Top 10 Supply Chain IT Companies in Africa in 2025

In Summary:

• The article highlights a continent-wide shift, where homegrown tech firms are building digital infrastructure to solve entrenched supply chain challenges.
• The companies are evaluated on concrete 2024/2025 data including scale, technological innovation, and market influence.
• These leading companies are portrayed as critical drivers of a new, more efficient, and transparent economic era for Africa. Their work is creating more resilient, formalized, and inclusive value chains that power commerce and improve livelihoods.

Deep Dive!!

Thursday, 13 November 2025 – the The African supply chain is undergoing a profound transformation, moving from a landscape historically defined by fragmentation, informality, and logistical bottlenecks to one increasingly characterized by digital integration, data-driven transparency, and remarkable innovation. At the heart of this revolution are homegrown technology companies that are building the digital infrastructure necessary to power the continent's commerce, from sprawling agricultural networks to hyper-dense urban last-mile delivery. These firms are not merely adding technological layers onto existing processes; they are fundamentally re-engineering the flow of goods, capital, and information, thereby unlocking economic potential, enhancing operational resilience, and creating more inclusive value chains for millions of small businesses and consumers.

This analysis provides a definitive ranking of the top 10 supply chain IT companies leading this charge across Africa in 2025. The evaluation is based on a rigorous assessment of verified data and key performance indicators, including commercial scale, technological distinctiveness, proven market impact, and strategic growth trajectories over the 2024-25 period. The list reflects a dynamic and competitive ecosystem, featuring everything from blockchain-enabled track-and-trace platforms safeguarding public health to drone logistics networks achieving unprecedented reach and B2B marketplaces that are digitally formalizing the continent's vast informal retail sector.

Ultimately, this ranking offers more than a simple list; it provides a snapshot of a critical moment in Africa's economic development. These companies represent the vanguard of a new era, where cutting-edge technology is deployed to solve foundational challenges. Their collective progress signals a future where African supply chains are not only more efficient but also more transparent, reliable, and equitable, serving as a powerful engine for sustainable growth and improved livelihoods across the continent.

10. Gokada

Gokada’s trajectory is a compelling case study in African tech resilience and strategic pivoting. Initially a dominant force in Nigeria's bike-hailing scene, the company faced an existential threat in 2020 with restrictive state-level bans on commercial motorcycles. This regulatory shock forced a complete operational overhaul, shifting its core business from passenger transit to last-mile logistics and package delivery. By leveraging its existing fleet management technology and deep knowledge of urban navigation in congested cities like Lagos, Gokada repositioned itself as a critical partner for e-commerce and quick-commerce (q-commerce) platforms, offering rapid delivery times that traditional vehicles cannot match in dense traffic.

However, this strategic pivot was fraught with significant financial challenges. In 2024, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States, a move detailed in court documents that listed liabilities between $10 million and $50 million. This filing was part of a broader restructuring strategy aimed at shedding debt and renegotiating obligations with creditors, which introduced a period of intense financial uncertainty. Despite this, the company's operational brand and technological platform retained value, allowing it to maintain a presence in the 2024/2025 Nigerian market, albeit on a more cautious and streamlined scale.

Looking forward, Gokada’s relevance hinges on the irreplaceable role of motorcycle logistics in Africa's megacities. Its platform continues to serve a vital niche in the urban supply chain, where speed and the ability to navigate gridlocked streets are paramount for time-sensitive deliveries. While its financial future remains a subject of close scrutiny, its survival underscores a fundamental market truth: in specific African urban contexts, the agility of two-wheeled logistics, enabled by a capable IT platform, remains a crucial, if volatile, component of the last-mile ecosystem.

9. MAX (Metro Africa Xpress)

MAX has successfully executed a strategic evolution from its initial focus on empowering individual ride-hailing drivers to becoming a comprehensive enabler of urban logistics. The heart of this transformation is MAX Drive, a B2B division that offers a full-stack solution combining vehicle financing, maintenance, insurance, and a sophisticated technology platform for route optimization and delivery management. By 2025, the company had scaled its network to over 10,000 certified driver-partners, creating a massive, flexible, and reliable distribution force for businesses ranging from large FMCG corporations to SMEs and courier services.

