African supply chain Sote aims to transform trade by enhancing its focus on logistics infrastructure and deploying advanced technology. The company will provide a central dashboard for customers, importers and exporters, which will act as a single record for all parties. The central dashboard will enable clearing and forwarding of goods in a swift manner.
More recently, the company has raised $3 million in seed funding to support Nairobi and San Francisco operations. With that, it will be able to develop the logistics infrastructure on the continent. The first form of transformation will be reflected in clearing and forwarding.
Marlon Nichols, a co-founder and managing director of MaC Venture Capital, told the media, “They are trying to transform an industry that hasn’t seen any innovation in a century. That’s the case with receiving and forwarding on the continent. It’s so dense and there’s limited open waterways. The only way to move things is by vehicle. There’s a lack of infrastructure inside the continent and limited ways to get things into the continent. The traditional method was just taxing… the difficulty of clearing something through customs.”
It is reported that nearly 20 million containers move across the continent each year, pointing to a $20 billion logistics market. By the numbers, more than 1 million containers move through Kenya, which happens to be the company’s launch market. According to the World Bank, this figure has more than doubled since 2007.
For Africa, the majority of cargo comes through the six significant ports in Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Morocco, and Egypt.