Pivoted Ghanaian startup Swoove is assisting SMEs to access logistics services

A startup founded by university friends that pivoted away from its initial model to find product-market fit in the logistics space, to the point where it was accepted into prestigious accelerator programs. Swoove from Ghana has an interesting backstory.

Swoove connects businesses with network logistics services to enable them to reach customers across the continent, with the startup aiming to develop technology that standardizes and democratizes logistics services for all businesses at the lowest possible cost.

The team began working together immediately after graduating from university in 2018, and has been bootstrapping and freelancing to keep the business afloat. Curiashops, the company’s first product, was a website-builder platform that aimed to help any small business set up a free website in five minutes using only a phone number.

“After a year of working on it, we realized that delivery was a major issue for our customers – it was expensive and difficult to access, making the platform incredibly difficult to grow.” “We realized that, just as e-commerce sites require payments, the e-commerce sector also requires logistics – a seamless ease of access to affordable delivery, which was missing from the market,” said Kwaku Tabiri, CEO of Swoove.

“Additionally, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the e-commerce space became increasingly competitive, fueling the need for logistics.” As more people switched to online shopping, we saw an opportunity. Nobody was addressing the delivery issue.”

As a result, Swoove was born.

“In Africa, the cost of delivery ranges from 35% to 55% of the cost of the product, due to factors such as poor infrastructure, limited delivery options, and poor supply chain analytics.” In Ghana, available third-party delivery services are decentralized, resulting in inefficiency due to a lack of knowledge and technology,” Tabiri explained. “This can be prohibitive when trying to sell online, resulting in lost sales.” This is where we can help.”

Swoove’s platform connects delivery companies with e-commerce businesses via web, app USSD, and API. Customers can schedule deliveries ahead of time and pay up to 50% less for them, according to Tabiri, giving it a competitive advantage in the market.

“Our technology also enables the delivery companies to be efficient and do more deliveries on the go, while businesses get more affordable deliveries. Everyone wins,” said Tabiri.

Swoove has served over 1,500 small businesses and delivered over 15,000 packages so far. This level of traction has made it a favorite among accelerators, if not yet equity investors. It participated in the MEST Express early-stage accelerator, finishing first and receiving a US$15,000 grant, and then received an additional US$120,000 in grant capital from Catalyst Fund. With the startup currently only operating in Accra, this funding will be used to expand to 15 other Ghanaian regions by the first quarter of next year.

“We currently run a commission model and take a percentage of every delivery we make. We’ve done about US$30,000 in revenue since we began,” Tabiri said.