Kenyan mobility start-up BasiGo has partnered with the Commercial Bank of Kenya (KCB) to pre-finance the purchase of electric buses. The partnership aims to promote environmentally friendly mobility in Kenya.
As part of its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) approach, the Commercial Bank of Kenya (KBC) has just signed an agreement with the Nairobi-based mobility start-up BasiGo. The financial group will guarantee 90% of the start-up’s electric bus purchases in order to promote ecological mobility in Kenya.
The partnership will provide customers of both companies with access to integrated tracking gadgets that will already be installed in the electric buses and financing for transport-related insurance. For its part, BasiGo will service, recharge and maintain the batteries of its electric vehicles.
“This agreement will enable bus owners to obtain asset financing for an electric bus of Kshs 5 million (over US$41,000) just as if they had purchased diesel buses with KCB’s support. BasiGo is also offering Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) subscriptions at 20 Kenyan shillings ($0.16) per kilometre travelled which mitigates the risks for the operators of the electric public service vehicles (PSVs),” enthuses Jit Bhattacharya the managing director and founder of BasiGo.
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The start-up will deliver around 100 electric buses from 2023, including 25-seat K6s with a range of 250 km and a recharging time of less than four hours. To finance these vehicles, which are assembled in Kenya, BasiGo has secured $4.3 million from investors in a recent round of funding led by Novastar Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Nairobi and Lagos, Nigeria.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
