Ghana’s Jetstream Secures $3m Seed Funding To Allow Seamless African Shipments

Ghana’s vertical broker Jetstream has secured a $3 million fund to allow African businesses to freight and port logistics easily and cheaply. Investors like Alitheia IDF, Golden Palm Investments, 4DX Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Asia Pacific Land, Breyer Labs, and MSA Capital.

Founded in 2018 by Miishe Addy and Solomon Torgbor, Jetstream is a technology-enabled logistics company that aims to give businesses in emerging markets more control over their global supply chains from instant pricing, to cargo tracking and customs regulation transparency. Jetstream makes the process visible.

Jetstream is working to bring many local freight providers in different African ports online for the first time.

“We are different from a more siloed freight management system because we are leveraging financing to integrate the customs brokers, freight forwarders, shipping lines, airlines, and container terminals all onto the Jetstream platform so that shipments can be managed and tracked every step of the way. We are bringing many of the local providers online for the first time.”

Jetstream’s business model is straightforward. It charges for the freight, clearance, and financial services offered. For freight, it charges a per-container or per-kilogram fee. For customs clearance, it charges a flat fee that varies depending on the tax category and location of the shipment. And for financing and insurance services, it charges a commission on the value of the goods being shipped.

According to reports, intra-African trade makes up a small amount of world trade. Only about 7% and 5% of world trade are being loaded and unloaded respectively in Africa, making up a very small volume of intra-continental trade. While this is the case for African trade, trade between Africa and the rest of the world has ballooned to over $800 billion. Jetstream’s vision is to make it easier for companies to conduct regional trade across the African continent.

Bringing cross-border trade corridors online will speed up the growth of commerce on the continent and ultimately lead to the growth of the African economy. Jetstream aims to be a major force in bringing Africa to this point of growth.

“We see a future where trade running on Jetstream’s digital rails has a powerful competitive edge on logistics. Jetstream is to cross-border logistics as Flutterwave is to fintech in Africa,” Miishe Addy said.