Appload
It would not be possible to talk about the origin of this idea without first talking about the career of Claire, the CEO and founder of Appload. Claire is French, trained as a transport engineer, with professional experience in major infrastructure projects in the Middle East and West Africa.
It was after a spell in Benin and Niger that Claire headed to the USA, to complete her master’s degree at Harvard and begin collaborating with the IFC (International Finance Corporation). In the meantime, she was invited by a friend from MIT to work in Mozambique as co-author of a book on the country’s logistics. After travelling across Mozambique from the Rovuma to the Maputo, and interviewing more than 50 companies, she realised that, despite the development of infrastructure, there were still several constraints limiting the potential of this sector. The cost of transporting goods from the south to the north of Mozambique can be double the cost of transport originating in China; there are frequent cases in which agricultural and health products deteriorate for lack of timely transport solutions; and the presence of intermediaries in this process can account for 40% of the transport cost. It was then that Claire realised that a book would merely portray the potential and shortcomings of what is a crucial market for the Southern African region, and would not solve the problem. And so Appload was born, an online platform that bridges logistics operators and clients seeking cargo transport. The platform works as follows:
• Clients register on the platform and submit a cargo transport request, filling in a form with the characteristics of the cargo;
• Carriers are notified and submit an offer specifying the price and the vehicles used, among other aspects;
• Clients select the best offer, pay, track the cargo to its destination and rate the services provided.
The platform benefits the client, in that it brings transparency and optimises procurement, reduces costs and allows better control over transport. For carriers, the advantages are essentially access to the market, receiving payments on time and maximising the profitability of their vehicles through return loads. The fact that all interaction takes place in real time makes transport more dynamic and adds value for both parties.
The start of operations was only possible because individual investors believed in the platform’s potential. Having managed to raise enough capital for the first year of operation was undoubtedly a very significant milestone. During that period, they built a young team made up of local talent, which enabled Appload to register more than 150 carriers across the country, representing a universe of around 3,000 lorries. What is more, they validated the solution by travelling more than 100,000 km to transport more than 5,000 tonnes for various clients, not only in the domestic market but also to South Africa and ESwatini (Swaziland).
They started at the beginning of the pandemic; it was difficult to face a market that is already characterised by a conservative culture, at a particularly trying time for companies that were forced to change their modus operandi drastically and reinvent their approach to the market. Despite this period of adversity, transport was one of the privileged areas, since several other sectors depend on it. Another of the great challenges they faced was managing the fundraising process while ensuring that operations grew at the same time, given the small size of the team.
At present, they intend to consolidate their position in the domestic market, ensuring that use of their app meets demand on the country’s main routes, particularly for the agriculture, health and construction sectors. In the short term, they aim to increase considerably the volume of business coming from cross-border transport, focusing on the following countries: South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia. They also want to gain robustness in their organisational structure, with a strong emphasis on the developer (ICT) team, since they have a series of new features scheduled that respond to market needs identified during the first year of operation. The medium- to long-term vision is to establish Appload in neighbouring markets, by opening offices in strategic SADC markets, with the ambition of becoming a major company in the region.
