SolarTaxi, a Ghanaian e-mobility startup, has acquired funding from Persistent to expand its offering.
SolarTaxi, founded in 2018 by Jorge Appiah, is an e-mobility firm that designs, manufactures, and distributes electric two-wheel (e-2Ws) and four-wheel (e-4Ws) cars for transportation and delivery services.
E-commerce companies like Jumia and Bolt, which both employ SolarTaxi’s e-2Ws to deliver customer orders throughout Accra, are among the company’s notable customers in Ghana, and the company also has operations in Kumasi, Takoradi, and Tamale.
SolarTaxi’s electric vehicles are built for home charging, but the company wants to build and install solar charging stations as the market grows. Meanwhile, it will soon release the SolarCampus app, which will enable university students to purchase products delivered by an e-bike and use e-transportation services.
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Persistent, a leader and investor in the off-grid energy and e-mobility sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa with 20 early-stage investments in pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar distributors, commercial and industrial solar (C&I), mini-grid developers, technology enablers, and e-mobility companies, has funded all of these plans. Persistent’s fourth investment in the electric vehicle industry is SolarTaxi, and its money and venture building will help Solar Taxi unlock working capital to service substantial contracts and orders for its electric vehicles.
“Our journey throughout the years has the characteristics of resilience and hard work, right from when we assembled our first prototype vehicle to when we received our seed funding from our key partner, Mastercard Foundation. We later had to prove the business concept of our model by scaling our business activities in four different locations in Ghana,” Appiah said.
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“Our growth so far has been due to the support we received from our partners, customers, investors and our hardworking staff. As we look to create our own path to success, we intend to scale our business activities by setting up an assembling plant for our bike and car operations in Ghana. In light of that, we are delighted to welcome Persistent to the SolarTaxi family, as they believe in us and in our vision and have committed their resources to this effect. This latest funding from Persistent demonstrates their conviction in our business model and team and it gives SolarTaxi the much-needed support to deliver on our plans for the future.”
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh