Nigerian shared mobility startup Shuttlers has raised $4 million in a new funding round led by Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), a Pan-African-focused venture capital firm.
Other investors in this round include SheEquity, CMC 21 & Alsa, EchoVC, and VestedWorld, which led the mobility startup’s $1.6 million round 18 months ago.
The mobility company has gotten $5.6 million in total venture backing.
How does Shuttlers Bus Platform work Work?
Shuttlers allows individual and corporate passengers to take rides on multiple bus routes via an app.
In essence, Shuttler’s is developing a bus-sharing platform that employers use to offer employees as a perk. The start-up’s partner companies can offer transportation perks to their employees, especially in urban African cities.
Employees can book seats on one of the buses along predetermined and scheduled routes. The bus-sharing platform also offers live bus tracking, optimal routing based on traffic, digital payments, and ride schedules.
Shutler’s payment plans are:
- Companies pay full fares for employees
- companies split fares with employees
- Individual customers — unaffiliated with any partner company — pay fares themselves.
Shuttler’s fares range from N850 (~$1.96) and N1300 (~$2.60) and the company currently operates in Lagos and Abuja.
See: List of Top E-commerce Startups in Africa
Shuttler’s CEO Damilola Olokesusi launched the startup in 2016.
The startup first announced a seed round in November 2021. Back then, it had over 100 buses transiting 30 routes across the city of Lagos.
Currently, Shuttler’s has nearly 260 buses that go through 300 routes across Lagos and Abuja daily, selling over 9,000 tickets daily to individual and corporate passengers — and recorded 3 million trips, per its website.
The startup has a client list of 80+ companies, including Interswitch, MainOne and Paga.
Shuttlers claims that it has recorded over 3 million trips and more than 70,000 users have taken a ride on its platform.
Shuttlers also claims to have reduced its commuters’ carbon footprint by 85% (about 4 million pounds of carbon dioxide emission).
By decreasing the use of private car ownership as means of transportation, shuttlers is helping commuters alleviate the stress of driving to work or using disorganized public transport while decreasing pollution and congestion.
Bus-hailing platforms don’t contribute to inner-city congestion like the more popular shared mobility segment: ride-hailing services.
The environmental impact the startup is having is one reason why lead investor Verod-Kepple backed it, according to partner Ory Okolloh, who said in a statement:
“Shuttlers’ commitment to creating impact aligns with our vision for investing in entrepreneurs who are solving significant challenges and companies who have a positive impact on society.”
Shuttlers had to bootstrap for four years before securing a seed round. When the startup processed over $1 million in transactions, it was now able to improve its tech.
With the new $4 Million in the bank, the 55-man team will look to increase market share in the continent’s ride-sharing space as it accelerates its mission to help build infrastructure to power its mass transit business, enable employee transportation for more corporates.
Olokesusi had this to say as well:
“Before our first funding, when we didn’t do marketing and PR, I think we had the highest market share in bus hailing and sharing space.
But now, there’s no doubt that we are miles apart from the competition, in terms of the number of customers, the technology and routes.
We have built an infrastructure that allows us to expand into different geographies within and outside Nigeria and supports multiple stakeholders, from partners and drivers to marshals and administrative bodies.
Our main focus is to take over the bus-sharing space and be this huge startup that, you know, is very profitable.
The Ceo also added that the startup intends to go live in five other cities across the country by next year.
Leave a Reply