ARC ride, a British-Kenyan company with a focus on providing safe and reliable transport and mobility services through smart electric vehicle solutions and its own platform, has announced a new strategic partnership and equity investment by Musashi Seimitsu and People. The investment will help accelerate ARC Ride’s mission to provide mass transportation in Africa’s fast-growing cities, demonstrating the private sector’s commitment to tackling the global climate crisis.
ARC Ride was founded in 2020 in East Africa to unleash an e-mobility revolution in the region. As cities across the continent continue to grow, the number of motorcycles and tuk-tuks in the region has skyrocketed. These motorcycles are the main mode of transport in many urban centers. For example, in Kenya there are over 2 million in-house motorcycles. While these vehicles can be convenient, meet the demands of busy commuters and last-mile delivery services, they are expensive to run, noisy and polluting. Accelerating the adoption of electric motorcycles will help reduce the contribution of GHG emissions from the transport sector and lower operating costs for motorcyclists.
Both partnerships strengthen ARC Ride’s EV ecosystem in critical areas:
Musashi’s leading R&D will allow ARC Ride to expand its fleet from its flagship product, the electric motorcycle (boda boda), to include electric vehicles for personal transportation and an electric vehicle for the delivery of goods for the last mile.
“Our partnership with and investment in ARC Ride represents our company’s commitment to ‘Go Far Beyond’. We are proud to invest in ARC Ride’s goal of building the best first and last mile vehicles in the industry” – Hiroshi Otsuka, Group CEO, Musashi Seimitsu
Watu’s experience in financing experience creates a route to the market for affordable, reliable and clean vehicles for everyone. This will help ARC Ride penetrate the mass market and ensure that electric vehicles become an affordable part of the fabric of Nairobi’s transportation network.
“Our partnership with and investment in ARC Ride represents our company’s goal to empower the future of mobility in Africa. – Nikhil N. Patel, Chief Growth Officer, Watu
By partnering with Watu, ARC Ride enables riders to drive electric and save significantly on rising fuel costs. Watu is an Asset FinTech that is revolutionizing mass market mobility across Africa through financial inclusion and accessibility. Watu offers access to affordable and flexible financing for 2 and 3 wheelers. To date, Watu has provided more than 370,000 loans in 6 countries and has positively impacted the lives of more than 2 million people. Watu also actively promotes financial literacy and independence, adoption of digital payments, and increased regulatory and security compliance.
ARC Ride has created a vehicle assembly and R&D hub in Nairobi and from there it will work with Musashi and other strategic partners to build the best vehicles and swap network. This will be supported by a growing engineering team building the data-driven ecosystem needed to manage regular battery changes through ARC Rides’ innovative app and swap network.
Joseph Hurst Croft, CEO of ARC Ride, commented: “This is a huge step in our goal to build the leading pan-African electric mobility company. This investment supports our market-leading commitment to build the charging infrastructure needed to drive mass adoption. of two-wheeler EVs in fast-growing cities across Africa, ARC Ride will install an extensive network of battery change lockers in our target cities, starting in Nairobi.”
One of ARC Ride’s electric vehicles is the fast E2+. The E2+ is designed for both the delivery/logistics service and passenger transport in the famous boda boda motorcycle taxi industry. It is designed with a battery exchange system that utilizes ARC Ride’s battery exchange network. ARC Ride says the E2+ is 50% cheaper to run than a petrol version and the battery swap system is aimed at maximizing riders’ time on the road.
All images courtesy of ARC Ride.
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