BasiGo secures Ksh.396M from Toyota parent CFAO

Kenyan Electric Vehicle (EV) start-up BasiGo has announced that it has received a $3 million (Ksh.397 million) investment from Toyota’s parent company CFAO.

BasiGo was founded in 2021 by Jit Bhattacharya (CEO) and Jonathan Green (CFO) and provides electric buses for public transport use in Kenya and Rwanda under a pay-as-you-drive model.

The company entered the local public transport scene with the launch of its first electric bus in 2022 and the investment will bolster its e-mobility uptake efforts in the two East African markets.

CFAO Motors is the official distributor of brand-new Toyota vehicles in Kenya, alongside Suzuki vehicles, Yamaha motorbikes and Hino trucks. It is a subsidiary of the France-based CFAO Group based in France.

In December last year, BasiGo received $5 million (Ksh.660 million at current exchange rates) from British International Investment (BII) to deliver 100 buses in the country.

This was part of the Climate Innovation Facility of the British development finance institution, which accelerates climate innovation in emerging markets.

The bus company had in November 2022 secured $6.6 million (Ksh.804 million at the time) from Mobility54, a venture capital (VC) arm of Toyota Tsusho, to begin the commercial delivery of locally manufactured electric buses and charging infrastructure.

BasiGo says it has delivered over 19 electric buses to public transport operators in Nairobi and hopes to have at least 1000 electric buses deployed in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania by the end of 2025.