Mobility 54 Investment SAS invests in OnePort - a Cross-border logistics platformer in Nigeria.
April 28,2022
Mobility 54 Investment SAS (“Mobility 54”) – the corporate venture capital (“CVC”) subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho Corporation (“TTC”) and CFAO SAS (“CFAO”) – invested 2 mil USD in OnePort Inc. (“OnePort”) – a digital cross-border logistics platformer in Nigeria - of its Seed funding round together with one of the biggest Japanese venture capitals Samurai Incubate, Flexport and SBI Investment.
After the establishment of Mobility 54 in October 2019, Mobility 54 completed its 1st fund investment period at the end of December 2021, and renewed the investment budget as 2nd fund with additional 40mil EUR. The investment in OnePort is the first project under its 2nd fund.
1. Background
While efficient logistics solutions is increasingly desired in Africa because of the drastic increase in cargo volume led by the rapid economic growth, the logistics processes especially for the cross-border sector remains mostly as manual basis.
For example, when exporting goods from Africa, it is tremendously complicated, not only on obtaining quotations from several shipping companies through a series of phone calls and emails with documents, but also on tracking the cargo after the shipment by contacting the shipper, the port transport operator and several agents individually. These practices currently being undertaken in Africa have a significant room for improvement.
Mobility 54 has been investing in the improvement and digitalization of in-land logistics sector in Africa through the strategic partnership with Sendy Limited (”Sendy”) - engaging in digital logistics services from East Africa - and Kamtar International (“Kamtar”) – engaging also in digital logistics services in French speaking Africa.
2. About OnePort Inc.
OnePort is a startup established in 2020 to solve the challenges in cross-border logistics sector in Africa and currently providing a digital logistics platform in Nigeria and Ghana.
With OnePort’s platform, when exporting from or importing to Africa, cargo owner can make quotation, booking and tracking of ocean freight, custom-clearance and marine insurance on one single OnePort platform at any time.
Generally in Africa, each port has its unique operation system and business custom, which sometimes makes the digitalization difficult. OnePort is providing solutions which are designed and developed based on the deep understanding of each port operation that contributes to reduce the cargo owner’s actual pain in a practical way.
OnePort has more than 50 business customers in Nigeria today, and they have just launched the service in Ghana in April.
3. Business strategy through the investment
Mobility 54 plans to pursue the following 3 scopes of collaboration with OnePort to further contribute to the logistics sector in Africa.
The first is to support OnePort’s geographical expansion into other countries in Africa. OnePort has a plan to expand to South Africa, Kenya and French-speaking West Africa etc, where the volume of cross-border cargo is significant. Mobility 54 will fully support the initiative by leveraging the TTC/CFAO group’s network in all 54 countries in Africa.
The second is to facilitate the collaboration with Sendy and Kamtar whereby Mobility 54 aims to develop a digitally-integrated logistics service for both cross-border and in-land transport.
The last is to connect OnePort with other regions outside Africa where Mobility 54 will engage in the initiatives to develop a global digital logistics network leveraging the TTC group’s global logistics operations..
TTC/CFAO group, through its CVC Mobility 54, will continue to invest in startup partners with innovative technologies and services for Africa. The group is pursuing to solve the social challenges in Africa by supporting expansions of innovative partners’ businesses and services and creating strong synergies between our group and potential partners.
＜Investments in logistics sector by Mobility 54＞
October 6th, 2021
Sendy Limited, Mobility 54 Investment SAS and Saviu Ventures jointly invest in Kamtar - a digital logistics platform in West Africa.
February 4th, 2020
Mobility 54 invests in Sendy Limited — a digital logistics platformer in Africa.