South Africa’s Orderin raises $4.7m in Pre-series B Funding Round

Orderin, a South African Delivery-as-a-Service (DaaS) business with 100pc proprietary technology, has announced it raised $4.7m in a pre-series B funding round.

The latest funding for the start-up comes as e-commerce is flourishing in the country and beyond. According to a recent report by World Wide Worx, South Africa’s online retail market has more than doubled in the two years defined by the Covid-19 pandemic. E-commerce grew by 66pc in 2020 with online sales reaching almost $2b and projected to top $2.6b in 2021.

Orderin provides delivery services for the likes of McDonalds and Pick n Pay, employs 120 people and has delivery opportunities for a further 2 000 people.

Orderin’s head of finance Vulnavia Gura spoke on the usefulness of the funding and the impact of digital technology transformation.

“Businesses often have to deal with costly and inefficient last mile delivery due to challenges such as unpredictable timelines, the need to make multiple stops with only a small number of parcels being dropped off at each destination, congested traffic and more.

“Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and data science can improve last mile delivery by finding the best routes to take to avoid traffic, the most efficient use of fuel, or even better predict demand and labour requirements.

“These technologies play a crucial role in enabling dynamic predictive models which permit our customers to circumvent these challenges at the speed needed for successful delivery. However, it is costly. The funding we raise allows us to scale our talent, tech and offering as we grow our customers and revenue,” says Gura.

Thembani Biyam, Orderin CEO, adds: “E-commerce has been growing steadily over the last few years but the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated this growth. Customer expectations have placed demand on businesses for easy, quick and sometimes even free delivery options.

“Driving the growth and development of infrastructure will improve last mile delivery and make it more accessible for businesses. This applies especially to SMMEs who can find it difficult to compete with larger enterprises on this point, but can also usher in a new future of e-commerce.”

The latest funding will enable Orderin scale up infrastructure, and enhance last-mile delivery, which continues to be a pain point for many businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs).