Kenyan logistics startup Leta secures Ksh.367M funding

Kenyan supply chain and logistics SaaS provider Leta has closed a Ksh.367 million ($3 million) pre-seed round as it seeks to expand its platform to West Africa.

The company founded last year by Nick Joshi uses AI to enable efficient and automated movement of goods for businesses, reducing the number of vehicles needed for distribution which in turn saves cost and increases competitiveness.

Already, Leta has operations in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe and with its latest funding, it seeks to venture into Ghana and Nigeria.

“Our next year is going to be fairly big for us. Our product has stabilized and we have a very good understanding of our sales process and our go-to-market strategy,” Joshi told American technology outlet TechCrunch.

"The capital we have raised will help us to quickly scale into new markets beginning with Ghana, where we will launch in December."

The round saw the participation of 4Di Capital, Chandaria Capital, Chui Ventures, PANI, Samurai Incubate and Verdant Frontiers.

Other angel investors, among them Twiga Foods CEO and Co-founder Peter Njonjo, Charles Murito, a Google executive, and Ken Njoroge, a co-founder of Cellulant, also participated in the round.

Under Leta's operating system, distributors are able to see the most efficient route to serve the customers quicker, enabling them to use less vehicles to serve more customers.

Haulers have a dedicated driver app that shows them all the different stops they need to make. It also gives them a sign-off form for proof of delivery.

Customers meanwhile receive a web link to track the delivery of their orders.

"It is possible to track the driver, the specific goods carried, the loading of the truck to know if space use is maximized, the time spent during the journey and distance traveled,” Joshi added.

Leta claims optimizing over 500,000 deliveries, delivering over 20,000 tons of goods and managing 2,000 vehicles since its launch.

The startup has since worked with over 20 businesses, among them consumer goods conglomerate Chandaria Industries, B2B e-commerce and food distribution platform Twiga, and fashion marketplace ShopZetu.