- BasiGo operates 19 electric buses in Nairobi, with plans to expand to 1,000 electric buses across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda over the next three years.
- BasiGo received 15 new electric buses last week.
BasiGo has received a $5 million (KSh766.7 million) loan from British International Investment (BII) to support its local effort to assemble electric buses. This comes barely a month after the Kenyan e-mobility startup raised $1.5 million (KSh 227 million) to expand into Rwanda and received 15 new electric buses cleared at the Port of Mombasa last week. The acquired debt facility puts the firm at the forefront of the sustainable mobility initiative in the public transportation sector, making it the largest consignment of electric buses to come into East Africa.
BasiGo currently operates 19 electric buses in Nairobi, with plans to expand to 1,000 electric buses across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda over the next three years. As part of efforts to reduce global carbon emissions and minimise the effects of climate change, Kenya and other African nations are looking for sustainable means to power automobiles. This partnership between BII and BasiGo has pushed Kenya and the region towards the front of the clean energy race.
In his comment on the loan acquisition, the Co-founder and Chief Financial Officer of BasiGO, Jonathan Green, said that it is a testament to the firm’s shared commitment towards building scalable climate solutions within Africa. Co-founded in 2021 by Jit Bhattacharya and Jonathan Green, BasiGo has played a pivotal role in getting electric buses into Nairobi’s public transportation system.
In 2022, BasiGo received $6.6 million (KSh804.5 million) from Silicon Valley venture capitalists to commence local electric bus manufacturing and charging infrastructure installation. In the same year, the e-mobility company also released the first line of locally assembled electric buses in collaboration with the Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers.