Moja Ride, a digital transportation startup based in Abidjan, has raised an undisclosed amount of money from Toyota Tsusho Corporation to expand its network.
The startup started in November 2015, when founder Jean Claude Gouesse was awarded a Grand Challenges grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The grant was awarded to work on a solution to help small merchants across Africa embrace digital payments.
Moja Ride is a reservation and cashless payment system that covers a wide range of transportation facilities, including over 1,200 taxis and buses.
The startup is now expanding its infrastructure to coordinate service and customer details.
In order to increase passenger comfort and business owners’ operational performance.
Also, It hoped that as a result, the country’s public transportation would improve in efficiency.
The “Startups in AFRICA” festival, co-hosted by Nikkei and JICA on November 5, 2020, aims to encourage Japanese companies to invest in the African tech startup market.
In the final round of the competition, ten African startups selected by JICA gave business presentations.a
After which the audience chose the top three companies and special prizes were presented by Mobility54 and other private companies.
The investment, which comes from Toyota Tsusho’s newly formed US$45 million Mobility 54 Investment fund.
The corporate venture capital subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho group, will aid Moja Ride in this process.
The undisclosed investment was made through the underwriting of convertible bonds.
Moja Ride’s framework is evolving to better coordinate service and customer information in order to increase passenger comfort and business owners’ operational performance.
It is hoped that as a result, the country’s public transportation would improve in efficiency.
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