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TechCrunch crowns Lori Systems as the most promising startup
Lori Systems was crowned as Sub-Saharan Africa’s Most Promising Startup at TechCrunch Battlefield Africa 2017, held in Nairobi, Kenya on…
Lori Systems was crowned as Sub-Saharan Africa’s Most Promising Startup at TechCrunch Battlefield Africa 2017, held in Nairobi, Kenya on 11 October.
Other winners in the competition included AgroCenta, which was chosen as the winner of the social good category, Lori Systems won the productivity and utility category, whilst SynCommerce scooped the top prize in gaming and entertainment.
“We love to see startup ecosystems develop, and hope that Battlefield Africa will shine a light on the many promising, world-class young tech companies in the region. We look forward to meet Lori Systems again in San Francisco, where it will join the best and brightest entrepreneurs, investors, hackers, and tech fans in the world for the global Startup Battlefield,” Ned Desmond, COO at TechCrunch said.
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“We love to see startup ecosystems develop, and hope that Battlefield Africa will shine a light on the many promising, world-class young tech companies in the region. We look forward to meet Lori Systems again in San Francisco, where it will join the best and brightest entrepreneurs, investors, hackers, and tech fans in the world for the global Startup Battlefield,” Ned Desmond, COO, TechCrunch
Based in Nairobi, ‘Lori’ is a Swahili name for Truck. Lori Systems has built a logistics platform that is revolutionising the cargo-transport value chain in Africa – from the ground up.
The system is bundled up with an automated invoicing through the Lori proprietary system and software. The system also collects data that is packaged to provide management insights and enhanced control
The systems also have Optimized Truck Utilization settings which helps drive a quicker turnaround through proactive systems/data capture.
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“The relative cost of moving goods in East Africa is one of the highest in the world, leading to up to 75% of a product cost’s going to logistics compared to 6% in the US. Lori enables the logistics space to operate at an order of magnitude more efficiently than it does today,” said Sandler Josh, the founder of the startup, who is a native of South African graduate from a joint degree graduate program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School.
“The relative cost of moving goods in East Africa is one of the highest in the world, leading to up to 75% of a product cost’s going to logistics compared to 6% in the US. Lori enables the logistics space to operate at an order of magnitude more efficiently than it does today.” Sandler Josh, Founder – Lori Systems
He also added, “The potential for the lori platform is unspeakable. We have found extensive time and cost savings with the system and we look forward to supporting lori’s expansion across the continent.”
Higher efficiency through Lori has been demonstrated to drive costs down which, in turn is expected to create new jobs and stimulate overall economic development in a tangible way.
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TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Africa 2017, sponsored by Facebook, searched for Sub-Saharan Africa’s best innovators, makers and technical entrepreneurs. The event – the first ever TechCrunch startup competition in Africa – was streamed live on TechCrunch and Facebook.
TechCrunch is a leading technology destination, dedicated to profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news. Its live events, including Battlefield, debut revolutionary startups, introduce game-changing technologies and discuss what’s top of mind for the tech industry’s key innovators.
Fifteen African companies were shortlisted from 700 entries and competed to be chosen as Sub-Saharan Africa’s Most Promising Startup. The founders of Lori Systems won US$25,000 in cash plus an all-expense paid trip for two to compete in the Battlefield at TechCrunch’s flagship event, Disrupt San Francisco 2018.
Startup Battlefield has been bringing world-class founders into the spotlight since 2007, and 700 contestants has raised $7 billion in funding and rack up nearly 100 exits. Battlefield Alumni include Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, TripIt, Getaround and Cloudflare. The judges included TechCrunch editors as well as top VCs and entrepreneurs:Andreata Muforo, Tide Africa Fund, Leo Stiegeler, Ringier Africa, Helen Jennings, Naatal, Eghosa Omoigui, EchoVC, Wale Ayeni, IFC, Bosun Tijani, CEO at CcHub, Bob Collymore – CEO of Safaricom and Sacha Poignonnec – CEO of Jumia.