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Cape Town-based e-commerce logistics start-up Shiprazor<\/a> has raised US$2.65-million (about R44.6-million) in a seed round led by pan-African venture capital firm Norrsken22, taking its total funding to $3.3-million.<\/p>\n AAIC, E4E and Tremis Capital also participated, alongside angel investors that include senior leaders at Google.<\/p>\n Founded in 2023, Shiprazor sits between online merchants and courier companies, giving merchants a single integration \u2013 via platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce \u2013 to compare delivery options across more than 20 courier partners and route shipments based on cost, speed and service quality.<\/p>\n South Africa\u2019s courier market is fragmented, with no single operator covering every route reliably<\/p>\n It says it has processed more than 1.5 million deliveries across South Africa to date.<\/p>\n The pitch is that South Africa\u2019s courier market is fragmented, with no single operator covering every route reliably, forcing merchants to juggle multiple platforms and absorb the cost of failed deliveries. The African Development Bank estimates transport costs across the continent are 75% higher than the global average.<\/p>\n The new funding will be channelled into three areas: expanding the courier network, improving geographic coverage and lowering shipping costs for merchants, particularly in regions where single-courier dependency has driven up prices.<\/p>\n AI agents<\/p>\n Shiprazor is also building what it describes as agentic AI tools for merchants. The first of these, an address verification feature, is aimed at reducing failed deliveries caused by inaccurate address data \u2013 a persistent problem in South African logistics. The company said it is the first in a planned series of AI agents intended to automate more of the merchant\u2019s fulfilment workflow.<\/p>\n \u201cSouth African merchants are resilient \u2013 they\u2019ve navigated load shedding, currency volatility and now rising logistics costs driven by global oil prices,\u201d said founder and CEO Sahil Affriya<\/a> in a statement on Thursday. \u201cBut they shouldn\u2019t have to fight their own fulfilment infrastructure on top of all that.\u201d<\/p>\n