GOGO Electric has the fastest growing sales team

November 22, 2024

From the newsletter

Newly hired salespeople are a leading indicator for future revenue growth. That's not always the case -- but it's the best analytical shortcut except for a crystal ball. That's why we surveyed which mobility companies have the fastest growing sales teams. They are GOGO Electric, Kiira Motors and Ampersand Energy.

  • The average growth rate for sales team membership across the top ten companies was 57% in the past 12 months. 

  • The largest sales team is at MAX, the Nigerian electric motorcycle company, and the smallest – as well as slowest growing one – is at Shift EV, the Egyptian electric conversion firm. 

More details

  • Our survey is based on company, government and LinkedIn data for the past 12 months. In our methodology, the sales function comprises sales, marketing and business development. Please also see our story yesterday surveying overall company employment numbers. 

  • American EV giant Tesla has added 102 salespeople in Africa in the past year, growing the team by 177%. They are not just working on battery production, though they do that too. And they’re not just selling non-transport battery systems but electric vehicles as well. Expect to see more Teslas on (North) African streets. Still, since the company is only partially EV-focused, we don’t count them here. 

  • Max, the Nigerian electric motorcycle company, is clearly seeing strong growth. Its sales team is much larger than any competitor at 147 people. That makes team growth of 39% over the past year even more impressive. The company added a total of 60 salespeople, mostly in Nigeria but also in India and UAE. In the latter two countries the sales teams almost doubled in size. 

  • Spiro, the Kenya-based but West Africa focused competitor, comes next. It grew its sales team by 38% to a total of 90. At least 50 of them are still based in Togo and Benin, early markets that the company is now seeking to outgrow by moving on to bigger countries. Kenya has a sales team of 10. The fastest growing national sales teams are in Uganda (up 600%) and Nigeria (up 400%). 

  • BYD, the Chinese electric car maker, has opened showrooms in a dozen African countries but its business is still focused on a few richer niches, according to the employment data. Its sales team (up 24% to a total of 26 people) is clustered in South Africa (7) Egypt (6) and Tunisia (5). South Africa has not only the largest but also the fastest growing sales team.

  • Next in a ranking by size of sales teams is Ampersand from Rwanda. Its team grew by 47% to 22 people. More than half are still based in Rwanda despite the company’s shift to new markets. However, growth in Kenya is now outstripping the home market. 

  • Competitor Roam from Kenya is following close behind. Its sales team of 18 grew by 13%. Most of them are based in Kenya and that’s also where the growth is. Interestingly, marketing capacity grew 100% while the actual sales capacity only increased 10%.

  • GOGO Electric in Uganda tops the growth ranking by increasing its sales team by 160% to 13 people. They’re almost all directly in sales, though a business development function is growing fast. Almost everyone is based in Uganda and that’s where all the newcomers are added. 

  • Bus-builder BasiGo grew its sales team by 22% to 11 people. Almost all of them are still based in Kenya, the home base. Remarkably, the average career experience of the team is 27.7 years. 

  • Fellow bus-maker Kiira Motors from Uganda increased its team by 50% to 6 people, all Uganda-based. The growth is all in the frontline sales function rather than marketing or business development.  

  • Shift EV in Egypt saw no growth in its sales team of 6 people. 

Our take

  • In the end, every company is measured by its sales numbers. One may hire hundreds of engineers. But sustainability is directly correlated to the number of successful (!) salespeople. When a company grows its sales team by 160% in a year, like GOGO Electric did, chances are they know something valuable about the market. 

  • Many of the sales teams at top-ten EV brands in Africa are still very small. It’s easy to show impressive team growth percentages when you’re only a handful. To have a chance to impact the continent’s markets, companies will need thousands of sellers. The sector is still very early in its growth trajectory.