According to a TechCrunch report, Sendy is exploring a sale of its assets as options hence it ran out of cash to continue operations

Meshack Alloys, Sendy co-founder, confirmed the sale thus: “We are in the middle of an acquisition process. So yes, Sendy is being acquired. We will issue a formal joint statement in two weeks or so time. In the meantime, we are unable to comment on further details at this time.”

Hwoever, Alloys didn’t disclose the acquirers as at the time of filling this report.

But reports indicate the company ran out of funds two months ago and had been scrambling to cut costs for the past year to remain afloat.

Recall that in July, the company shut down SendySupply, one of its products, leading to a 20% of its staff lay off.

Sendy was co-founded in 2015 by Alloys, Evanson Biwott, Don Okoth and Malaika Judd. It has raised $26.5 million funding from several investors, including Toyota Tsusho, Atlantica Ventures, VestedWorld, Keppel Capital, Enza Capital, AAICA Investment Pte Ltd, Sunu Capital and Goodwill Investments.

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Not limited to any sector, the startups are:

1. Sendy

With the rate at which e-commerce is blooming, trust me, 2023 will see a hike. This calls for strategies to make the entire supply chain and processes seamless and Sendy is one of the startups doing just that. 

Whether it’s an individual purchasing goods or it’s a supermarket stocking up, Sendy’s got you. The startup, founded by Mesh Alloys, Evanson Biwott, Don Okoth and American Malaika Judd, picks up, delivers, stores and even offers payment processing. All you need to do is tell them what you want and you can sell more, move goods efficiently and affordably at your own comfort.

Added to its 5,000 vehicles from third party partners, Sendy has over 92% fulfillment rates across its four countries of operations including Kenya and Nigeria.

2. TomX Holdings 

Focused across sectors including logistics, finance, fast-moving consumer goods, real estate and ICT, TomX Holdings thrives to tackle the unemployment challenge in the African continent.

Via its product offerings including TomX Credit, Rapaid and others, the startup provides affordable and reliable capital to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, as well as corporate bodies, with trusted financial returns to investors. It also stimulates growth in savings, seamless loan applications and rewarding investments.

TomX Holdings leverages an inclusive approach, taking into cognizance the financially limited and unbanked population of the continent.

3. Mkobo

Licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and insured by Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Mkobo is a microfinance bank focused on enhancing the economic sustainability of the African continent, improving the quality of lives in the continent.

We can never have too many fintech companies, can we? I don’t think so, there’s just a lot to cover and these fintech companies are helping a great deal. 

Giving access to efficient banking, Mkobo was built on a goal to provide affordable financial services that help improve the lives of underserved Africans in the near future.

4. Ckrowd

Ckrowd is taking techtainment to another level. Are you a content creator? Ckrowd would help you monetize your content within and outside the African continent.

The premium content streaming platform is also focused on supporting young African students, helping them receive affordable educational programmes through the leverage of technology.

Expanding its goal achievement, the startup recently invested in its Digital-Marketing-As-A-Service (DMAAS) technology to support content creators and businesses interested in expanding their subscribers’ reach and driving revenue from sales of their content or other products and services.

5. Babymigo

Any mum can relate with the feeling of wanting attention and guide all through pregnancy processes, that’s what Babymigo does.

Babymigo is a pregnancy and parenting community that provides tools, resources and local support services for pregnant women and parents with children between the ages of 0 and 7.

Babymigo officially launched its services towards the end of 2020 and already, over 250,000 mums have signed up on its platform, showing increasing trust from the public. The startup has major reach in Nigeria and Ghana, even mums outside these countries leverage the platform.

6. ArtSplit

How much do you love art and how well do you wish it accessible to you so you can easily invest?

Well, ArtSplit is a startup built to make credible art investment accessible, as it democratizes the arts industry, making it visible to the international market.

ArtSplit leverages technology to break down a piece of art worth $200,000 for instance, into a 100 thousand splits, taking entry points of that work to $2 per split and then people can afford to buy up to 10 or 50 splits easily with the app.

Users can only co-own these works, which are physical works, not an NFT, through the app.

7. Empress Linguistics Services

Empress Linguistics Services applies to every business, whatever sector they might be.

The startup is focused on making communications and business transactions seamless across borders. It eliminates the issue of language barrier, enabling you to gain customers from whatever part of the world, even non-English speaking countries.

In simple terms, it helps startups and established companies track their businesses with the use of languages.

8. Lazerpay

Lazerpay helps African businesses and creators get paid from any part of the world in cryptocurrencies, specifically stablecoins.

