Business & Money | Friday 30 November, 2018 1:33 am |

CE-Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of UAE-headquartered global conglomerate Crescent Enterprises, today announced that it has invested in Transcorp International (Transcorp), one of the UAE’s most efficient logistics and last-mile distribution service providers, acquiring a sizeable minority stake. Through this strategic investment, CE-Ventures also aims to support the expansion of Transcorp across the MENA region.

The investment is part of a strategic roadmap that will see Crescent Enterprises invest US$150 million (AED550 million) through CE-Ventures in early- to late-stage startups over the next three years. Fifty per cent of the funds are earmarked for ventures from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Speaking about the investment, Tushar Singhvi, Director of CE-Ventures, said: “Speed and reliability in delivering services are the key metrics for this business. With its sharp focus on technology and customer satisfaction, Transcorp is a leader in cold chain last mile distribution and is well-positioned to seize growth opportunities resulting from the e-commerce and food delivery boom.” 

He added: “CE-Ventures’ strategy is to identify strong result-oriented founders and support them over the long term. We look forward to working with Transcorp to grow the business, enhance its service portfolio and increase its geographical footprint with the objective of establishing the company as the top provider of last-mile cold chain logistics solutions across the MENA region.” 

Transcorp has a well-developed network across the UAE and aims to strengthen its presence in Saudi Arabia and other MENA countries. Primarily catering to the F&B industry, the company intends to expand into fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), including cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Rodrigue Nacouzi, CEO and founder of Transcorp, said: “The investment from CE-Ventures has provided us with the means to fast-track our expansion within the MENA region and introduce our service offering to other industries. Crescent Enterprises’ extensive logistics expertise will enable Transcorp to explore new markets and domains and achieve its goal of addressing the gaps in last-mile distribution services. As we seek to scale up our business, we believe CE-Ventures is the perfect partner for our next phase of growth.”

Streamlining last-mile logistics, Transcorp offers end-to-end solutions to enterprise customers, including warehousing, transportation and product distribution. The company’s proprietary order management platform automates all processes, providing clients with live tracking and accurate delivery time estimates. 

CE-Ventures targets a broad range of strategic domains from medical technology, artificial intelligence and cyber security to food, energy-tech and supply chain tech. The company has invested US$46 million in 18 startups and VC funds across the US, MENA and South-east Asia. 

Recent investments include the UAE-based cloud kitchen network Kitopi and the largest Indian meat and sea-food ecommerce company FreshtoHome, as well as the MENA-based digital healthcare platform Vezeeta.