The archive · Climate & Energy · Product decision · 2021–2025
BasiGo bets 'pay-as-you-drive' e-buses can outrun diesel; Africa50 leads $42M round
Nairobi startup sells e-buses cheap and charges per kilometer, betting battery economics beat diesel in African cities; $42M round, 100 buses by late 2025.
BasiGo
What the business is
Nairobi-based e-mobility company that assembles and sells electric buses with charging and maintenance, financed through a pay-as-you-drive model for fleet operators.
Starting capital：US$6.6M pre-Series A equity (2022); US$42M round in October 2024: US$24M Series A equity led by Africa50 plus US$17.5M debt from DFC and BII
How it started
Jit Bhattacharya and Jonathan Green founded BasiGo in Nairobi in 2021, betting that the economics of public transport, not environmental guilt, would drive electrification: diesel fuel is a huge operating cost for bus operators. It began assembling buses in Kenya in 2022 with components from China's BYD and put the first electric buses into passenger service in Kenya that year.
What happened
BasiGo expanded into Rwanda in 2023 and launched a rider ticketing app. In October 2024 it closed a US$42M round — US$24M in Series A equity led by Africa50 with SBI Holdings, Novastar, CFAO Kenya and others, plus US$17.5M in debt from DFC and BII — the largest investment by an African fund in an e-mobility company, aimed at putting 1,000 e-buses on East African roads.
How it ended up
Still scaling: by late 2025 BasiGo had deployed roughly 100 e-buses across Kenya and Rwanda, added three Nairobi charging depots, and taken follow-on funding from France's Proparco, keeping its 'Road to 1000' target of 1,000 buses by 2027.
Background
BasiGo is a Nairobi-based e-mobility company founded in 2021 by Jit Bhattacharya and Jonathan Green that assembles electric buses in Kenya and sells them to public transport operators through a pay-as-you-drive model: operators buy the vehicle cheap and pay per kilometer for battery, charging, insurance and maintenance.
The bet was that electrification would be won on economics, not environmentalism. Diesel is one of the biggest costs of running a bus in African cities, so BasiGo's financing model — roughly $7,700 for a bus in Kenya, $8,800 in Rwanda, plus mileage fees — attacked the real barrier: the upfront cost of the battery. It began assembling buses in 2022 with components from BYD and put Kenya's first electric buses into passenger service that year.
BasiGo expanded to Rwanda in 2023, and in October 2024 closed a US$42M package — US$24M in Series A equity led by Africa50 with SBI Holdings, Novastar Ventures, CFAO Kenya and others, plus US$17.5M in debt from DFC and BII — the largest investment by an African fund in an e-mobility company. The stated goal was 1,000 e-buses in East Africa.
By late 2025 the company had roughly 100 e-buses deployed across Kenya and Rwanda, opened three new Nairobi charging depots, and taken follow-on investment from France's Proparco, keeping its 'Road to 1000' target of 1,000 buses by 2027.
What has to be true
- Splitting the bus from the battery turned an unaffordable capex purchase into an opex decision, which is how cash-constrained transport operators actually buy.
- The founders came from electric-vehicle manufacturing, so the company controlled assembly and charging rather than just selling software.
- Kenya and Rwanda offered fast-growing urban transit, low e-bus penetration and development-finance appetite, so one round blended equity and concessional debt.
- Diesel costs gave operators an immediate, measurable saving, letting BasiGo sell economics first and climate second.
What can be applied
In markets where buyers can't afford the hardware's full cost, separate the asset from the consumable: selling the bus cheap and charging per kilometer turns a capex problem into an opex decision.
Aftermath
As of the sources checked, BasiGo is live and scaling: roughly 100 electric buses deployed across Kenya and Rwanda by late 2025, three new Nairobi charging depots commissioned in November 2025, and follow-on funding from France's Proparco in December 2025. The company continues local assembly at Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers, operates its pay-as-you-drive financing and rider app, and is pursuing its 'Road to 1000' plan to put 1,000 e-buses into service by 2027, with additional vehicles being added in Rwanda.
Sources
- Africa50 Leads US$42 Million Investment in BasiGo
- Kenya's BasiGo raises $42 million in equity and debt for 'pay-as-you-drive' e-buses
- Kenyan e-mobility startup BasiGo bags funding from Proparco
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card