By Dipo Olowookere
Tech giant, Google, has invested in SafeBoda to enable the company to scale its transportation-led app to offer new payment and financial services solutions for its expanding set of customers, passengers, drivers and merchants.
Google made the investment, the first in the series, through its Africa Investment Fund launched by the CEO of Google and Alphabet, Mr Sundar Pichai, at Google for Africa in October.
SafeBoda is a venture-backed firm with investors like GoVentures (GoJek), Allianz X, Unbound, Beenext and Justin Kan.
SafeBoda app was launched in 2017 to connect passengers to their community of safer and trusted drivers and has grown to serve over one million customers, expanding its transportation-led super app offering rides, parcel delivery, food and shop, payments, savings and other financial services.
The company plans to drive its growth in Uganda and Nigeria, which is why the investment from Google is regarded as timely.
“SafeBoda welcomes Google to their community and are excited to continue to drive innovation in informal transportation and payments in the boda boda (motorcycle taxi driver in East Africa) or okada (West Africa) industry.
“As a former boda driver in Kampala, I know that we are the lifeblood of Africa’s cities and we power economic development. SafeBoda is thrilled that leading global companies such as Google see the importance of backing start-ups working towards these goals,” one of the co-founders, Mr Ricky Rapa Thomson, said.
“I am thrilled about our first investment from the $50M Africa Investment Fund that we announced two months ago. This is part of our ongoing commitment to tech startups in Africa.
“I am of the firm belief that no one is better placed to solve Africa’s biggest problems than Africa’s young developers and entrepreneurs. We look forward to announcing subsequent investments in other startups,” Nitin Gajria, Managing Director for Google in Africa, added.
The Africa Investment Fund is part of a broader plan to invest $1 billion over 5 years to support digital transformation in Africa. Through this fund, Google will invest $50 million in startups and provide them with access to Google’s employees, network, and technologies to help them build impactful products for their communities.
Currently, Africa is home to 700,000 developers and venture capital funding for startups has decreased in 2020 compared to 2019, with a record $4 billion in equity funding raised in 2021, according to Partech Ventures Africa.
Digital startups in Africa are driving innovation in fast-growing sectors, including fintech, healthtech, media and entertainment, e-commerce, e-mobility, and e-logistics, contributing to Africa’s growing Internet gross domestic product (iGDP) — defined as the Internet’s contribution to the GDP.
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