Yamaha begins trials for last-mile delivery business in Tanzania

Yamaha Motor Co announced today that its group company CourieMate Co has signed a collaborative agreement with Tokyo-based Wassha Co, a startup developing businesses in Africa, to commercialise a last-mile delivery business in Tanzania. Based on this agreement, the two companies are proceeding with real-world proof-of-concept (PoC) testing in the country.

Yamaha Motor Group company CourieMate operates a last-mile delivery business in Uganda, and through this endeavour, the company has gained the IT systems know-how and expertise necessary for running last-mile delivery services. Wassha is a startup running an Energy as a Services (EaaS) business through retail stores called kiosks. Since its founding in 2013, it has conducted business in Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, and Democratic Republic of Congo, and has a range of knowledge and expertise, such as member store management and smartphone app payment operations.

CourieMate and Wassha have been furthering their individual businesses while sharing their respective knowledge on logistics services and more that they have learned in Uganda. This collaborative agreement is aimed at leveraging the two companies’ track records to quickly launch a last-mile delivery business in Tanzania. Yamaha Motor has also previously invested in Wassha in 2019 and 2022.

In the new Medium-Term Management Plan (2022-2024) announced in 2022, Yamaha Motor designated several ‘New Businesses’ and ‘Growth Businesses’ as ‘Strategic Business Fields’. As part of managing its business portfolio, it “will actively allocate management resources to these businesses in order to develop them into future core businesses.”

Mobility services fall under the plan’s ‘New Business Fields’, and Yamaha Motor states it “is working to create an environment for further enriching people’s lives through mobility asset management that calls on the company’s motorcycle business expertise, thereby helping address societal issues such as job creation. In the last-mile delivery business, Yamaha Motor aims to energize the local economy and help create jobs for professional riders by offering motorcycle-based logistics services.