Yesterday, Jumia confirmed that new CEOs had been named to replace the two founding CEOs. We’ve been aware of Tunde and Raphael’s exit for some time already, and that they plan to launch new ventures.
About said new ventures though, except that they will have something to do with ecommerce and logistics, we don’t know a lot. Both entrepreneurs have been tight-lipped about their plans. Tunde’s LinkedIn profile lists him as CEO of “NewCo”. Raphael hasn’t even bothered to update his.
Word gets around, nevertheless. Tunde Kehinde in particular has been said to working on a startup called A-Post. it is still not altogether clear why exactly the ex-Jumia CEO bailed out of the Rocket Internet ship, but if A-Post is really his, then he’s hitting the ground running in a way that suggests that he’s been planning this for a while. Sources inform us that A-Post has already begun to operate and handles delivery logistics for DealDey and other startups (take a good look at logos in the footer).
However, it wasn’t until yesterday that I found proof of A-Post’s actually being a real thing — a brand identity portfolio for a logistics startup which was displayed on the designer’s website. The link to the portfolio was posted by a TechCabal commenter (thanks!) who said he’d happened on it after reading my reference to it in the last Jumia report.
Clearly, someone didn’t want us to see these yet. Not long after the link was posted, the corresponding page was taken down. [Update: the link now works — the designer says it was never taken down and that the portfolio had already been featured previously on another design blog. We aren’t sure how we weren’t able to access it and regret the error] Fortunately, the internet never forgets. Not when there’s things like Google cache and Archive.org. I was able retrieve the page, complete with images.
The name suggests that the startup’s ambitions transcend Nigeria’s borders. Take a good look at Africa Post, Tunde Kehinde’s courier and last-mile logistics startup that wants to “connect Africa”. We have reached out to him for comment.
