AlphaMundi Group announces a USD 1 million equity investment in Ampersand, the leading electric motorcycle company in East Africa

Kigali, Rwanda. AlphaMundi Group (AMG), through its AlphaJiri Investment Fund (AJIF) in
Mauritius, invested USD 1M in Ampersand, a Kigali-based e-mobility company that assembles
electric motorcycles and provides users with battery swap station networks to power the
vehicles. AlphaJiri’s investment will support Ampersand in its mission of providing clean and
affordable mobility solutions across East Africa.

With the investment by AMG, Ampersand will keep expanding its motorcycle fleet and battery
swap stations in Rwanda and Kenya, which currently has already reached 800 motorcycles on the
road and established 18 battery swap stations. The investment also fuels the company’s research
and development arm, putting Ampersand on track to electrify East Africa’s motorcycle taxi fleet.

The investment builds on the company’s acceleration through StartupBootcamp, early-stage
funding from FactorE Ventures in 2018, Series A funding from Ecosystem Integrity Fund and
TotalEnergies Venture arm, support from the Rwanda Green Fund, USAID’s Development
Innovation Ventures, Shell Foundation, the UK FCDO’s Frontier Technology Livestreaming fund,
the New Zealand Government, and a loan from Blue Haven Initiative’s Catalytic Fund.

Daniel Silva, Investment Manager at AlphaMundi Group, said: “We are very excited to partner
with Ampersand as it scales across East Africa. We believe the company has a strong value
proposition serving the large market of motorcycle taxi and delivery drivers, providing them with
an efficient and affordable income-producing asset under an innovative business model. In
addition to driving the transformation towards a net zero future in transportation, Ampersand
enables its users to increase their take-home income dramatically, providing a strong social and
environmental impact. We are confident that our investment will help Ampersand expand and
consolidate its position in the e-mobility space in the region.”

Josh Whale, Founder and CEO of Ampersand further stated: “We are thrilled to have
AlphaMundi on board with this investment, which is building momentum to electrify all of East
Africa’s 5 million motorcycle taxis by 2030. AJIF’s support underlines the viability and investability
of electric two-wheelers for mass-market customers in the Global South, and the importance of
this market to reaching net zero. In the aftermath of COP27 we believe more bold, fast-moving,
and innovative actions are urgently needed.”

 

About Ampersand

Ampersand is Africa’s first and leading integrated electric motorcycle and transport energy
solution. Headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda, Ampersand builds battery packs and affordable
electric motorcycles that perform better than East Africa’s five million petrol taxi motorbikes
while costing less to buy and operate.

The core of Ampersand’s business is the network of battery swap stations and fleet of unique
batteries Ampersand builds and operates, managed by an app and software backend. Since its
commercial launch in 2019, Ampersand’s electric motorbikes covered over 20 million kilometers
in 2022, increasing the daily income for moto drivers by 41%. The company now employs 180
staff in Rwanda, Kenya, and Germany. Each Ampersand’s e-motorbike avoids up to 2.5 tons of
carbon emissions annually.

Learn more at https://www.ampersand.solar/

 

About AlphaMundi Group Ltd

AlphaMundi Group was created in 2008 as a Swiss advisor dedicated to impact investing. Its
mission is to provide market-based solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, currently
best defined by the Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2009, AlphaMundi has profitably
invested over USD 110M in 57 impact ventures in Latin America and Africa, primarily through the
SocialAlpha and AlphaJiri impact investment funds and related co-investments, across 250 debt
and equity transactions.

The AlphaJiri Investment Fund LP (Mauritius) is a debt, mezzanine and equity investment vehicle
to fuel the resilience and growth of impact ventures in the Sustainable Food and Renewable
Energy sectors, using a value chain approach, with a climate-smart and gender-lens orientation.
The fund harbors a pan-African ambition with an initial emphasis on East Africa.

AlphaMundi also contributes to sustainable development through the AlphaMundi Foundation,
a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to strengthen the long-term
commercial viability of SMEs in Africa and Latin America to drive economic transformation. Our
new corporate strategy achieves this mission by intentionally prioritizing two activities: 1)
Structured blended finance products, and 2) gender-lens investing for climate (GLIC) field
building.

For further information, please contact us at geneva@alphamundi.ch