Topship, a Lagos-based logistics startup helping African businesses export and import goods worldwide, have closed a $2.5 million seed round to improve its technology and fuel growth.
The round was led by Y Combinator, Flexport (the world’s leading digital freight forwarding company), Soma Capital, Starling Ventures, Olive Tree Capital, True Capital, Capital X, and many angel investors, including Mercury’s founder and CEO Immad Akhund and Dropbox’s co-founder Arash Ferdowsi.
This new investment brings Topship’s total funding raised till date to $2.8 million, having raised $300, 000 pre-seed in March last year
Founded in 2020 by Moses Enenwali, Topship started out as an Instagram service helping people ship to and from Africa. By March 2021, Enenwali had gained enough traction to build Topship into a software that handles the end-to-end process. The platform now has a web app that allows merchants and individuals to book a door-to-door shipment. It has also extended its shipping offerings from only parcels to include cargos and freight to and from anywhere in the world.
Since launching, the company has reportedly onboarded over 1,800 users, and 700 of them are active businesses that have been vetted and verified. In the past quarter, it has also served 1,000+ merchants, primarily made up of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and recorded 50% month-on-month revenue growth.
With this seed capital, the company intends to grow fast and “remain asset-light.”
“Our mission to make the shipping experience in Africa as easy and stress-free as booking an Uber ride has brought us significant growth and valuable first-hand lessons that we could have never learned by being on the sidelines,” the company said.
