Jetstream, a Ghanaian-based technology-enabled logistics company has secured $3 million in a seed round.
Investors in this round include Alitheia IDF, Golden Palm Investments, 4DX Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Asia Pacific Land, Breyer Labs, and MSA Capital.
The startup was founded in 2018 by Miishe Addy and Solomon Torgbor to enable African businesses to see and control their own cross-border supply chains. It aggregates private sector logistics providers at African ports and borders and brings them online.
Jetstream started operations in Ghana in March 2019 with a Less Than Container Load (LCL) aggregation service. The service allowed agricultural exporters to group their shipments into shared sea freight containers. Then in November of that year, Jetstream added trade finance for customers who found it difficult to fill large purchase orders. Today, Jetstream is white labelling the systems built internally to manage shipments and financing for customers.
Miishe Addy, CEO of Jetstream explained how Jetstream is different from other freight management company “We are different from a more siloed freight management system because we are leveraging financing to integrate the customs brokers, freight forwarders, shipping lines, airlines, and container terminals all onto the Jetstream platform so that shipments can be managed and tracked every step of the way. We are bringing many of the local providers online for the first time. Jetstream is to cross-border logistics what Flutterwave is to fintech in Africa.”
According to Techcrunch, Jetstream’s business model is straightforward. It charges for the freight, clearance, and financial services offered. For freight, it charges a per-container or per-kilogram fee. For customs clearance, it charges a flat fee that varies depending on the tax category and location of the shipment. And for financing and insurance services, it charges a commission on the value of the goods being shipped.
During the pandemic, Jetstream logistics service revenue significantly grew by 512% from March 2020 to March 2021. Addy believes that the pandemic further intensified Jetstream’s vision to bring cross-border trade corridors online and drive toward an inflection point in the speed and growth of commerce on the continent.
Jetstream also has operations in Nigeria with agents present in South Africa, China, the U.S., the U.K., and Europe.