Gricd

Gricd (Gricd Integrated Services Limited), which rebranded as Figorr in May 2023, is a Lagos, Nigeria-based cold chain monitoring and logistics company. It develops Internet of Things-powered devices and software that report the location, temperature and humidity of temperature-sensitive and perishable goods in real time, sending the data to the cloud and to customers via a mobile app or web dashboard, with email or SMS alerts when conditions deviate. Its core hardware device, MOTE, is described as about the size of a pack of cards; earlier products included the Frij Box, a portable cold-storage box available in 15-litre and 50-litre sizes fitted with a cooling device, GPS tracking, thermometer and a battery lasting about 48 hours, able to hold internal temperatures as low as -20°C for up to 24 hours and designed to be strapped to a motorbike or carried like a backpack.

Beyond monitoring, the company offers inventory management software, a platform for renting cold rooms and cold trucks across Nigeria, and data-powered insurance in which partner insurers use Figorr's storage and transport data for underwriting and claims verification of perishable commodities that are typically treated as uninsurable. Customers span agriculture, healthcare, logistics and insurance, including pharmaceutical manufacturers and food companies in Nigeria and across Africa; earlier clients cited include the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, DrugStoc and a university teaching hospital in Kwara. During Nigeria's COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the company's solution was used by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency to track 40 million vaccine doses.

Founding story

Founder Oghenetega Iortim, an Information and Communication Engineering graduate of Covenant University, worked in agriculture funding and sourcing funds for planting cycles and suffered losses from poor preservation and delayed offtake of produce — losing up to 70 percent of yield for lack of adequate cold storage. He began designing portable cold storage, first prototyping with clay, which proved heavy and dependent on relative humidity, then iterating to a rectangular cold box with cooling, tracking and battery. The company became fully operational in 2018 and pivoted from farm produce toward healthcare supplies, as the box's capacity suited vaccines and medical samples better than bulk produce. Iortim started the business with his own personal finances.

Business model

The company sells IoT tracking hardware paired with subscription software: customers pay a monthly subscription fee per device to access its data, so a customer with multiple devices pays for each separately. It also rents cold rooms and cold trucks through a platform covering Nigeria, sold cold boxes (priced from around NGN 100,000, stated as about $275 at the time), and works with insurance partners that use its data for underwriting and claims verification.

Recurring per-device monthly subscription fees for data access, alongside hardware sales and cold room/cold truck rentals, plus insurance-related offerings underpinned by its data.

Traction

Reported figures include tracking more than 110 million perishable items and supporting customers to realise more than $200 million in savings; the CEO also cited over 200 million cold chain items tracked with a value well over $600 million. A few thousand devices had been deployed across about seven countries at the time of the 2023 seed round. Earlier milestones cited over 12,000,000 items tracked and more than 2,000 tracking devices deployed. Its technology was used to track 40 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for Nigeria's NPHCDA, and the Frij Box had transported 219 vaccine vials and 615 blood samples as of late 2019.

Latest developments

Following the May 2023 seed round the company rebranded from Gricd to Figorr and shifted emphasis to software, planning to roll out a proprietary risk management platform that provides data making it easier to insure perishable and temperature-sensitive goods, and to expand across Africa including East Africa. Its current site markets real-time monitoring, data-powered insurance, inventory management software, and cold room and cold truck rentals across Nigeria.