{"id":644713,"date":"2026-05-01T08:02:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=644713"},"modified":"2026-05-01T08:02:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:02:52","slug":"indian-born-entrepreneur-wants-to-revolutionise-south-african-e-commerce-logistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/644713-indian-born-entrepreneur-wants-to-revolutionise-south-african-e-commerce-logistics.html","title":{"rendered":"Indian-born entrepreneur wants to revolutionise South African e-commerce logistics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sahil Affriya told MyBroadband that his vision is to provide every South African with the technology to easily start their own e-commerce business by facilitating logistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, his company, Shiprazor, received a R44 million investment from Norrsken22, one of Africa’s largest VC firms, to further this goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in India, in a region about 150 km from Delhi, Affriya is a serial founder and entrepreneur, with a childhood marked by discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His mother’s side of the family “are all in business,” while his father’s side of the family were members of the Indian army and defence forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Affriya studied at the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology in Delhi, where he earned his B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His extensive educational background also included a Master of Technology degree in Software Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around this time, Affriya founded his first startup, a business called “Mechanic Card,” a platform that connected tier 1 and tier 2 manufacturers directly to mechanics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“An aggregator of suppliers of automotive parts,” he said. The DNA of this platform would influence his future work on aggregator platforms, like Shiprazor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Affriya also holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights from the Indian Institute of Human Rights and an MBA from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told us that studying at UCT was a strategic choice, driven by a need to network with up-and-coming South African entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At UCT, he “made a lot of friends and a lot of good memories” and said the overall experience helped him gain a better understanding of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His time at the university helped Affriya transition from a tech and operations background to a more well-rounded entrepreneur. His time at the university launched his career in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He started at Cape Town venture capital firm Savant, where he began as an intern in 2021, and left as a Principal in 2023. Upon his departure, he founded Shiprazor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked why he chose to launch his logistics platform in South Africa, Affriya said that the country had the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from that, his work in South Africa was “synergistic.” He said that he lives and works in South Africa because he fell in love with the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When I came to South Africa for the first time, I came on my honeymoon. And on that honeymoon, my wife and I decided to stay,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have a very loving and passionate relationship with South Africa. I’m freaking enjoying it. I don’t think I can live anywhere else.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

R44 million to build an intelligent logistics layer for South African e-commerce<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The team at Shiprazor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nivesh Pather, investments principal at Norrsken22, said that Africa’s e-commerce market has significant potential, but remains fragmented and unoptimised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Shiprazor is building the intelligent infrastructure layer that African merchants have been missing \u2014 and they’re doing it with a deep understanding of how this market actually works,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Affriya explained that Shiprazor is an aggregator of courier and logistics services, bringing together companies to meet the logistics needs of small, medium, and large businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that e-commerce companies in South Africa have diverse needs and often require different logistics services to meet them. Finding these different services is costly and time-consuming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, merchants may require the ability to ship abroad, to deliver to residents and drop-off points, to deliver overnight to the next day, or to make timed deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shiprazor sought to simplify these processes and reduce costs, as e-commerce firms pick and choose from different logistics service providers on the platform to meet their specific needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform secured “very high preferred rates” through its aggregated network of over 25 courier companies, including giants such as The Courier Guy, Fastway, RAM, and other express services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In return, Shiprazor would handle customer support and add-ons, such as liability protection, for these courier services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They get an extra layer of customer support from us. We become the first filter of any kind of query that comes out, and we get a one-to-one solution with them,” Affriya said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our job is to be the single intelligent logistics layer that helps South African merchants ship more, for less, while giving their customers a better experience at every step.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that the new funding from Norrsken22 would allow his team to move faster on all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More photos of Sahil Affriya and Shiprazor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sahil Affriya said that his mission is to provide a platform that makes it easy and affordable for all South Africans to run an e-commerce business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":644715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[3616,64171,104708,86555,3096,104951,104953,104952,60931,49583],"class_list":["post-644713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-cape-town","tag-fastway","tag-nivesh-pather","tag-norrsken22","tag-ram","tag-sahil-affriya","tag-savant","tag-shiprazor","tag-the-courier-guy","tag-venture-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644713"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644781,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644713\/revisions\/644781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}