Nigerian shared mobility startup Shuttlers raises $1.6M, plans pan-African expansion

Shared transportation in Nigeria, Africa’s largest country by population, is a thriving business, at least when done the conventional way: offline.

With millions of Nigerians using danfo minibuses and okadas to commute to their various workplaces and destinations, mobility startups have sought to digitize the market. However, most have found little luck, especially those in the two-wheeler mobility space.

While most mobility tech in the country is centred around two-wheelers and car-hailing, there’s been hardly any deliberate disruption in the bus-sharing and mass transit space.

Shuttlers, a “tech-enabled scheduled bus sharing” company, is itching to change that. After years of bootstrapping, the company has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from several investors to blitz scale within and outside Nigeria.

Chicago and Africa-focused investment firm VestedWorld led the round. Fintech unicorn Interswitch, Africa-focused VCs Rising Tide Africa, Launch Africa, EchoVC, Consonance Investment, CcHub Syndicate, CMC 21 & Alsa, ShEquity, Five35, Sakore and Nikky Taurus also participated in the round.

CEO Damilola Olokesusi founded Shuttlers in 2016 to address the issue of inefficient transportation costs in Nigeria’s most renowned urban city, Lagos. Via its ridesharing platform, Shuttlers provides companies with better mobility options for their employees.

But when Shuttlers launched in 2017, it did not have a functional mobile application. Instead, the company ran an unconventional online model using Slack, email and WhatsApp to communicate with its customers.

Yet, that was enough to onboard its first set of business clients. Tech talent unicorn Andela was Shuttlers’ first B2B2C client, Olokesusi told TechCrunch over a call.

The B2B2C plan is one of three main offerings Shuttlers providers; here, companies split payment of transport fares with their employees whichever way they see fit. The others include B2B, where business clients pay the complete fares of their employees and B2C, where individual customers pay fares themselves.

“Our mission is to transform the way people commute around the world by building a global partner network and connecting communities of shuttlers like we are presently doing in Lagos, Nigeria,” Olokesusi said in a statement.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/16/nigerian-shared-mobility-startup-shuttlers-raises-1-5m-plans-pan-african-expansion/

I guess Uber got us confuse Dami Te, this would most likely work ,intra-city transits ...bulk scheduling and crowd security....strange another Dami Ol is taking it up where you left off....

This is cool. Everyone should not offer fintech services because it's already satured. There are other areas that need intervention. We need to deploy technology to tackle insecurity. This is one area that will turn a million-naira Nigerian company to a unicorn overnight

Good. More of this. If comfortable mass transits like this can go mainstream, then this Uber madness can reduce. Nothing as annoying as people thinking your clean 2012 Toyota Corolla is an Uber. Person cannot drive corolla in peace again in this country. We need to sue Uber for this.

Holly Gram real matters. WTF MAN

Please how do I raise $8m for my start-up?

Nice

Good morning everyone

I'm quite sure Rwanda would be one of their first destination outside Nigeria.

By the way, the B2B2C is a selfish offer readily accepted by companies to the detriment of their employees.

Congrats to them!

We are BuildSpace NG just started building what we call the people driven market place.

Naija to the world

buhari and apc will kill it.

Something Buhari will kill with his wack policies and smelling body odor

Ok

Their buses are air-conditioned and their services are very nice but you must be at your bus station before the pick up time else they'll abandon you

lomprico:
buhari and apc will kill it.

Tech startups have never had it so good.

Just say you want them to be like you.

I can attest to the quality of their service.

Back in the days at Mainone, these guys do pick we staff to and fro office everyday with their comfortable hummer and coaster buses. I cant say of now anyway.

Most of the staff buses you see on the road are now owned and operated by private transport entities like shuttlers and others.

Keep up the good work guys, i have lots of tech startups as customer and these guys are one of the hardest worker in Nigeria. Avoid being tagged a yahoo boi due to your incessant generator noise, get yourself a portable inverter and a lithium iron phosphate battery that can power your basic energy needs, you can reach us on O8o653163o7 More win to you guys bringing in legit money, you are simply the shining light in the dark sky of Nigeria.

Nice

This is great..

Nice one.

This is nice.

Omo women don dey do things o, its nice to see millennials taking the bull by the horn these days despite the economic crunch. Go, girl!

In other news, this tech-transport thingy is viral now tho. The market is becoming saturated. I hope say Nigerians no go cast this industry with their follow-the-bandwagon strategy?

Innovation well done girl

Great news. But let's talk about revenue. Revenue. Moat important things is what your books say a reasonable number of years after you get funding.

Glad to see Nikky Taurus participating in the funding round. Women supporting women. From one privately owned transport company to another.

I think there's a fintech that is already offering bus sharing also

See life... Damilola was an intern in my previous employ... Now I may carry CV go do Yes Mam!

SmartPolician:
This is cool. Everyone should not offer fintech services because it's already satured. There are other areas that need intervention. We need to deploy technology to tackle insecurity. This is one area that will turn a million-naira Nigerian company to a unicorn overnight

I have an idea that effectively tackles the menace of False accusations amidst incriminating evidences, and also aid kidnapping investigation and pursuit, but the problem like most Nigerians face; Funding.

I think I will work on a security App.