Gozem, a super app that provides a host of services, including transport, e-commerce and financial services in Francophone Africa, has raised $5 million in Series A financing.
The company received investment from a number of companies.
The $7 million raised in the previous seed rounds came from three different investors. Over $12 million has been raised by the multi-vertical application.
Gregory Costamagna, Raphael Dana and Emeka Ajene founded Gozem. The startup began operations in the country as a motorcycle ride-sharing service.
Gozem decided to expand its transport services to include taxi and tricycle services in multiple cities in Africa in order to replicate the model of Grab and Gojek in Southeast Asia.
The platform went vertical after the Pandemic hit. Merchants can list an inventory of products users want and get them delivered through its drivers.
The company launched a lease-to-own option for its drivers.
Costamagna said the three sectors work together to increase disposable income of drivers. Gozem has a premise that it creates a win-win situation whereby its drivers become the next middle-class population in Francophone Africa while its super app plans take effect.
He said that people who find a lot of interest working with them will then work hard and provide a lot of different services to our customer base.
We increase their disposable income by sending them more passengers, more delivery trips, and finding companies that want to use delivery services by adding more merchants on our platform. We reduce their cost of operation through asset financing because they don't have a formal alternative.
Up to 1,500 vehicles have been provided to drivers by Gozem. The funding will help Gozem increase the figure to over 200,000 before 2025.
Gozem is an image.
Gozem is present in 13 cities and has moved to two countries with over one million registered users, and the company is looking to provide digital banking and lending to its users.
It is a model other super app companies across Africa have adopted in the past, such as Nigeria's OPay and SafeBoda. Other players are looking to offer banking and payment services.
Gozem plans to use its existing network of marketplace users as agents in all the cities it operates in. Individual users can use the Gozem app to exchange cash for mobile money.
I think we have a great advantage. Costamagna said that our competitors are the telco, which offers mobile money services, and sometimes you have a digital wallet as well. We are trying to offer an integrated wallet solution that is included in a suite of different services. This is the key difference in the market.
Wave, the first unicorn in Francophone Africa, shed some light on the opportunities that exist in the market, but it was not the first time that Francophone Africa was left out of the tech and startup disruption sweeping across other African regions. They told me that it was the reason why Gozem was started in the first place.
Dana said that almost all of the money goes to four countries in Africa. The traction is a bit left on the side of Francophone Africa. This is where we have seen the big opportunities in French.
Having built companies in Singapore before Gozem, Dana and Costamagna brought Ajene on board, adding his on-the-ground African expertise to a team with vast knowledge of the Southeast Asian market.
In three years, Gozem has grown to 250 staff in four markets. The company will use the Series A financing to expand into more African countries. The company is looking to improve its asset financing model.
The second-tier African markets are where we operate. We believe in the model we are pursuing. It is a wide spot where there is less competition. We want to be embedded across the region over the next year, while we are operating in four countries.
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