In October last year, Sendy, a Kenyan logistics scale-up, ended its provisioning service, which allowed retailers to purchase FMCGs directly from manufacturers, saying it was focusing all of its focus on its end-to-end fulfillment offering.
Months later, the company ceases operations on the ground in Nigeria, one of its four markets in Africa. This means it will no longer fulfill orders in the West African country, saying it has become “a fully integrated tech solution” that will match online buyers with the right logistics providers. The fulfillment service remains unchanged in other markets.
The new changes imply that Sendy will move away from its asset-heavy model that facilitated order fulfillment from parcel pick-up, warehousing to last-mile delivery in Nigeria. The company, which launched in Nigeria in late 2021, said the move was necessary due to the need to find the right kind of product for the market.
Sendy ceases ground operations in Nigeria
It was not immediately clear how many of the approximately 220 employees would be affected by the closure, but Sendy confirmed that some jobs will be lost in the latest round of layoffs.
“Fulfillment remains at the heart of what Sendy does. We don’t run. In Nigeria, we made the decision to discontinue our ground operations and instead focus on getting the right product. This means that we will continue to connect sellers with logistics providers, but will no longer ship their goods,” said Daniel Edeimu, Managing Director of Sendy Nigeria.
“As a fully integrated technical solution, Sendy will receive orders through e-commerce plugins, ERPs or APIs and provide support in finding the best logistics partners and advising the sellers,” said Edeimu, adding that the company plans is to offer additional services such as financial services and storefronts.
Sendy, co-founded in 2015 by Kenyans Evanson Biwott and Don Okoth and American Malaika Judd, has in recent months changed its approach in its markets, including Kenya, Uganda and Ivory Coast, to improve efficiency while adapting to the macroeconomic headwinds made it difficult to raise money.
It aimed to raise $100 million last year and managed to raise some undisclosed funding from MOL PLUS, the corporate venture capital of Japanese transportation company Mitsui OSK Lines, to scale up its fulfillment offering, which remains its core service. in different markets.
“The investment was both financial and operational…On the operational side, Sendy and MOL are working together to remove infrastructure and other operational hurdles to serve our customers. As mentioned earlier, in the countries that have achieved product-market fit, Sendy is seeing incredible growth. Partners such as MOL enhance our ability to meet demand,” says Edeimu.
Sendy has raised $26.5 million in publicly disclosed funding to date from a number of investors, including Toyota Tsusho, Atlantica Ventures, VestedWorld, Keppel Capital, Enza Capital, AAICA Investment Pte Ltd, Sunu Capital and Goodwill Investments.