A key pillar of MAX's strategy and a significant differentiator in the market is its commitment to electric vehicles (EVs). In 2024-25, the company accelerated its EV pilot programs, deploying a fleet of electric motorcycles and vans in partnership with major Japanese automotive manufacturers. This initiative is not merely a sustainability play; it is a core economic strategy aimed at reducing the total cost of ownership for drivers by slashing fuel expenses, which constitute the largest operational cost in traditional logistics. This forward-thinking approach positions MAX as a leader in the inevitable transition to cleaner and more cost-effective urban transport across the continent.

The company's impact is therefore twofold. On one level, it is a direct supply-chain IT provider, offering a software platform that businesses use to manage deliveries and track assets in real-time. On a deeper level, it is an infrastructure builder, creating and financing the physical asset base, the vehicles and their supporting ecosystem, that the digital platform orchestrates. This dual role as both a tech company and a mobility financier makes MAX a uniquely embedded and critical player in the modernization of Nigeria's urban supply chains.

8. Chekkit

Chekkit addresses one of the most pernicious problems plaguing African supply chains: the proliferation of counterfeit goods, which the OECD estimates costs the continent tens of billions of dollars annually and poses severe public health risks. The company’s solution is a robust, blockchain-powered track-and-trace and consumer-engagement platform. Manufacturers, particularly in the pharmaceutical and FMCG sectors, use Chekkit's software to generate unique, serialized codes for every product unit, which are then logged on an immutable distributed ledger.

The verification process is deliberately designed for high accessibility in low-connectivity environments. Consumers and supply-chain actors can authenticate a product by scanning a QR code with a smartphone app or, critically, by using free USSD codes, a technology available on every basic mobile phone. This creates a powerful crowd-sourced anti-counterfeiting network, providing manufacturers with real-time data on product location, authenticity breaches, and consumer behavior. Throughout 2024 and 2025, Chekkit significantly expanded its footprint, moving beyond commercial clients to secure partnerships with national regulatory bodies.

Most notably, Chekkit was selected as a technology partner for the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Nigeria for its phased product authentication rollout. This government-level endorsement validates the platform's efficacy and dramatically scales its impact, making it a foundational piece of public-health and consumer-protection infrastructure. By providing verifiable transparency, Chekkit is not just an IT company; it is a critical builder of trust within some of Africa's most vital and vulnerable supply chains.

7. Sabi

Sabi's core innovation lies in its successful digitization of Africa's massive and traditionally informal retail sector. The company provides a B2B marketplace and a suite of digital tools that bring formalized structure to hundreds of thousands of small merchants. Through the Sabi app, these retailers, from neighborhood kiosks (tabletop traders) to small shops, can access a wider inventory of goods from verified distributors, compare prices, manage their sales and debt records digitally, and arrange for reliable logistics and fulfilment. This directly addresses profound inefficiencies, saving merchants significant time and capital while providing them with data-driven insights for the first time.

By 2025, Sabi had scaled its active merchant network to surpass 300,000 users, a figure consistently reported in industry analyses and company disclosures, cementing its status as one of the continent's largest B2B platforms by direct merchant reach. This vast network creates a powerful moat and a valuable dataset on informal market trends. Building on this foundation, the company strategically pivoted towards higher-margin, value-added services, notably in the areas of export facilitation for local producers and traceability for agricultural commodities, thereby capturing more value across the entire supply chain.

Consequently, Sabi's role has expanded from a simple transactional marketplace to an end-to-end supply-chain enabler. It is not merely a channel for moving goods but a comprehensive digital infrastructure that provides financial services, data analytics, and now, cross-border trade facilitation to the backbone of the African economy: its SMEs. This evolution demonstrates a deep understanding of the market's needs and positions Sabi as a critical intermediary shaping the future of formalized informal trade in Africa.

6. TradeDepot

TradeDepot operates at the epicenter of Africa's Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) distribution, a market characterized by immense volume and profound complexity. Its B2B platform serves as a digital backbone, connecting giant multinational manufacturers like Nestlé, Unilever, and Danone with a sprawling network of thousands of distributors and hundreds of thousands of informal retailers. The platform integrates several critical functions: it provides real-time visibility into inventory levels across the distribution chain, digitizes the sales and ordering process, coordinates fulfilment through a network of logistics partners, and offers embedded financial services such as digital credit and working capital loans.

