East Africa raises the most mobility capital

From the newsletter

Today we're looking at the geographic distribution of where on the continent new funding is going. Yesterday we reported the totals for cash raised in October by companies in the mobility sector ($43.2 million, fairly evenly distributed by capital size and investment series). 

• What’s painfully obvious is that West African mobility companies lost out on new capital last month. This is despite the growing number of new ventures there, especially in Nigeria. But many are still very much at an early stage.   

• East Africa was the clear winner in October, having attracted the lion's share of new money. It’s not surprising. Kenya has the highest number of EV startups on the continent. It has raised money every month in the past quarter.

• Our take: Nigerian EV firms have work to do to wow venture capital… Read more (2 min)

More details

• Cities: Nairobi remains the most popular place for venture capital going into electric mobility in Africa (ahead of Kigali and Cairo last month)

• The Kenyan capital is home to BasiGo, the electric bus maker that raised $24 million in a Series A equity investment and $17.5 million in debt. 

• Also based in East Africa is IZI, a Rwandan e-mobility-as-a-service company that got $200,000 in grant money. 

• The runners-up in funding terms are northern and southern Africa. Both regions have mature industries when it comes to non-electric mobility. Morocco last week became the largest supplier of cars to the EU globally, ahead of China, Japan and Korea.

• Egypt secured $1.3 million in the first equity round for the micro-mobility sharing platform Rabbit Mobility.

• South Africa landed $200,000 in grant money for fleet management software company GoMetro. 

• The previous month, September, new funding was roughly equally split between East Africa (Kenya) and North Africa (Morocco).

• The funding data is compiled by specialist site Africa: The Big Deal. 

Our take

• It’s not entirely clear yet where in Africa the electric mobility sector will be based. The auto sector globally has a habit of clustering. That’s how Detroit once became known as “Motor City”.  

• Here is a big prize to win. Vehicle manufacturing has the potential to create a lot of jobs in Africa. It did so over recent decades in Asia. And news showing Chinese manufacturers now investing in African factories is encouraging. Local assembly may slowly morph into full production in some places, promising an even greater boost in employment. 

• Where venture capital flows is a first indicator of future success. Nigeria has the potential and numbers in terms of population. But Nigerian EV firms have work to do to wow venture capital. They have raised zero cash in the second half of the year so far.