Swiftly now in BizSpark and FbStart after DEMO Africa and SpeedUP Africa

Freight forwarding is one of those sectors which need quite some experience before a startup ventures in. There have been a few startups in Ghana engaging freight forwarders to offer web services to them. A startup which has made such a bold step into the shipping sector is Swiftly Global, previously Swiftly Web. After their participation in DEMO Africa, the team is on to receive more recognition.

Swiftly (www.swiftly.global), a Ghanaian/Nigerian based online freight forwarding rate comparison platform for global deliveries has received support from Silicon Valley vanguards including Microsoft, Facebook and venture capital firm DraperDarkFlow.

After launching at Demo Africa Launchpad in 2016, the startup was approached by Microsoft(a 4-time DEMO Africa Sponsor) to participate in its Microsoft Bizspark program which provides free software, services, technical support, and access to the Azure cloud. In 2017, The Microsoft relationship also led to a partnership with the Microsoft Interns4Africa Program which provides human resource support to Swiftly for 6 months.

More recently, Swiftly has been selected by Facebook to participate in FbStart, a global program designed to help startups build and grow their business that include year-round technical support from Facebook, an exclusive community of global startups, free credits to tools and services from dozens of premier partners, and training on Facebook Developer Tools.

Edem Dotse, CEO of Swiftly, comments, “We are thrilled to have Swiftly garner the attention of some of the most incredible tech giants in the world who support our vision of disrupting the archaic shipping industry in Africa. Funds are critical to the growth and success of a startup but the access to industry intelligence, experience and network that we have received from Microsoft, Facebook and others is invaluable,”

Last year, we reported that Swiftly Web was one of 8 startups which had received funding offers from SpeedUPAfrica while participating in the program. This lead to the company attracting the attention of DraperDarkFlow, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm primarily backed by the legendary Tim Draper to secure a round of seed funding.

The team has also participated in international events like Logisym2017 and Cop22.
Currently, the team’s product is only available via web, mobile apps to be launched soon.

Originally published at gharage.