Episode 11: Logistics for Trade
Why Paps is Building End-to-End Infrastructure
Throughout this series, we’ve wrestled with a dichotomy (or trichotomy, to be more precise) around what concentration of assets is needed to successfully run digital commerce and logistics businesses. The first dichotomy is “asset-heavy” vs. “asset-light”, which is a proxy for an underlying dichotomy—replacement vs. augmentation. Typically, replacement suggests an asset-heavy strategy that connects supply from brands to retailers, cutting out distributors and wholesalers as “middle men”. Augmentation is an “asset-light” strategy that delivers value to all supply chain actors, using technology to offer transparency on pricing, visibility on stock and goods sold, and financing.
Maad Co-founders Sidy Niang and Jessica Long offered a third option—asset-efficiency. It’s a flexible approach to internalizing assets that prioritizes: a) experimentation to determine which assets to own or lease at what intensity; and
b) deferring asset ownership until the business requires it.
Enter Paps, a full-service, asset-light company that handles freight, customs clearance, warehousing, dispatch, and deliveries nationwide, including at the last mile. What’s clear from my conversation with CEO and Co-founder Bamba Lo, is that the digital infrastructure they’re building facilitates trade for robust, “informal” businesses that large, international logistics players like DHL, FedEx, and UPS don’t reach. With that in mind, here are a handful of gems from my chat with Bamba:
🚚 1. Deliveries can become demand engines.
Paps turns routine deliveries into data-gathering moments, helping clients map demand, verify customer locations, and plan expansion, all while growing logistics revenue.
“..And then we had this opportunity where Canal+ asked us to do a survey in 3 countries. They were launching The Bachelor Africa and they wanted to know if that would work. And from there, it created a new solution…which is the market research use case.”
🌍 2. Logistics infrastructure can unlock Francophone Africa’s common market.
Paps aspires to knit together cities and villages into a single trade zone where local and international players can plug in seamlessly, despite political and infrastructural fragmentation.
“Our mission is to consolidate Francophone Africa into one single market… where clients can say, ‘I’ll create an Instagram page for each country and sell all over this area.’”
🧠 3. Technology enables operations.
Bamba emphasized that tech is just a tool to codify smart operations. Companies like Paps can use it to streamline operations and boost internal efficiency. “Digitizing an industry” is a different matter.
“…technology is very good, but you will not digitize the industry. You will be able to have your KPIs and to be more efficient yourself. And then the clients can benefit from it. But I think it's the wrong way to see it like, I will digitize logistics.”
That’s all for this week’s round up, friends. See you next week!