The fragmented currencies utilized across the world, causing inadequate business flows is its focus, bringing about an effective means of transactions to help businesses scale.

Its zeal is to improve the current financial landscape for underserved businesses. Lazerpay keeps creating new means to make commerce seamless for businesses leveraging crypto payments.

9. Chowdeck

Do you realize how nice it is to order a meal in the comfort of wherever you are from restaurants of your choice? 

Chowdeck doesn’t limit you to certain restaurants, it doesn’t matter where they are located. The logistics service delivers meals to you within minutes from a wide variety of restaurants ranging from African to Continental cuisines to satisfy your cravings.

It was among the startups in Y Combinator’s 2022 Summer Batch and trust me, it’s an app I use every day and can testify to its goodness.

10. Azapay

Azapay is a fintech startup which saves us the embarrassment of failed transactions without immediate reversal.

The startup’s uniqueness comes from its cardless-based payment solution, enabling individuals and businesses to overcome the fear of being trapped at any point.

You can send money to anyone without requesting their account details, just a phone number. Azapay includes all your banking needs; send money, receive money, buy airtime or data, pay bills and lots more.

Post-covid has seen the world rethink and re-create buying and selling in a different way. We have now embraced speed, few touch points, convenience, tech-enablers, smart dispatch and of-course competitive pricing.

Little wonder more businesses are moving online. It does not matter if they retain their offline presence or not, their online presence remains as veritable. The internet simply opens a wider market and brings you closer to your target market. In Africa alone, this trend has birthed a massive 387M online buyers combing the internet for businesses to patronize. On a scale of 1 to 10, 6 times, end-to-end success is recorded.

These huge numbers of buyers are serviced by few vendors who are mostly owners of small businesses with online store-fronts on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms, staff strength is under 10, may not have an official address, maybe a home address. Some other vendors are a bit more established, have more than 10 staff, have an office and the business is likely registered with the authorities.

They also have a website or an ecommerce platform where products are listed and a checkout option is available but may be possible. These vendors on a daily basis put in a lot of work to sell their brands, products and services online despite all the limitations. At whatever stage they are, the whole idea is to convert shoppers to paying customers.  As easy as this may sound, the banes are there, staring and taunting their efforts daily.

Top challenges these businesses face range from just being able to attract the perfect customers to offering great customer experiences, retention, price competition, finding the right tech partners, raising funds, trust issues, logistics and the list goes on.  While many online businesses have hacked some temporal disentanglement for these issues, one major challenge that they all need to solve is that of logistics and fulfillment.

This is a pivotal aspect of their operations because it is the “moment of truth” of the entire effort. The “when” and “how” the customers receive the ordered items is a determinant of the survival of the business. It is the actual fulfillment of the order. Most vendors have had to bother so much on logistics that efforts at actually growing sales have dwindled. Vendors helplessly rely on roadside riders and transport workers who operate without any structure. Items are given to them with extra summoned courage that they will be delivered to the owners.

Criteria for timely delivery may also be how expensive the move is. There have been tales of how vendors have had to pay so much at the expense of their little margins, how riders have lost items in transit, how riders have stopped picking up calls, how riders have tampered with packages and so many other brand-damaging mishaps. Vendors may succeed at managing fulfillment for one order but mostly fail on a day with multiple orders.

It gets even worse when payments are not systemic. The challenges vendors face are inexhaustive. Consequently, their businesses start to plunge as the trust barrier continues to widen from inefficiency and trust issues.

E-commerce players are encouraged to play in a field where specialists handle the different roles. Instead of losing focus concentrating on logistics, vendors are best with partners who offer fulfillment services. Warehousing, picking, packing and last mile deliveries.

Some of these fulfillment operators even have insurance for goods in transit. For a fee, vendors can instantly achieve efficiency, better payment collection and reconciliation, gain customer trust, retention and increased sales as efforts will get channeled to making sales.

A fulfillment partner will bring ease, freedom, accountability, visibility and business growth to the vendor.

These days, some fulfillment operators have now gone a step further into financial partnerships with vendors.

Apart from the customers,  fulfillment partners are a must-have for e-commerce businesses as they complement all the efforts put into customer acquisition and retention already in place.

Daniel Edeimu is the General Manager, Sendy Nigeria

This comes barely three months after the company laid off 10% of its staff due to the “current realities impacting tech companies globally.”

Sendy Supply was initially built to make it possible for retailers to purchase affordable stocks directly from manufacturers and distributors. The focus will now be shifted to Sendy Fulfillment, enabling online businesses to grow and offering retailers financing, end-to-end storage, packaging and delivery.

