Kenyan electric bus solutions startup BasiGo has secured US$3 million worth of equity funding from CFAO Group to scale up production in Kenya and Rwanda.
BasiGo provides state-of-the-art electric buses along with charging and maintenance services for bus operators, making these vehicles affordable through a financing model that allows operators to pay for the battery and charging separately from the bus through a pay-as-you-go financing arrangement.
Disrupt Africa reported in November 2021 the company had launched operations in Nairobi having secured KES100 million (US$900,000) in funding earlier in the year. It then raised a US$4.3 million seed funding round in February 2022, followed that up in November 2022 with US$6.6 million in new seed funding, before banking a US$5 million debt facility from British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance organisation, late last year.
Now, BasiGo has raised US$3 million in equity funding from CFAO, which has operations in over 40 African countries and owns Africa’s leading automotive distribution network. The investment into BasiGo is split between CFAO Kenya and Mobility54, the corporate venture capital arm of CFAO.
“As a player in the energy and mobility industry in Africa, CFAO recognises the extraordinary opportunity for electric mobility to transform African economies,” said BasiGo co-founder and CEO Jit Bhattacharya.
In February, BasiGo completed production of its first locally-assembled electric buses. The company now aims to deliver 1,000 locally-assembled electric buses over the coming three years, and has received over 500 orders from bus operators in Nairobi and 100 orders from operators in Kigali.
“This is the start of a new era, and through this investment, we are not only supporting the growth of the electric vehicle industry, but also contributing to the development of a sustainable green energy value chain that will benefit communities across Africa,” said CFAO Kenya managing director Akira Wada.
