TUNL, a South-Africa-based parcel shipping platform, has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding from investors, including Founders Factory Africa, Digital Africa Ventures, E4E Africa, and Jozi Angels. The funding is earmarked for expanding the platform in its primary market, South Africa, and setting the stage for entry into other crucial African and emerging markets.

Founded in 2022 by CEO Matthew Davey and COO Craig Lowman, TUNL addresses challenges in cross-border shipping costs, particularly affecting smaller businesses in emerging markets. The existing issues reportedly cost African businesses an estimated $50 billion annually. During the pandemic, TUNL's founders noticed that shipping costs sometimes exceeded the value of products for small- and medium-sized South African merchants, despite the presence of major courier services like DHL, UPS, and FedEx.

To tackle this, TUNL established its own economy courier service to the USA and formed partnerships with global courier companies like UPS and FedEx, aiming to reduce SMEs' shipping costs by 50% to 75%. Lowman stressed the platform's commitment to transparency and equal opportunity, emphasizing that pricing is "completely transparent and democratized."

On TUNL, merchants can provide customers with various shipping options during checkout, including an "economy" courier starting at $10 for South Africa to the USA with a slightly longer delivery time (10 to 14 days). Alternatively, customers can opt for faster shipping (within a week) with FedEx or UPS at a more reasonable cost than they are able to get individually. Prices vary based on destination and weight, according to Davey.

“It’s all about helping the merchant succeed because if you have one shipping option at checkout that’s expensive and the customer has two choices, they can abandon that cart or decide to pay the money,” said Davey. “But if you introduce two shipping options, especially one that’s free, the human psychology drives the customer to pick one of those two rather than abandon the cart.”

Despite South Africa's prominent wine industry, which exported 368.5 million liters last year, TUNL hasn't included wine (alcohol) shipping in its exported items due to existing restrictions. However, according to Davey, the startup is currently in talks with one of South Africa's largest wine subscription businesses to potentially enter this market.

“We’re getting messages from merchants saying we’ve transformed their business. They’re adding new employees and growing because of us. And so it’s a win-win for the ecosystem that we can help merchants feel that the South African market is not the only market they can serve and can see the world as the market,” Davey said. 

“We’re all about success, helping them grow internationally, because the consumer markets overseas are just so much bigger than the domestic markets for these sorts of products.”