Investors are returning to Africa’s bike-hailing startup ecosystem this year, starting with Tunisia’s IntiGo. However, it looks like, this time, local investors, such as Capsa Capital Partners, would be taking the lead. A new $1 million in funding had been added to the ride-hailing and logistics startup IntiGo’s total fundraise, bringing the total money so far by raised by the startup to $1.6 million. 

Here Is What You Need To Know

• Intigo’s latest investment came from local investment firm Capsa Capital Partners. The VC firm invested about $710,000 while some $300,000 came from angel investors in earlier in 2020. Another $300,000, had earlier in November, 2019 been invested into the startup by some angel investors.
• The startup will commit part of the investment into hiring more resources and building out its internal R&D team.
• It also plans to use the investment to explore deeper into its existing product categories, as well as other market opportunities, including car sharing. 
• Apart from InstiGo, there are several other locally founded bike-hailing startups across Africa, such as the East Africa-focused Safebodas, Algeria’s Tem-Tem, and Nigeria-based MAX.ng and Gokada, although the road to regulating bike-hailing innovations has been heavily foggy. 

Read also: African Startups Raised $1.4bn In 2019 Says African Private Equity And Venture Capital Association’s First VC Report

Why The Investor Invested

Founded in 2012, Capsa Capital Partners is a Tunis-based asset management company that provides financial and strategic support to unlisted companies and especially those with strong growth potential. 

 Apart from investing, the VC also prefers to sit on the boards of its portfolio companies, providing both administrative and supervisory roles. In 2018, the VC firm made a seed round investment in the Tunisian robotics startup Enova Robotics. The investment was valued at $1.6M. Bassem Bouguerra, co-founder and CEO of IntiGo said having an institutional investor, like Capsa Capital Partners, on board is a strong validation of their business model and value proposition.

“We are convinced that each deal is unique: markets evolve, management styles change, companies are transformed…We share an avant-garde vision with regard to the problem of transfer — takeover of companies and we are fully aware of the problem of market fragmentation. We will consolidate the markets while optimizing the synergies that may result in order to maximize the creation of potential value through our investments,” the company noted on its website. 

A Look At What IntiGo Does

• Founded in late 2019 by Bassem Bouguerra and Nebil Jridet, IntiGo, headquartered in Tunis, started as a motorcycle sales business, but has since expanded to other categories of services, including different types of delivery.
• The motorcycles (scooters) of the IntiGo network are the property of the startup, but the drivers are not part of its employees. They pay rent and a 20% commission on each trip, to IntiGo. It currently has a network of more than 50 bikes which are used for both transport and delivery services. The Tunisian startup launched its food delivery and concierge services in March earlier this year.
• The concierge delivery service allows users to book an IntiGo attendant to do their groceries on time for around 12 TND ($ 4) per hour and the grocery delivery service allows grocery stores to deliver groceries to their clients. Orders are taken and prepared by the points of sale themselves, delivery being provided by IntiGo.
• IntiGo made 12,000 trips per month before Covid-19. Its transportation business has been hit hard by the pandemic (since a containment device was in place), but transportation business is slowly picking up and it plans to open its doors to independent drivers (with their own motorcycles) this month. 

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 writer

After suffering bike ban in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, investors in the African bike-hailing scene seem to be moving up North to Tunisia. Tunisian bike taxi startup IntiGo has raised over $300,000 in funding from angel investors, and is looking to branch into food delivery business. 

“There is is a large untapped large market for food delivery in Tunisia,” said IntiGo CEO Bassem Bouguerra. 

Here Is The Deal

• Investors in this round are mostly angel investors, namely Aziz Ketari, Hedi Ketari, Ahmed Mhiri, Welid Mnif, Hedi Hachouch, Slim Bouzguenda, Malek Ben Ayed, and Mehdi Triki.
• The startup had raised another $300,000 around the time of its launch in December 2019. 
• With its latest funding, the startup is launching a food delivery service using the same network of bikes. 
• IntiGo also plans to use a part of the investment to buy more bikes. 
• The startup is targeting expansion to more Tunisian cities where transportation is problematic, within the next few months. 
• Intigo also plans to explore the option of expanding to other African countries.

Read also:The END Fund Partners with Access Bank to Raise Awareness about Neglected Tropical Diseases at Lagos City Marathon

Read also: Nigeria’s Largest City Lagos Bans Bikes On Its Highways. Here Is What It Means For Bike-hailing Startups 

A Look At What Intigo Does

• Founded a few months ago by serial entrepreneur and investor Bassem Bouguerra and an operations executive Nebil Jridet, IntiGo is a bike taxi startup that allows users to book bike rides in Tunis (Tunisia’s capital) that are 20 to 30 percent cheaper than a regular taxi.
• The bikes (or scooters) that IntiGo has on its network are owned by it. The drivers, however, are not on IntiGo’s payroll. They rent the scooters from IntiGo and also pay 20 percent commission on every ride. IntiGo also makes money by allowing brands to advertise on its scooters.
• The startup has been able to facilitate over 11,000 rides in January alone, with the small network of 50 scooters that it has, IntiGo’s co-founder and CEO Bassem Bouguerra said in an interview. 

“When we did a market study, we found out that scooters as a means of transportation is not well accepted by Tunisians living in the capital. So we decided to purchase attractive looking scooters and mount a roof on top of them. The look and feel of our scooters have made a great first impression and we were pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback we’ve been receiving including hundreds of selfies that people share on social media whenever they ride IntiGo. We had over 30,000 app installs in just three weeks after launching the service,” Bassem, answering our question about why IntiGo decided to take this asset-heavy approach for launching IntiGo, said. 

He also explained that another reason for doing this was to have full control over the quality of the service they provide early-on.

Bassem added that they will slowly start accepting independent drivers.

“We are aware that is the only way to achieve growth.”

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 writer.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com