The news:
- Nigerian shared mobility platform, Shuttlers, has raised $4 million to grow its solution in Nigeria.
- The funding round was led by Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV).
- Shuttlers plans to use the funding to increase its market share in the bus-sharing space.
In 2017 when Shuttlers launched, it communicated with customers via Slack and WhatsApp, but that didn't stop it from onboarding Andela as a client.
Per Shuttler's website, it has over 70 business clients and has completed over 3,000,000 trips after bootstrapping for four years.
The startup has also closed a $4 million funding round led by Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), a Pan-African-focused venture capital firm.
Investors from its $1.6 million funding round in 2021, such as VestedWorld, EchoVC, CMC 21 & Alsa, and SheEquity, participated in the round.
Shuttlers' mission is to make shared mobility or bus hailing easy for working Nigerians. In places like Lagos, people without personal cars who also cannot afford ride-hailing platforms like Uber or Bolt settle for public means of transportation such as danfo, which are sometimes packed above capacity and uncomfortable.
Shuttlers wants to help this group of people commute comfortably without breaking the bank. The startup does this by partnering with organisations to provide mobility-sharing options for their employees. Employees can book seats on buses going along predetermined routes through the Shuttlers platform.
Companies can pay for their staff transportation in full or pay a portion while the worker covers the rest. Commuters whose organisations do not have a partnership with the bus-sharing startup can also use the platform by paying their fare per trip. Unlike other ride-hailing platforms, the fares are usually between ₦850 (~$1.96) and ₦1,300 (~$2.60).
According to TechCrunch, the startup has about 260 buses that go through 300 predetermined routes in Lagos and Abuja. The over 70 businesses on its platform now include the likes of MainOne and Paga.
Shuttlers Co-founder and CEO Damilola Olokesusi, said the company's focus is "to take over the bus-sharing space," as it plans to enter five more cities in Nigeria.
