Kenyan startup BasiGo, an electric vehicle technology and financing company bringing electric bus services to Sub-Saharan Africa, has raised a US$4.3 million seed funding round to help it commercialise its business model and begin local assembly of electric buses. BasiGo will use the funding to launch sales and delivery of its electric buses this year, as well as local assembly of its electric buses in Kenya. BasiGo will offer electric buses to bus operators through the company’s “pay-as-you-drive” financing solution, which enables public bus owners to purchase an electric bus for the same upfront cost as an equivalent diesel bus. Through this model, BasiGo plans to deploy over 1,000 locally assembled electric buses in Nairobi over the next five years. The startup has also opened a state-of-the-art charging and servicing depot for electric buses, located adjacent to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Leveraging the fact that 73 per cent of Kenya’s electricity comes from renewable sources, each BasiGo electric bus helps to dramatically reduce the air pollution and climate-warming emissions originating from Kenya’s diesel buses.
SOURCE: DISRUPT AFRICA