The scale of TradeDepot's operations is staggering and well-documented by its international backers. According to project disclosure documents from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2025, TradeDepot's platform facilitates over $100 million in annual sales for its network of retailers. The IFC's continued financial support, including a significant investment for expansion, is explicitly aimed at "deepening last-mile distribution capabilities" across Nigeria and Ghana, demonstrating investor confidence in its model and its systemic importance to the regional economy.

TradeDepot's impact is transformative for all players in the ecosystem. For manufacturers, it provides unprecedented data and control over last-mile distribution, reducing leakage and improving sales execution. For retailers, it means reliable access to a wider range of authentic products, often with flexible payment terms that were previously unavailable. By aggregating and digitizing this highly fragmented market, TradeDepot doesn't just participate in the supply chain; it actively constructs a more efficient, transparent, and financially inclusive digital ecosystem for one of Africa's largest economic sectors.

5. OmniRetail

OmniRetail has rapidly emerged as a powerhouse in the West African B2B e-commerce space by focusing relentlessly on reducing the extreme friction that exists between manufacturers and the continent's ubiquitous, yet remote, retail outlets. Its flagship platform, OmniBiz, serves as a unified digital interface for retailers, allowing them to browse product catalogs from multiple major brands, check real-time pricing and availability, place instant orders, access short-term digital credit ("Buy Now, Pay Later"), and track their delivery. This integrated approach solves multiple problems at once, dramatically improving stock availability for small businesses and providing manufacturers with a direct and efficient route to market.

The company's explosive growth and operational excellence garnered significant external validation in 2025. It was prominently featured in the Financial Times' annual ranking of Africa's fastest-growing companies, a prestigious list that uses independently verified revenue data to identify the continent's top performers. This recognition highlighted OmniRetail's commercial traction and its material impact on the market. Concurrently, the company secured a substantial Series A funding round, providing the necessary capital to accelerate its geographic expansion beyond its Nigerian stronghold and further develop its technology stack.

OmniRetail's success is a direct result of its deep understanding of the local retail context. Its platform is designed for the specific challenges of the African market, such as inventory financing and fragmented logistics. By building a seamless bridge between the formal, large-scale world of manufacturing and the informal, hyper-fragmented world of retail, OmniRetail is not just a software provider; it is a critical piece of infrastructure that enhances the overall efficiency, resilience, and growth potential of the entire West African retail supply chain.

4. Twiga Foods

Twiga Foods has long been a pioneer in re-engineering East Africa's agricultural supply chain, using technology to create a more efficient link between rural farmers and urban retailers. Its platform aggregates demand from thousands of small retailers in Nairobi and other cities and matches it directly with a network of smallholder farmers, bypassing multiple layers of intermediaries. This model reduces food waste, improves farmers' incomes, and ensures fresher produce for retailers, all coordinated through a proprietary technology stack that handles everything from mobile payments and logistics routing to quality control and dynamic pricing.

Facing pressure to achieve profitability, Twiga executed a bold strategic pivot in 2024/2025. As reported by industry watchdogs like TechCabal, the company moved away from a capital-intensive, fully integrated logistics model and instead acquired a network of established local distributors. This strategic acquisition spree allowed Twiga to internalize and optimize the last-mile delivery segment, reportedly cutting its operational costs by over 20% while simultaneously achieving deeper and more reliable national coverage across Kenya. This shift marked a maturation of its business model, focusing on owning the technology and the data rather than all the physical assets.

This refined approach solidifies Twiga's position as a top supply-chain tech firm. It continues to leverage its core strength, its data-driven platform that manages over 10,000 daily orders, to orchestrate the flow of goods, while its acquired distributor network handles the physical execution. This combination of a powerful digital marketplace with an asset-light, optimized logistics operation allows Twiga to maintain its market-leading position and its profound impact on reducing post-harvest loss and improving the efficiency of the farm-to-retail pipeline in East Africa.

