Plans to electrify East Africa’s millions of motorbike taxis are revving up with a US$3.5 million injection from a US venture capital fund, said to be its single-biggest investment in a sub-Saharan Africa e-mobility start-up.

Weetracker reports that the investment will enable the Kigali-based start-up to scale up its network of affordable electric motorcycles and battery-swap stations in Rwanda, and to expand into neighbouring countries.

‘This investment shows that e-mobility in 2021 is just as much about motorbike taxi drivers in East Africa as it is about the launch of the large electric SUVs, pickups and sedans around the world,’ says Josh Wale, CEO of Ampersand.

James Everett, managing partner of the Ecosystem Integrity Fund, says the investor believes that ‘electrifying two- and three-wheeled vehicles in developing countries represents one of the low-hanging fruits for climate-change mitigation globally, and can have a profound positive impact on urban air quality’.

13 April 2021
Image: Ampersand