Carried by a young and multicultural team, Bifasor is a startup seeking to digitize the logistics market in Africa and transform the current landscape.

The company offers a matchmaking platform that puts shippers, carriers, freight forwarders, freight agents, warehouse operators, mechanics, spare parts dealers and other interested parties operating in Africa into direct contact with one another.

The service provides them with a unique dashboard to manage their interactions so that they can offer, find, stock and deliver shipments seamlessly, while establishing long-lasting business relationships. Bifasor is also designed to be a marketplace for the sale of goods such as tyres, automotive spare parts and other accessories, as well as accommodating vendors of services such as mechanical repairs, insurance, legal and technical consultants, essential to the proper and timely functioning of transportation and logistics supply chains.

The company hopes to address the overall lack of transparency in the supply chain and the general lack of visibility of smaller actors in the industry – both of which are at the roots of a fragmented structure – aggravated by a lack of access to information. The latter is a major obstacle to the proper functioning of the business as it affects sales and results in the loss of potential clients.

The co­founders believe that the internet platform they have developed can help transform the current landscape and provide what home­grown players in the sector have been sadly lacking. Bifasor facilitates the integration and flow of logistics activities by reinforcing cooperation among all the actors and ancillary parties to the supply chain.

This system aims to replace the traditional mode for passing information, which is by word of mouth. It will make it easy for interested parties to find providers that meet their specific criteria or to optimize their business by finding new customers.

Such abilities may impact the quality of service (rendering it faster and cheaper) and improve productivity in the sector. Moreover, given that nearly 90% of small and micro enterprises in the logistics sector in Africa have neither a website nor a marketing department to promote themselves, their presence on the platform will allow them to gain visibility among various actors along the supply chain and broadcast their products and services.

The difficulty of finding spare parts in Africa, in light of the advanced age of many vehicles and the lack of brand dealers, has resulted in carriers being unable to renew or maintain their fleet/s. This issue necessitates the establishment of an online marketplace that enables transporters to shop easily for the products they need.

Accessibility of the platform (web and mobile) is part of a trend where trade in Africa has become increasingly interlinked to the rise of digital services. There is an explosion in the use of mobile phones available at very low cost, and a democratization of Internet access through mobile internet (3G, 4G), as well as the arrival of fiber optics across all countries on the continent.