3. Lori Systems

Lori Systems is a foundational freight-tech player that has dedicated itself to solving the monumental challenge of road freight logistics across Africa, a sector historically plagued by inefficiency, lack of transparency, and high costs. Its core offering is a sophisticated technology platform that acts as a digital freight broker, seamlessly matching enterprises and shippers in need of transport with a vast network of vetted and rated truck owners and carriers. The platform adds immense value through integrated software tools that provide real-time GPS tracking, dynamic route optimization to avoid poor roads and checkpoints, and streamlined digital documentation and payment systems.

The company navigated a period of significant volatility in the global tech funding landscape in 2024-25, which led to internal restructuring and a strategic reassessment of its growth targets. Despite these challenges, the fundamental value of its platform remained unquestioned. By 2025, Lori had facilitated the movement of cargo worth billions of dollars and built a network encompassing tens of thousands of truckers across key markets like Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Its technology has become an embedded operational system for many large shippers, proving that its model addresses a critical, systemic pain point.

Lori's impact extends beyond mere matching; it brings formalization and data-driven decision-making to a traditionally informal sector. By providing visibility and predictability, it reduces cargo detention times, improves asset utilization for truckers, and lowers overall shipping costs for businesses. Even with a more focused operational footprint post-2024, Lori Systems remains a core supply-chain IT provider because its platform provides the essential digital infrastructure that makes cross-border and domestic road freight on the continent more reliable, transparent, and efficient.

2. Kobo360

Kobo360 emerged as an early and ambitious leader in the African freight-tech space with its "Global Logistics Operating System" (G-LOS), a comprehensive platform designed to connect shippers with truckers while providing full visibility, dynamic pricing, and operational tools for the entire journey. The company achieved significant scale, moving millions of tons of cargo for major blue-chip clients across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Togo. However, rapid expansion, coupled with the difficult macroeconomic environment, led to financial strain, necessitating a major leadership and financial restructuring in early 2025.

This restructuring was a pivotal moment, forcing the company to consolidate its operations, address its debt burden, and refocus on its core, most profitable markets and enterprise clients. The comeback strategy centered on the proven strengths of the G-LOS platform, its ability to provide real-time tracking, reduce empty miles for truckers, and guarantee reliable capacity for shippers, while operating with a more sustainable and disciplined financial model. The market's continued inclusion of Kobo360 in top rankings is a recognition of its historical impact and the critical nature of its technology.

Kobo360's story is a testament to both the immense potential and the severe challenges of building large-scale tech infrastructure in Africa. Its platform tackled a fundamental problem, and its underlying product suite remains best-in-class. Its efforts to stage a comeback are being closely watched, as a successful, profitable Kobo360 would validate the long-term viability of digital freight markets on the continent. Its position reflects a belief in the resilience of its model and the enduring need for the efficiency its platform provides.

1. Zipline

Zipline earns the top position not merely for its technology, but for its proven, unparalleled impact on the most critical and challenging supply chains across multiple African nations. The company has developed the world's most extensive automated, on-demand delivery system using autonomous drones (called "Zips") to transport vital medical supplies, and increasingly, consumer goods. Its operational model involves a network of distribution centers, from which drones are launched and recovered, that are deeply integrated into national healthcare systems in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d'Ivoire, among others.

By 2025, Zipline had surpassed a monumental milestone: over 1 million commercial deliveries in Africa. Its drones, capable of flying round trips of over 150 kilometers in all weather conditions, have become a routine and reliable part of healthcare logistics, delivering blood products, vaccines, malaria treatments, and child-saving medications to remote health clinics often in under 30 minutes. This is not a pilot project; it is a mission-critical, national utility. The company's expansion in 2025 included launching new distribution hubs to increase coverage density and integrating its services more deeply with hospital inventory management systems for fully autonomous restocking.

The combination of its advanced hardware (drones), its sophisticated software (for flight planning, inventory management, and delivery orchestration), and its deeply embedded operational network is what sets Zipline apart. It has moved beyond being a logistics company to become a foundational public-health and supply-chain infrastructure provider. For demonstrating scalable, life-saving, and commercially viable impact on some of the continent's hardest-to-reach supply chains, Zipline stands alone as the most impactful supply-chain IT company operating in Africa today.

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