The race to electrify Africa’s transport sector is intensifying, with development finance institutions (DFIs) firmly in the lead. The latest move comes from France’s Proparco, which announced an investment in Nairobi-based electric bus startup BasiGo to support its expansion in Kenya and Rwanda.
The deal, confirmed today, will see the private sector of the French Development Agency (AFD) join a growing list of European and multilateral funders betting on e-mobility in Africa. Although Proparco’s exact investment amount has not been disclosed, its strategic intent is clear. It is about accelerating the transition away from diesel-powered public transport in some of the world’s fastest growing urban areas.
BasiGo was founded in 2021 and operates an integrated model. The company assembles electric buses locally, develops charging infrastructure and sells or leases vehicles to bus operators through a pay-as-you-go financing model. The company says it has 100 buses plying the roads of Nairobi and Kigali, carrying more than 9 million passengers and traveling more than 1.4 million kilometers.
“By supporting BasiGo, we are contributing to the realization of a new generation of clean and reliable mass transit solutions,” said Jean-Guyonnais Dupera, Regional Director for East Africa at Proparco, linking the investment to the group’s climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement.
For BasiGo, the capital is the driving force behind its ambitious expansion plans. “Proparco’s investment is a powerful confirmation of the future we are building for African cities,” said CEO and co-founder Jit Bhattacharya. He described it as a “catalyst for the next phase of growth,” including increasing the scale of local assembly and accelerating the company’s “Road to 1000” electric buses.
Proparco’s deal with BasiGo is a microcosm of broader trends reshaping Africa’s e-mobility landscape. Analysis of 2025 funding data by Launch Base Africa reveals that the sector is overwhelmingly reliant on development finance and climate change funds, with the role of traditional venture capital declining.
In 2025, e-mobility in Africa was defined by a standout deal: a $100 million investment from the African Export Development Fund (FEDA) to pan-African carrier Spiro. Excluding this outlier, the average round size remains around $5 million.
Development finance institutions and climate change-focused investors account for an estimated 70% of disclosed capital flowing into the sector this year, according to the data.
British DFI British International Investment (BII) is one of the most active players, backing Kenyan e-bike startup Ark Ride and Rwandan peer Ampersand. Other key funders include the Development Bank of Southern Africa, which is investing in EV charging infrastructure, and a range of climate change-focused funds such as Mirova and Gaia Impact, which often provide debt facilities.
The concentration of DFI capital is not limited to Africa. A similar pattern is observed in the nascent e-mobility markets of Southeast Asia and Latin America. The critical challenge for companies like BasiGo will be to prove that their model can ultimately achieve commercial viability, attract purely profit-seeking investors, and break the cycle of dependence on development capital.
For now, as Proparco’s investment shows, Africa’s path to bus and motorcycle electrification will be funded not by Sandhill Road but by the patient capital of the world’s development banks.
