E-commerce company, Jumia, has now opened its logistics
in partnership
with FLUTTERWAVE & ENDEAVOR
09.11.2020
Good morning.Analysts are slashing by half their estimates of the value of Ant Group after its IPO was suspended by Chinese regulators….Bloomberg says Ant Group’s valuation could be cut by a hefty $140 billion.
In today’s edition:
-Jumia logistics
-Factsheet
-TC Insights
PARTNER CONTENT
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JUMIA IS THROWING ITS HAT IN THE RING
After months of talking about it, Jumia is taking the big step. It has now opened up its logistics service to external parties in the 11 African countries it operates it.
This decision to provide logistics as a service to other businesses has been in the works for a while.
In February 2020, CEO of Jumia Nigeria, Massimiliano Spalazzi, said Jumia was planning to scale its third party logistics service.
In June, Jumia’s logistics service became available to businesses in Nairobi, Kenya
Jumia has over 6500 delivery agents and 3000 warehouse operators
The company delivered 20 million packages
across Africa in 2019 alone.
Logistics is a complex problem to solve: Despite Jumia’s impressive stats, logistics remains a tough nut to crack in many African cities.
A city like Lagos with bad roads, frequent traffic congestions and poor road network presents too many problems for any easy solutions.
Bottom line: Opening its logistics service to third parties could be a win-win. It will help Jumia expand their market. If the service scales, it will expose them to other logistics problems they wouldn’t have known about until they reached a certain level.
FACTSHEET
How much is your startup worth?
Even for passive followers of the news cycle, news about companies raising money from investors are pretty common. One key thing in the funding
process is the valuation of the company.
Recently, China’s Ant Group was valued at $313 billion.
How do businesses arrive at valuations at like? That’s the question Alex answers on Factsheet, our series of specific guides on experiencing and using technology platforms in Africa.
On November 17, Catalysing Conversations will feature fireside chats between entrepreneurs, operators, and investors scaling companies in markets such as Nigeria, Mexico, and Argentina. To be a part of these conversations, register here!
TC INSIGHTS
In 2018, I visited a friend in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos, South-West Nigeria. During my visit, I needed to get some money so I walked out to look for a bank or an ATM. I walked several meters and did not find a bank or ATM to my surprise. When I asked, I was referred to a mobile money agent in the area.
It’s not unusual to seek ATMs or banks and not find them in urban centres outside Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. Like that time my colleague Kay and I couldn’t find one in one of South-south Nigeria’s major towns. But seeking them without success in a major African city like Lagos was startling.
Yet data shows that a mobile money agent has 26 times the reach of ATMs and 58 times the reach of bank branches in Africa. So you are more likely to run into a mobile money agent than a bank or an ATM. Africa is the world’s mobile money leader. There are 3.4 million registered agents on the continent. More than 4 out of 10
agents in the world are in Africa.
Agents are the fastest way to convert cash to digital value and vice versa. About $124 billion in digital value pass through mobile money services and agents every year. There are 481 million registered mobile money accounts in Sub-Saharan Africa, 50 million of them were registered in 2019. Everything from remittances, airtime top-up to savings, mobile money has become an integral part of how money moves on the continent.
But despite significant progress with mobile money penetration
– registered accounts grew by 12% in 2019 compared to 2018 figures – financial exclusion is still in the double digits in a number of African countries.
THE TECHCABAL DAILY 2.0 IS ALMOST HERE
When the TC team talks about our vision for the TechCabal Daily, one of the things we say is that we want it to be visually appealing.
We also want it to be a newsletter you really care about, because you’re a part of our community.
Those are only two of the reasons we went
back to the drawing board to redesign a TechCabal Daily we’re sure you’ll be proud to be a part of.
But I’m not giving all the details away just yet. That will happen bit by bit until launch day.
Want to be a part of our relaunch campaign? Send me an email: muyiwa@bigcabal.com
