Kenyan on-demand logistics startup Sendy raises $20M Series B round backed by Toyota, others

Investments in African startups continue to gain momentum. Sendy, a Kenyan on-demand logistics startup that allows customers to order courier services over their mobile phones, today announced it has raised a $20 million Series B led by Atlantica Ventures, with participation from Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a trade and investment arm of Japanese automotive company Toyota.

Sendy is a delivery partner for moving packages in Kenya. Sendy provides a mobile app and web platform that enables individuals and small businesses to connect with Drivers and request on-demand or scheduled package delivery services anytime, any day, 24/7. Its app links delivery drivers with customers, is embarking on a second round of fundraising to expand in East Africa.

Founded in 2014 by Don Okoth, Evanson Biwott, Malaika Judd, and Meshack Alloys, Sendy offers on-demand door-to-door package delivery services in Nairobi, Kenya. Sendy currently has about 50,000 customers and serves over 4,000 businesses in major cities in Kenya including Thika, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nairobi. Sendy employs over 60 people, half of them in engineering. Sendy is one of the 16 startups Toyota Tsusho Signed MOUs with back in 2019.

“The problem of logistics is so large that everyone is looking at creating solutions to solve it,” Malaika Judd said, adding the emergence of e-commerce would further boost demand for the services of firms like Sendy.

“The costs of delivering spare parts from one location to another, or to a customer, has dropped by as much as 35 percent,” said Dennis Awori, the chairman of Toyota in East Africa.