NIGERIA – Digital freight forwarding company OnePort 365 has secured US$5 million in seed funding to drive the end-to-end digitization of freight management in Africa.

The seed funding round was led by Mobility 54 with participation from SBI Investment, Flexport, ODX, a Singaporean syndicate fund, and other strategic angel investors.

The platform has active operations in Nigeria and Ghana and has ongoing explorations in other African markets

OnePort 365 is building an operating system for cross-border trade in Africa, helping traders to manage their freight processes through a digital platform that enables seamless freight forwarding and other value-added services.

With this new funding, OnePort 365 is positioned to further improve efficiency and lower overheads in cross-border trading across the continent, as well as deliver a wide range of new services that will increase profitability across the board.

Africa contributes an increasingly significant amount to global maritime trade, with a reported 12 percent of the 811 million containers handled at ports worldwide.

Africa’s clearing and forwarding market are also growing, with the latest figures suggesting a market size of US$4.2 billion and a projected 12.5 percent growth with new services emerging.

Despite the growth, the sector faces challenges including congestion at ports, difficulty with accessing effective service providers, and complex payment systems that have resulted in increased costs, inefficiencies, and many missed opportunities for traders.

With OnePort 365, traders no longer have to wait up to two weeks to compare the best rates from different service providers.

With pre-negotiated rates, they can explore competitive offers on the platform and book freights in 30 seconds or less.

Traders can also connect with shipping and inland transportation vendors and manage the entire process (from booking to payment) on one single platform.

The platform provides GPS-enabled, real-time visibility of shipments allowing traders to view all documents relating to the shipment, eliminating the laborious process of physically retrieving these documents from offices or shipping line centers.

OnePort 365 also leverages advancements in payment technology and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to power instant payments.

The platform covers air freight, ocean freight, inland haulage (trucking, barge, and rail), as well as Pay-As-You-Go warehousing, marine insurance, customs brokerage, and more.

Since its inception in 201, it has increased the number of twenty-foot equivalent unit containers (TEUs) by 140 percent and grown its revenue by more than 420 percent.

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