The share of exports from Africa to the world was between 80% and 90% between 2000 and 2017. This has created a growing demand for African goods to become less dependent on exports and to focus on regional trade. This not only reduces dependence on exports, but also creates new markets for value-added products for exchange. But Africa is one of the slowest and most expensive ports in the world. Reports say that sometimes it is logical that African companies are cheaper and faster to exchange goods with distant foreign partners than in the African intercontinental trade corridor. This is a big problem and Ghana-based company Jet Stream, alone proposed to change it to $3 million seed round.
Local and international investors took part in the round. These include Alithya IDF, Golden Palm Investments, 4DX Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Asia Pacific Land, Briar Labs and MSA Capital. The startup was found in 2018 from other Solomon Targbars in Michigan. African founders launched Jetstream to enable African companies to view and control their own border supply chains. Add private sector suppliers to African ports and borders and bring them online.
Initially, the founders’ views revolved around the problem of disruption and the lack of coordination in African ports; an experience was very familiar with Turgbar. He worked for Damco, a freight forwarding subsidiary in Mersk, for eight years. There he saw heavy deposits at container terminals for weeks without extending the supply chain. The delays were due to errors of customs, importers and exporters and incorrect paperwork to pay the logistics bills of those who did not have working capital at the right time and due to poor coordination on the ground. For exports, cargo volume was sometimes too small for profitable shipments through marine freight.
Meanwhile, Eddie taught business at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), a Pan-African incubator and entrepreneur training program. Prior to MEST, he worked for Ben & Company, a Stanford law graduate management consulting firm. He immediately thought that the challenges he had noticed in Damco with Torgbar Adi were worth addressing.
