African Electric Mobility Company Secures $7.5 Million Funding Round, Seeks To Deliver Its First EV Bus
Nov. 2, 2021, 1:15 p.m.
Today, African electric mobility company Opibus announced that it had secured a $7.5 million round of equity and grant fundraising. The company also looks forward to delivering its first electric bus by the first quarter of next year.
This is the largest sum of money raised by an electric mobility company in all of Sub-Saharan Africa and was led by Silicon Valley fund At One Ventures, backed by Factor Ventures and pan-African VC firm Ambo Ventures.
Founded in 2017, Opibus is a Swedish-Kenyan technology company that develops, designs, and manufactures electric vehicles to help transition the African continent toward more sustainable transportation.
Its mission, from the beginning, has been to implement electric mobility in emerging markets. Opibus will bring the first African-made electric motorcycles to mass production with this fresh cash flow and reduce air and noise pollution on populated Kenyan streets with its electrified public transport.
“We are proud to be backed by globally recognized investors providing a balance between deep-tech and emerging market expertise. We have together reached a clear strategic and visionary alignment – with the conviction that mass manufacturing of electric mobility solutions in Africa will make the products more accessible and affordable and lead to one of the region’s largest industrialization and welfare transitions in modern time. The targets and objectives we’ve set for Opibus might seem bold; however, it is a mission that has become more important than ever. We have a responsibility to the coming generations and the earth as a whole,” said Opibus’ CEO and co-founder, Filip Gardler.
Submit your news stories, articles or press releases to editor@digitaltimes.africa
Or
Already, the company has started taking pre-orders of its electric motorcycles while confirming to TechCrunch that the demand is promising. Opibus bikes will start at $1,300, depending on several features, including battery capacity. The company said the competitive advantage of its product includes declining operational costs of up to 60% lower than that of fossil fuel alternatives.
“We are about giving vehicles a second life, but for motorcycles, we see that we won’t be able to scale fast enough if we’re converting motorcycles. And since we want to design a product that’s better than what is already in the market, we are building our bikes from the ground up – by designing and manufacturing them in-house,” Opibus’ chief strategy and marketing officer Albin Wilson said.
In addition to Kenya, the company’s other clients are spread out in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Africa.
tag: Funding, startups, Electric Cars,
Verny Joy Author
Verny loves to write poetry, fiction and quotes. Her love for writing landed her in journalism. She loves gadgets and travelling to explore new places.