According to Mesh Alloys, CEO and Co-founder of the company, the new development is part of a wider strategic focus to “consolidate efforts around solutions that impact more customers and speak to the current and immediate market challenges.”

The company also enables the easy movement of small packages, medium-sized goods or large cargo, under the product Sendy Transport. All products will scale the startup’s goal to bolster the growth of businesses.

Ever since the last layoff in July, working effortlessly to ensure continuous acceleration despite the layoff and the tech downturn that has made some processes difficult, has been the company’s priority.

Its path forward is to aggressively develop its core business, Sendy Fulfillment, by exacerbating customer value. It believes that this consolidated service offers a massive opportunity in solving challenges that businesses, large and small, face with warehousing, packaging and last-mile delivery.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), company owners, and entrepreneurs will get the knowledge and abilities essential to position their businesses for growth through the utilization of Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger, through the Meta Boost training program.

The training will provide relevant information and tools to support SMEs and upskill business owners to use data, business insights, and digital tools for growth.

“Social media has evolved to be a critical enabler supporting the growth of many businesses. It has opened up numerous opportunities in trade.

We, therefore, believe that this partnership with Meta through the IG Hub will provide a platform for businesses to leverage the power of digital platforms for growth.

This also speaks to our continued efforts to empower more businesses using our solutions,” said Mesh Alloys, Founder and CEO, Sendy

SMEs will be trained on how to amplify their online presence, target their social media audience, and Instagram commerce solutions, write engaging ads, create virtual stores with shops on Facebook and Instagram, and much more.

” In 2022 Innovation Growth Hub (IGHub) is working with META formerly Facebook to train 8000 Small Business owners in Nigeria, and this IGHub is working with organizations and clusters to reach small businesses and Sendy has shown great interest in their customers and SMEs within their network and is partnering with IGHub to reach Business owners with MetaBoost Training.” Daniel Chinagozi – IGHub CEO

Since its inception, the Meta Boost training has helped thousands of small and medium-sized businesses across Africa, to learn how they can use digital tools to achieve their business objectives.

My name is Caleb Effiong and I am from Akwa Ibom state but then I grew up in Calabar where I had my secondary school education at the University of Calabar International School, UCISS.

My fond memories of growing up in Calabar will be playing football in the streets with my friends and playing with table top counters soccer game. By the time I was ready for university, I began to come to Lagos.

This is because I attended Covenant University, Ota where I studied Banking and Finance. During this time, my life revolved around Ota – Lagos – Calabar.

I have always been very passionate about gadgets, as I can spend hours looking at products, their functions and what works. I have also been very fortunate to have used all sorts of devices over the years – ipods, headsets, macbooks. To say that I love gadgets would be an understatement. I am living my passion by selling gadgets.

Why this line of business

One great motivation for me coming into the space was the opportunity to do some good by solving a serious problem – mosquitoes. Being able to provide gadgets and tools that can reduce malaria was kind of like my contribution to society. I am currently researching on repellants that can also work well in reducing mosquitoes. I love audio and sound.

My unique selling point has always been to sell products that are durable and affordable. My thesis is very simple – many Nigerians can’t afford top of the shelf music accessories – air buds, so why don’t I provide them with alternatives that are cost friendly, durable and work very well? I first test these products out with family and friends, once there is a generally acceptability in use and performance, I scale up and push the products out there to many people. To make people happy, you have got to give them value for money.

How did you start?

I am so proud of what the business has done and very much excited about how the partnership with Sendy has panned out. The business is very young. I made my first purchase in September 2021 and the goods arrived around the end of March this year.

And so, I started selling actively in March and to God’s glory, I have done about 8 figures in the space of 4 months. The numbers look good and we continue to gain traction. The story of how I started out is actually very funny.

I used to sell houses with my friends and this was a very hard and slow business. But then after I got my first deal, I took about N200,000 from it to start off. However, there was a big challenge as I needed to pay around N300,000 for clearing the goods upon arrival. Sourcing for money is a challenge that comes with the territory when you are starting out.

Thankfully, because I have a good track record of being honest and transparent with my friends – Jide, Emmanuel and Eniola, bailed me out and gave me the money to complete payment for the initial stock of goods. I have since paid them all back for this initial seed funding that helped to give birth to Just Gadgets.

Challenges faced when starting out

One challenge I know a lot of entrepreneurs’ face is around what will my family say or think? After spending 4 years in university, you now want to be an online seller?

My family has always known that I have a strong business acumen and my dad also being an ICAN Fellow, this gave me a soft landing – they accepted me and prayed for me and gave me lots of support to grow.

