It has been a roller-coaster fundraising ride for South African mobility startup WhereIsMyTransport. The startup had secured two funding rounds back in 2017, a further US$1.85 million in 2019 and another $7.5m just last year. And yet, it has gone ahead to secure a new R200m ($14.5m) investment, in a round led by one of Africa’s biggest startup investors, Naspers Foundry.
In the round, Naspers Foundry invested R42m ($3m), while the remainder of the investment came from other investors such as Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, and SBI Investment, with additional funds from Capria Ventures, Wuri Ventures, Mission Gate, B&Y, and KDDI Open Innovation Fund managed by Global Brain.
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“WhereIsMyTransport started in South Africa, focused on becoming a central source of accurate and reliable public transport data for high-growth markets. We’re thrilled to welcome Naspers as an investor as our journey continues in megacities across the majority world,” CEO Devin de Vries said in a statement.
Why The Investors Invested
Investors seem to have been lured in by WhereIsMyTransport’s growing track records. Since the company was formed 5 years ago, it has expanded to India, Southeast Asia and Latin America, outside of its native South Africa.
The startup which says it cherishes presence in the Majority World (an alternative word for developing countries), already has heavyweight clientele such as Google which has integrated its data on Mexico City’s informal public transport lines, as well as the World Bank which has requested data from it on the public transport networks in seven African cities.
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Again, the launch of the startup’s latest app, Rumbo, which helps people to get information from all public transport modes, alerting users to disruptions and providing alternative routes on the go, has also seen some relative success.
In Mexico City alone, Rumbo has already reached over 100,000 users. Commuters find value in the first-ever integration of all 2,400 public transport routes in the city, not to mention the 750,000 real-time alerts the app has already shared. Rumbo launches in Lima, Peru in June 2021, and future launches are planned in other emerging-market megacities.
These track records are perhaps, why the investors have rallied around it in the latest funding round.
For Naspers Foundry, the investment continues its trait of investing only in startups owned by South Africans. In 2019, it invested R30 million in online home cleaning services business, SweepSouth; and R100 million in May 2020, in Aerobotics, a subscription-based artificial intelligence company. In September that year, it also invested in Food Supply Network, a B2B online marketplace that integrates food ordering systems across the food services industry. It then followed it up with a $2.9m investment in The Student Hub, a South African online learning platform. Investment in WhereIsMyTransport is Naspers Foundry’s first foray into mobility; it has never invested twice in the same sector in Africa so far.
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“Mobility remains an obstacle for billions of people in high-growth markets across the world. Our investment in WhereIsMyTransport is a testimony of our belief that great innovation and tech talent is found in South Africa, and with the right backing and support, these businesses can provide solutions to local challenges that can improve the lives of ordinary people in South Africa and abroad,” said South Africa CEO of Naspers Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa.
So far, Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund has achieved quite some comfort investing in South Africa. It recently participated in the country’s Aerobotics, an AgriTech startup developing intelligent tools to the feed the world. Unlike Naspers Foundry, Cathay has portfolio companies that look similar to WhereIsMyTransport. Such companies include Aerobotics and Paris-based ride-hailing startup Heetch. Most importantly, Cathay looks more at teams when making investments in startups, and WhereIsMyTransport’s Devin Vries, Chris King and Dave New seem to be the perfect match.
Japan’s SBI Investment (once part of the defunct SoftBank), has equally been active on the African investment scene, investing late last year in Nigeria’s digital bank Kuda Bank.
Other investors in this round include:
| S/N | Investor | Country Of Operations | Investment Mandate | African startups previously invested in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Capria Ventures | Seattle, Paris, Bangalore, and Nairobi | Partners with and funds emerging market fund managers | Has invested in UAE-based VC firm Global Ventures which has in turn invested in African startups Elmenus, Buseet, Helium Health, Paymob |
| 2 | Wuri Ventures | Dakar, Senegal | Wuri invests in information asymmetry (data),fragmentation (platorms), public goods (electricity, mobility) as well as team. | Wuri is one of the funds backed by Capria Ventures. It has invested in Lori Systems; TastermakersAfrica; Carry1st; Tambua Health; Redbaycoffee |
| 3 | Mission Gate | San Francisco, USA | Mission Gate invests in seed and early-stage startups in the internet, mobile, innovative consumer products and medical cannabis industries | None |
| 4 | B&Y | Jersey, Channel Islands, British Isles | Helps MENA startups become global, and international companies. | None |
| 5 | KDDI Open Innovation Fund managed by Global Brain. | Tokyo, Japan | KDDI Open Innovation Fund 3 (KOIF III) was established in April 2018 with Global Brain. The fund invests in wide range of fields based on KDDI’s expertise in business and technologies including AI, IoT, Data Marketing, Fintech, and B2B SaaS to support promising startups. | None |
A Look At What WhereIsMyTransport Does
Formed in 2016, WhereIsMyTransport is a big data platform for sustainable mobility in emerging markets, which connects and collects data and integrates this information on its open data platform.
Its products are used by cities to coordinate and monitor services, operators to integrate their systems, and passengers, who access the platform through apps and endpoints connected to the WhereIsMyTransport platform.
The company licenses these “mobility datasets” to governments, development finance institutions, nongovernmental organisations, operators and third-party solution developers for the purpose of research, analytics and insights, and developing consumer and enterprise solutions.
Its South African clients have included the Gautrain and Transport for Cape Town.
mobility WhereIsMyTransport
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning write