Ingressive Capital Invests In Nigerian Bicycle-Sharing Startup AwaBike
Ingressive Capital, which is the investment arm of the market-entry firm Ingressive, has announced that it is backing bike-sharing startup Awabike, in what is a pre-seed funding round.
Ingressive Capital is a venture firm that concentrates on early-stage African tech startups, cutting checks between USD 50 K and USD 100 K for startups in seed stage up to pre-series A. The firm already has four Nigerian startups in its portfolio, including OgaVenue, TaxiTV, Paystack, and Tizeti – with the last on the least raising a massive USD 8 Mn in Series A round earlier in August.
Nonetheless, this time, the venture firm decided to take a different approach, moving on to a pre-seed investment in Awabike.
The amount involved in this backing remains undisclosed, and the company has said that the funds will be used to drive their implementation stage by setting up shops in their selected regions and hire key personnel. The startup, which was founded this year by Ifeoluwa Ogundipe, conceptualized last year.
The CEO, Damilola Olugbemi, alongside his cofounders Ibukun Tunde-Oni and Ifeoluwa Ogundipe, revealed that the seed round is very crucial to the activities of Awabike in Nigerian society.
Lagos State signed an MoU with French bike-sharing company Smoove in February to set up a 200-bike share project in Lagos. Should that succeed, then startups such as Awabike may be able to latch onto the government’s investment in bicycle-sharing as an alternative to four-wheel drives.
The narrative from the Vice President of Ingressive Capital reveals that the firm believes that Awabike is ahead of its time as in the near future it can become an easy alternative to best the traffic congestion menace in Lagos. According to him, the startup has the intention of strategizing from campuses and closed estates to build adoption and scale before venturing into major cities.
Featured Image: Techcity
