TUNL Raises $1 Million to Accelerate Growth of E-commerce Exports from Africa

TUNL, a parcel shipping platform saving e-commerce merchants between 50 to 80% on international shipping costs, has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding from Founders Factory Africa, Digital Africa Ventures, E4E Africa, and Jozi Angels.

The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s growth in its beachhead market of South Africa and begin building toward launching in other strategic African and emerging markets.

Since its launch, TUNL has grown 35% month-on-month, with over 700 merchants now part of its “shipping club”, with the number of merchants doubling in Q3 2023. TUNL’s merchants have shipped over 11,000 international parcels in 2023, representing exports from South Africa worth more than R24 million.

TUNL was founded in 2022 by Matthew Davey and Craig Lowman. The team is driven by the core belief that opening up cross-border trade is the most powerful lever to unlock the huge growth potential of thousands of SMEs in emerging markets, creating sustainable livelihoods and bringing in foreign currency.

Merchants who ship their parcels with TUNL can drive significantly higher conversion at checkout in overseas markets where low shipping costs are expected.

“Our pricing is completely transparent and democratised. We want to ensure that every business, large or small, can have an equal chance to convert overseas sales by reducing the cost of shipping as much as possible,” says Lowman.

As part of TUNL’s drive towards pricing transparency, it has recently launched AI-driven product classification, which forms the basis for full landed cost pricing (parcel delivery with duties and taxes prepaid) – a first-of-its-kind service for South African e-commerce.

“We are excited to be working with this fantastic group of investors who share our vision,” says Davey. “Their pan-African experience will continue to be a huge boost to TUNL as we scale,” adds Lowman.