Proparco, a French development organization that finances and supports companies and financial institutions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eurasia, and the Middle East, has awarded funding to Kenya’s BasiGo, the top supplier of electric bus solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Modern electric buses, along with maintenance and charging services, are made affordable for bus operators by BasiGo’s pay-as-you-go financing model, which lets operators pay for the battery and charging separately from the bus.
After obtaining funding from Proparco, the company, which raised US$41.5 million in Series A funding late last year, has already expanded into Rwanda and is now poised for additional growth.
In Kenya and Rwanda, BasiGo currently operates 100 electric buses. In order to provide an affordable electric substitute for diesel for mass transit in African cities, the company builds and manages charging infrastructure, assembles electric buses locally, and collaborates with bus operators.
Proparco’s investment, according to BasiGo CEO and co-founder Jit Bhattacharya, was a strong endorsement of the future his company was creating for African cities.
“Since 2021, BasiGo has proven that electric buses deliver stronger economics for operators while avoiding CO₂ emissions and delivering a comfortable experience for passengers. It is a strong validation of our model and a catalyst for the next phase of growth: scaling local assembly, expanding our charging network, and accelerating our road to 1,000 electric buses,” he said.
“By supporting BasiGo, we are helping to unlock a new generation of clean, reliable mass public transport solutions for tens of thousands of passengers in Kenya and Rwanda, and to scale this solution in other African cities,” said Jean Guyonnet-Dupérat, regional director for East Africa at Proparco. “BasiGo’s locally assembled electric buses cut emissions, improve air quality, and support quality jobs – fully consistent with Proparco’s mandate on the continent, the Choose Africa initiative, and our commitments under the Paris Agreement.”
