Aplo's founder conceived the platform in 2016 after approaching Uber's African division about freight logistics. He found the space largely unaddressed across Africa, especially in Mozambique, and built a technology solution rather than waiting for road infrastructure to improve.
When you created Aplo, did you actually, I know, create that platform from scratch, or did you adapt an existing solution specifically for Mozambique?
No, actually, when the very first idea that I had, I remember I called Uber. I called Uber, the African department, and I told them, you know, the problem that I had seen. It was back in 2016, and they hadn't even launched yet Uber Freight. They were still in the taxi, so they were interested in the cab services for capital city like Maputo. But, you know, the freight was out of the question at that time on the African continent, and no one is tackling it the way I feel would be extremely relevant and efficient instead of building further roads.
