Ghanaian e-mobility company SolarTaxi has raised funding from Persistent to further scale its offering.
Launched by Jorge Appiah in 2018, SolarTaxi is an e-mobility company that designs, locally assembles, and distributes electric two-wheel (e-2Ws) and four-wheel (e-4Ws) vehicles for transportation and delivery services.
Notable customers in Ghana include e-commerce companies like Jumia and Bolt, which both use SolarTaxi’s e-2Ws to deliver customer orders around Accra, while the company also has operations in Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale.
SolarTaxi’s electric vehicles are designed for home charging but, as the market grows, the company plans to build and deploy solar charging stations to support usage. Meanwhile, it will also soon launch the SolarCampus app, which will allow students at universities to purchase items delivered by an e-bike, and use e-transportation services.
All of these plans have been boosted by funding from African climate venture builder Persistent, a leader and investor in the off-grid energy and e-mobility sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa with 20 early-stage investments in pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar distributors, commercial and industrial solar (C&I), mini-grid developers, technology enablers and e-mobility companies. SolarTaxi is Persistent’s fourth investment in the electric vehicle space, and its capital and venture building will support Solar Taxi in unlocking working capital to service significant contracts and orders for its electric vehicles.
“Our journey throughout the years has the characteristics of resilience and hard work, right from when we assembled our first prototype vehicle to when we received our seed funding from our key partner, Mastercard Foundation. We later had to prove the business concept of our model by scaling our business activities in four different locations in Ghana,” Appiah said.
“Our growth so far has been due to the support we received from our partners, customers, investors and our hardworking staff. As we look to create our own path to success, we intend to scale our business activities by setting up an assembling plant for our bike and car operations in Ghana. In light of that, we are delighted to welcome Persistent to the SolarTaxi family, as they believe in us and in our vision and have committed their resources to this effect. This latest funding from Persistent demonstrates their conviction in our business model and team and it gives SolarTaxi the much-needed support to deliver on our plans for the future.”