Typically, when you are starting out in my kind of business, you’ll need a store.  And when you have a store, there are associated costs – rent, generator, hiring a store assistant to attend to customers when you’re around. Which is why I have been very relieved ever since I found out about Sendy Fulfillment. I make bold to say that Sendy is the reason I am successful today.

They helped me to warehouse my goods, package them and the communication is seamless. We have grown in multiples off the back of Sendy’s sterling ability to pick, pack and ship my products efficiently and on time and the most interesting part is that we have our engagements on their app.

Growing the business

Three things have enabled the growth of my business would be Sendy, my hard work and my love for research.

Hard work is very important. I am constantly researching about product improvements and new products that can add value to people’s lives. I also take customer feedback very seriously as I used them as a mechanism for paying attention to trends and patterns.

Since I do most of my business on Twitter, I have seen growth in my impressions and followers’ count which started at about 1,000 but now we have done about 5X that number. Because of the level of trust and transparency I have demonstrated, I have many returning customers.

My friends are also a good sounding board for me – I tell them that if they see any viral product they like, they should share with me so that I can check it out.

Developing strategic partnerships is a key growth lever in business and for me, my business relationship with Sendy has helped my business grow. More people know me now because I have increased my delivery volumes from 100 to about 300 and this is directly attributable to Sendy.

The more people you attend to, the more people know you, and when you deliver a good product with good customer service that Sendy provides, the positive word of mouth also gives your business the boost it needs to grow.

Improving the Digital Economy

There is need to increase investments in digital infrastructure. Government and the big players must strive for this. As an online business, I use data a lot because I need to be online every time. Imagine the net gains of making data more affordable, clearly a lot more people will be come on board and better their lives using the internet.

Secondly, we need to create more tech solutions. I mean, imagine we created or had more platforms like Sendy Fulfillment to solve the infrastructural challenges around order fulfillment, the ecosystem is better off and a lot more value can be created.

If we are going to move to the next level and compete globally, government must look into these things because of the huge job creation and economic development that can happen. 

On financing, which is another growth enabler, we need to take a cue from the Asian economies and serve the bottom of the pyramid. But then, we also need to deal with the trust deficit. I have conversations with managers of Micro Finance Banks and they have experiences where they have supported a business with capital and the business owner uses the money to get a car, or to organize a burial or even marriage instead of using it to grow the business. So legit business owners like me have to go through a lot of hoops to access financing. 

A Word for Entrepreneurs

I won’t say it’s easy to start or run a business. But then, if you have people that trust you with money, then hard work is a critical success factor. What’s your passion? What do you like? There is a truism that when you bring 10 successful entrepreneurs together, they’ll almost have the same answers around how passion has brought them so far. Stay where the action is – for me that’s online. Also, be honest in your dealings.

We need to rid ourselves of wanting to cheat the next guy or doing dodgy things. If a customer has a genuine complain about any product, I am always ready to provide a replacement. I put in the work and Sendy helps me curate a fine customer experience – prompt delivery, safe storage and fine packaging.

Building authentic customer relationships is also key. You must be able to solve crisis and resolve problems by keeping a calm head. And lastly, self-belief is important.

The sector has proven to be a significant contributor to economic development across the continent.

Globally SMEs represent about 90% of businesses and account for more than 50% of employment opportunities. In Africa they contribute to nearly 80 percent of jobs across the continent.

The effect of this has now seen deliberate efforts by various governments to prioritize and offer special support to SMEs through budgetary allocation, favourable policy formulation and many other capacity development initiatives.

Other players in the private sector such as banks, technology and financial services companies have also been working with SMEs to support their growth in many different ways.

Google recently partnered with Sendy through a program that will see them work to empower Small and Medium Businesses.

The program is offering SMEs in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa expertise in business strategy and development, digital marketing and financial planning. The businesses are also getting trained on how to identify new markets and access funding opportunities.

There is a growing effort by many stakeholders in the SME sector to scale the capacity of SMEs to make them productive and profitable.

Technology is the biggest enabler in this digital age. Many businesses are digitizing their operations to reap the benefits and efficiency of digitization. The digital economy has presented many opportunities for SMEs to scale.

A number of tech solutions are also being developed to address barriers that are hindering effective trade for SMEs. Challenges such as access to markets, reliable logistics and inadequate capital are now being addressed.

Studies have shown that the cost of poor trade facilitation and logistics has numerous effects on businesses (market access, growth, and sales) and consumers (price, choice, and delivery time). The effect on market access for SMEs is lost sales and revenues and limited growth, and consumers do not benefit from lower prices and greater choice.

