Sote is a Kenyan supply-chain company that offers tech-enabled customs clearing and forwarding services through a real-time dashboard for visibility into shipping progress. The platform targets manufacturers, retailers, and distributors and is designed to save time and money. Founded in 2018 and launched in 2020, Sote is a licensed customs business and recently obtained Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status. The company experienced a 370% increase in customer base and a 200% increase in income in the prior year. Sote is expanding into fintech, aiming to add a full-service working-capital loan solution for Africa’s end-to-end supply chain. To support that push it appointed Samora Kariuki as director of fintech and John Bish as CFO and M&A lead. Sote offers a software service that digitizes customs clearing and forwarding, providing a central dashboard and workflow tools to manage freight clearing, shipment tracking, payment history, and estimated arrival times. The company charges approximately $1,000 per container handled; MaC Venture Capital projects that if Sote captures a fraction of container volume it could reach $100 million in annualized revenue within ten years. Sote operates out of Nairobi and San Francisco and was founded by Felix Orwa, Meka Este-McDonald, and Scott Yacko; Orwa and Este-McDonald have worked on the business for about three years. The product is intended to replace manual, fragmented processes (the company says moving a single container can require roughly 60 back-and-forth messages). Sote plans to expand into warehousing services and booking truck transportation as part of vertical integration. MaC Venture Capital estimates a roughly $20 billion total addressable market and positions Sote alongside land-logistics players such as Kobo Networks and Lori Systems.

Total raised

$7M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Jan 2022