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Connecting Africa Podcast: S3 Ep. 8 – Driving e-commerce logistics
On this episode we speak to Loop founder and CEO Kimberley Taylor, the mastermind behind a platform that powers over 3 million deliveries a month across Africa, including South Africa's biggest on-demand grocery service, Checkers Sixty60.
37 Min Listen
On this episode of the Connecting Africa Podcast we speak to Loop founder and CEO Kimberley Taylor, who is the mastermind behind a platform that powers over 3 million deliveries a month across Africa, including South Africa's biggest on-demand grocery service, Checkers Sixty60.
Taylor's journey in tech started when she was still at university, and she created a route optimization algorithm for a class project to solve the well-known "travelling salesman problem" – in other words, the algorithmic problem which aims to find the shortest route between a set of locations that must be visited by a sales or delivery person.
"I saw this problem and I started asking people in the industry whether they were experiencing the problem. I think as I followed that curiosity and asked more and more questions, I saw that there's a business here," she said.
"[I saw that] there was a piece of tech missing in this logistics space, they not only didn't have root optimization, but there were lots of other problems that we could solve with a piece of tech. There wasn't proper visibility, [there were] communication issues between the business and the driver, or the driver and the end-customer. That's when I started to believe that I could build a business out of this idea," Taylor explained.
_(1)_(1).jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale "Kimberley Taylor, founder and CEO of Loop.")
Kimberley Taylor, founder and CEO of Loop. (Source: Loop)
Taylor co-founded Cowa-Bunga and launched its services in 2017 but scaled in 2020 during the pandemic when online deliveries surged.
In 2021, Cowa-Bunga rebranded as Loop and today has numerous customers including major retailers like Checkers, restaurants like Nando's and Domino's Pizza, as well as pharmacies and courier companies.
Here are a few topics we covered on the podcast:
How trying to solve the travelling salesman problem sparked the creation of a route optimization algorithm and the start of Loop. (02:00)
The early days of pitching the idea to the industry and the importance of persistence and refining a pitch. (04:18)
How she landed her first client and built the business and the tech from there. (7:00)
Building the initial Cowa-Bunga team and growing a client base. (10:12)
The challenges young founders face, her regrets and the lessons she learned. (11:40)
The intricacies of the travelling salesman problem and the challenges it presents to the logistics sector. (13:38)
How the initial product evolved as the company expanded its product offering based on client feedback and needs. (15:50)
The partnership with Checkers Sixty60 and how it evolved from a tech solution to a broader logistics partnership. (18:52)
Understanding the micro problems in last-mile delivery processes and improving efficiency. (21:10)
Understanding both the technical and operational aspects of logistics. (24:10)
How Loop uses data to provide custom insights and the surprising revelations the data has provided. (26:25)
How Loop uses machine learning for address correction and validation, enhancing route optimization. (29:30)
Loop's expansion plans and growth strategy for the next few years and its investment journey. (31:20)
Raising capital and the importance of storytelling to engage investors. (32:30)
The path forward for Loop. (35:50)
More Connecting Africa Podcasts
If you want to catch up on all the previous episodes you can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Pocket Casts or find other podcast platform options on our main page on Spotify for Podcasters.
You can also find the podcast hosts online here:
Paula Gilbert - @paulajgilbert
Tobi Lafinhan - @TobiLafinhan
Matshepo Sehloho - @tsokamatshepo
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