Kobo360 lands $6-million equity investment from World Bank’s IFC

The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has announced a $6-million equity investment in Nigerian tech startup Kobo360.

The startup’s e-logistics platform helps connect the supply of trucks with the demand for transportation services by cargo owners in Nigeria.

Today’s announcement follows a $1.2-million seed round led by US venture capital firm Western Technology Investment that the startup announced in June, while earlier this year the startup was accepted into Y-Combinator’s 2018 Summer cohort, and received a $120 000 equity investment from the seed fund.

Nigeria logistics startup Kobo360 has landed a $6-million equity investment from the IFC

The IFC said in a statement today that the investment was led by the IFC with participation from others including Silicon Valley investors WTI, YCombinator and African institutional investors Cardinal Stone Partners, Chandaria Capital and TLcom.

Kobo360 CEO and founder Obi Ozor (pictured above, left) said in the same statement that the startup remains focused on “aggressively” reducing “logistics frictions” for large enterprises and SMEs, and connecting new markets, and in the process unlocking better wellbeing and opportunities across communities.

The IFC said the company currently has 5000 trucks empaneled on its platform, from over 600 small fleet owners, serving some of the largest enterprises in Nigeria.

In January Kobo360 told Techcrunch the startup is looking to add 20 000 trucks to its platform and expand to the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal and Togo.

Today’s transaction was announced by the IFC and Ozor on the eve of the opening of the IFC’s Next 100 African Startups Initiative.

The programme, launched in partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation and IFC, spotlights more than 100 promising African startups (through the The Next 100 African Startup Initiative) that will participate in the Africa 2018 Forum being held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt from tomorrow to Monday (10 December).

Over the past three years, IFC has invested over $1.5 billion in telecommunication, technology, and startup companies globally.

The IFC also invested in Egyptian healthtech startup Vezeeta. The announcement of the investment was made today.

Read more: Egyptian healthtech Vezeeta does it again with new equity raise from the IFC
Read more: IFC announces firms selected for The Next 100 African Startups Initiative
Read more: Nigerian logistics startup Kobo360 closes $1.2m seed round

Featured image: Kobo360 CEO and founder Obi Ozor pictured above, left (via Facebook)