction, medicines, and other services. Clients include Twiga Foods, Chandaria Industries, Simbisa Brands, and ShopZetu.
Coordination of the many units involved in a typical supply chain can be difficult, especially when trying to do so in the most cost- and fuel-efficient way possible.
