Kenyan startup Taz Technologies, which is behind patented addressing technology MPost, has closed a US$1.9 million Series A funding round to finance its expansion and further development of its proprietary platform.
Founded in 2015 by Abdulaziz Omar and Twahir Mohamed, MPost is a platform that enables the conversion of mobile numbers into official virtual addresses, which allows notifications to be sent to clients whenever they get mail through their postal addresses.
Taz, the startup behind the platform, raised an undisclosed round of pre-Series A funding from Cape Town-based VC firm HAVAÍC, and has now concluded its Series A round. The US$1.9 million round attracted both existing and new investors from South Africa, Australia, Japan, the United States (US), Canada and Nigeria, with investors including blue-chip institutions, VC funds, and high-net-worth individuals.
The investment will be used to fund Taz’s expansion and for further investment in its proprietary technology platform and operations. Taz will continue with its strategy of expanding into the East African region, and later Sub-Saharan Africa.
“With the support of our investors, we are accelerating the development of our product functionalities and creating other value-added service offerings,” said Omar.
The MPost technology provides a convenient, reliable and affordable way of sending and receiving packages, as well as providing last mile connectivity, through post offices worldwide. Taz has partnered with the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) to provide virtual postal addresses, meaning MPost customers can now collect their parcels or letters at any of the 623 postal offices countrywide.
Meanwhile, last month mobile operator Safaricom and PCK launched the MPost partnership, which affords Safaricom’s 33 million customers the ability to register for an MPost address via a dedicated USSD code provided by the firm.
Taz was one of the 10 African tech startups selected into the Startupbootcamp AfriTech programme in 2018, and the accelerator’s co-founder and chief investment officer (CIO) Zachariah George is now a strategic advisor to the company.
“We are extremely pleased at the key commercial traction and corporate partnerships that MPost has achieved during and post the programme, and are delighted that this product-market fit has been validated by a strong consortium of global investors in their Series A round,” he said.