However, social sellers who trade on social media platforms now have a lifeline through tech enablers like Sendy.

Sendy is creating solutions to enable businesses to trade effectively across the continent. Through their fulfillment platform they are offering storage and delivery services to online sellers thereby relieving them of the high costs associated with logistics and warehousing.

They are also working with merchants in the retail space to enable them purchase stock at competitive prices from various suppliers and manufacturers. This is connecting merchants and suppliers in real time using technology. Their service also provides financing to enable merchants restock and continue doing business.

The company is today operating in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.

In Africa, there are many other tech startups trying to offer a lifeline to businesses and SMEs in general. Technology has become a significant driver of trade in the continent. It has simplified a lot of complexities that have for the longest time crippled the sector. It is steadily defining the capacity of businesses to grow.

It is obvious the benefits that players like Sendy have brought, solving logistics and warehousing, offering financing and creating a marketplace for businesses. Online sellers can now do business with ease because of such solutions, merchants can succeed in the retail sector.

The potential is huge and the opportunities are many. SMEs should continue tapping the benefits of technology to digitize and grow the capacity of SMEs.

The bootcamp program, dubbed Google Hustle Academy, seeks to provide MSMEs across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa with expert training on business strategy & development, digital marketing, and financial planning.

The participants will also have access to key industry leaders and master classes on business to help create opportunities, boost business growth and job creation across the region.

Through the program, Sendy will provide fulfillment and logistics support for the participating businesses. It will also offer one-on-one mentorship so as to enable the participants learn, and build capacity to operate successful businesses.

“The Google Hustle Academy is a noble idea that clearly speaks to our mission and aligns to our purpose. We recognize the significant role played by small and medium businesses in the economy. We are also aware of the vast challenges they face. We want to empower them by enabling them to trade efficiently and effectively. Through this partnership with Google, we hope to unlock their potential so that they can learn and seize existing opportunities to build sustainable businesses,” said Mesh Alloys, Founder and CEO, Sendy.

The program also seeks to empower MSMEs to learn how to identify new markets, access funding opportunities and pitch for success.

“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Sendy to give much-needed assistance to MSMEs. Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are the backbone of the global economy, accounting for the majority of businesses in almost every region. They employ over 50 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa and contribute to the region’s GDP. Through the Hustle Academy we will provide them with training to assist them in packaging their businesses and obtaining the necessary funds to take them to the next level” said Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Head of Brand and Reputation, Google SSA.

The free weeklong online bootcamp targets to support 5000 MSMEs by helping them scale and grow through positioning for investment, increasing revenue and building sustainable business for the future.

Sendy is leveraging its supply-chain expertise to help over 5000 mini-marts across Nairobi revive operations through a third-party credit financing programme and fulfilment operations.

The small supermarkets in Nairobi residential areas, which are not part of a large retail chain and keep moderate stock levels, will receive credit financing ranging from Ksh 50,000 to Ksh 2 million to expand their stock, boost their profitability, and provide affordable products to households.

According to a Sendy survey, 70 percent of the FMCG market is concentrated on small scale businesses targeting consumers who prefer day-to-day purchases, and the majority of small merchants are unable to stock up constantly. According to the survey, almost 5000 minimarts in Nairobi are unable to adequately stock their shelves.

Don Okoth, general manager at Sendy said: “We have made this capital accessible to help mini-marts optimise their profitability and reduce losses caused by stock-outs, product unavailability and price inconsistency. The impact of mini-marts being able to source quality goods at affordable prices with assured delivery is felt by many households.” 

Sendy will also leverage its logistics expertise to offer next day delivery from instant order fulfilment.

“Most mini-mart owners have to deal with the issue of logistics from suppliers which takes their focus away from running their businesses. With our partnership, they can instantly order goods from our Sendy Supply mobile App and get next-day shipment of the purchased stock for free,” added Okoth.

The deal offers customers access to a wider variety of products from different suppliers at competitive pricing from Sendy’s Supply platform, including Bidco Africa, Chandaria Industries Ltd, Alpha Grain Millers, Excel Chemicals Ltd, Highlands Drinks Ltd, KimFay EA Ltd, Mombasa Maize Millers Ltd, Pwani Oil and Premier Food Industries Ltd.

With the expansion of the retail economy, mini-marts’ impact at the bottom of the pyramid has grown significantly. According to market research firm Nielsen, kiosks and groceries accounted for 66.3 percent (Sh185.2 billion) of total FMCG spend in Kenya in the year ending March 2019, up 10.7 percent from the previous year’s same period, explaining the expansion of neighbourhood mini-marts.