Egyptian logistics startup Sprint has plans to expand to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other countries in the MENA region after signing up almost 500 merchant customers at home.
Founded by Mohamed Deif in 2019, the Cairo-based Sprint offers last mile delivery solutions to e-commerce merchants, with a focus on micro-merchants with monthly volumes as low as 30 orders a month.
The startup has operations hubs all over Egypt, and its delivery network covers 24 governorates.
“We’re focusing on improving the ecommerce and logistics ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa by providing a technology-enabled platform that helps e-commerce merchants enjoy high-value logistics services and solutions regardless of their shipping volume,” Deif told Disrupt Africa.
Customers have access to a web portal where they can upload all their shipments, track shipment status, view inventory stored at Sprint warehouses, and see a complete overview of their financials.
“If our customers have a website, they can integrate with our system to have an automated process of booking and tracking orders and inventory,” Deif said.
Once an order is received, it is automatically assigned to a “sprinter” available in the area, who collects the shipment, gets back to the branch, and then sends it to the startup’s main sorting centre to be dispatched to the final destination branch responsible for delivery.
“With the rising demand for reliable last mile delivery solutions, we’ve spotted the desperate needs of SMEs and micro merchants for reliable and convenient technology enabled logistics solutions,” said Deif.
“We offer our clients all the technology needed to seamlessly manage their core business, along with a great bunch of services such as door-to-door delivery, warehousing and fulfillment and pick-up stations, all of which are technology-enabled with complete visibility to our customers to be able to track all their shipments and inventory instantly.”
Sprint, whose technology can be easily integrated with major e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce, currently serves 460 active customers, ranging between micro-merchants with one or twp daily orders up to mega accounts with 900-1,200 shipments per day.
“The uptake has definitely exceeded our expectations with an unexpected growth rate month over month,” Deif said.
The company is for now operating in the Egyptian market, with “ambitious plans” to expand to the GCC and other MENA countries in the near future. Sprint raised a six-figure US dollar pre-seed funding round from an angel investor in December of last year, and will take on more capital as it looks to expand from product perspective as well as a geographic one.
“We have very innovative ideas for optimising our delivery process using AI and data science, along with a fresh concept that will disrupt the traditional last mile delivery concept,” said Deif.
