Acasia Ventures, an Egyptian VC firm, has joined the USD 1 million seed round of Nigeria’s Fez Delivery.
Egyptian venture capital firm Acasia Ventures has joined the USD 1 million seed investment round of Lagos-based last-mile delivery platform Fez Delivery (Fez). The round was led by Nigeria’s discovery fund Ventures Platform.
Fez was launched in 2018 by Seun Alley and Femi Jose. The company is the only last-mile delivery firm operating across all of Nigeria’s 36 states.
The need for last mile delivery
According to Fez, Nigerian consumers place over 120 million e-commerce orders annually. While international logistics companies operate in the country, few make deliveries outside of major cities and instead rely on local companies such as Fez to cover the rest of Nigeria. SMEs contribute 48% of Nigeria’s GDP, however, the delivery fees charged by international couriers are high, and follow fixed rates. The local last-mile delivery system in Nigeria is, according to Fez, highly fragmented and characterized by unprofessional front-line personnel and inadequate means of feedback on delivery activities.
Flexible pricing
Fez aims to utilize a flexible pricing model calculated using the distance travelled and the type of item ordered. The company has a customer base of 11,000 individuals, SMEs and corporations and has undertaken over 500,000 orders to date.
Fez’s CEO, Alley, has an operations background within the financial sector, having worked for First Bank of Nigeria, OPay and Bloc. CTO Jose has previously worked at Terragon Limited as a Senior Software Engineer and First Bank of Nigeria. “We are excited to have Acasia Ventures join our seed round with their extensive expertise across markets and sectors,” Alley said. “Beyond financing, nothing feels better than knowing that your investors understand your business, know the market and are ready to bring that to the fore.”
“Fez has been able to amass over 11,000 customers because they are going beyond the major markets, serving customers across the country,” Acasia Ventures General Partner Biola Alabi said. “The company is tapping into a market that no global player has so far entered, namely parcel delivery across the whole of Nigeria, as opposed to just big cities. It enables SMEs to compete with national players by providing them with last-mile delivery services that suit the nature of their operations.”
Fez was a member of the Techstars Accelerator Program, where it raised USD 100,000 as part of its pre-seed investment.
Increasing investment in logistics
Recently, logistics has been one of the leading sectors for investment among startups and in January of this year, Moroccan startup Cathedis raised USD 735,000 to further its digital offerings.