Between 2000 and 2017, the share of Africa's exports to the rest was anywhere from 80% to 90%. There is a growing need for Africa to become less dependent on commodity imports and to focus more on regional commerce. This not only decreases export dependence but also creates new markets for value-added products to be traded.Africa has the most expensive and slowest ports in the world. According to reports, it can sometimes be logistically cheaper and quicker for African businesses trade goods with distant partners overseas than through Africa's intracontinental trade routes. Jetstream, a Ghanaian company that aims to solve this problem, just closed a seed round of $3 million.The round was attended by both local and international investors. These investors included Alitheia IDF and Golden Palm Investments as well as 4DX Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Asia Pacific Land.In 2018, Solomon Torgbor and Miishe Addy founded the startup. Jetstream was founded by Solomon Torgbor and Miishe Addy in 2018. It brings together logistics companies from the private sector at African ports and borders and makes them available online.The founders' initial insight revolved around fragmentation and lack of coordination in African ports. This was something Torgbor was very familiar with. For eight years, he had been working at Maersks' freight forwarding subsidiary Damco. He saw cargoes sitting at container terminals for weeks without any movement in the supply chain. These delays were caused by errors in paperwork and customs. Importers and exporters didn't have the working capital to pay their logistics bills on time. There was also poor coordination on ground. Export cargo volumes sometimes were too small to ship sea freight cost-effectively.Addy also taught business at Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, a Pan-African incubator that offers entrepreneur training programs. Prior to joining MEST, Addy was a Stanford law graduate who worked as a management consultant for Bain & Company.Torgbor and Addy spoke about Damco's challenges. Addy immediately agreed that they were worth facing. While he was speaking, I noticed a lightbulb go off. TechCrunch was told by the CEO that these are the exact types of problems technology solves. After trying many different solutions over a period of a year, we discovered that cargo aggregation was the most effective solution.Jetstream began operations in Ghana in March 2019, with a Less Than Container Load aggregation service. This service allowed agricultural exporters the ability to group their shipments in shared sea freight containers. Jetstream also added trade finance to customers who had difficulty filling large orders in November 2012.Jetstream is now white labeling its systems internally for managing shipments and financing customers.Because we leverage financing to integrate customs brokers, freight forwarders and airlines onto the Jetstream platform, we are different than a siloed freight management software. This allows shipments to be tracked and managed at every stage of their journey. Addy spoke of the many changes Jetstream had to make along its journey.Jetstreams' business model is simple. Jetstreams charges freight, clearing, and financial services. It charges freight at a per container or per kilogram fee. It charges a flat fee for customs clearance. This fee varies according to the tax category and the location of the shipment. It charges a commission based on the shipping value for financing or insurance services.Jetstream saw an increase in revenue from logistics services as a result of the pandemic. Its revenues grew by 512% between March 2020 and March 2021. This was due to inefficiencies and lack of coordination among providers. Addy believes the pandemic has intensified Jetstream's vision of bringing cross-border trade corridors online, and driven towards an inflection point for the speed and growth commerce on the continent.Jetstream's digital rails will be a strong competitive advantage in logistics trade. We see this future. She continued, Jetstream is to cross border logistics what Flutterwave in Africa is to fintech in Africa.According to reports, the African market for cross-border logistics services is estimated at $32 billion in annual revenue. The market is expected to grow by at least double over the next decade. Jetstream believes that Ghana is the best place to start, as it will allow them to maximize their value and grow with the continent's growth. This is a point that COO Torgbor, a Ghanaian native emphasizes. He stated that Ghana is a gateway to intracontinental and intercontinental commerce with other rapidly-growing emerging markets. At the moment, Ghana is Africa's continent-wide free trade area AfCFTA. This nation from West Africa sits in charge. Port Tema in Ghana, which is the largest container terminal in West Africa and Central Africa, is also located in Ghana. It plans to handle 1 million containers per year.Jetstream also counts Port Tema as an early adopter of its technology and a customer. Jetstreams has been able to generate seven-figure revenues and Addy claims that the startup is growing more than 100% each year.According to reports, Africa's women-led startups attract less than 15% from the total VC investments. This gap has been filled by many female-targeted funds, one of which participated in this round. Alitheia IDF is a VC firm that invests in gender-diverse startups. It is one of few venture capital firms in Africa that focuses on providing funding to women-led teams. Jetstreams funding is a rare win for both founders and investors, especially since the founders are located in Ghana, where there are few female tech CEOs.Addy told me that she is looking forward to seeing more African female-led teams well funded. Jetstream could be a catalyst for this trend. She expressed the hope that the growth of our business will encourage the investors to look again at the many women leaders who aren't receiving adequate funding.Jetstream has also operations in Nigeria, with agents in South Africa and China. Jetstream's 2028 strategy includes talent placement. The CEO stated that the company plans to be present at African borders and ports, which account for 80% of global trade.
