[Nigeria] Shuttlers raises $4m to expand its shared mobility solution across Nigeria

Shuttlers, a Nigerian shared mobility company that allows individual and corporate passengers to take rides on multiple bus routes via an app, has raised $4 million in a new funding round led by Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), a Pan-African focused venture capital firm.

The round welcomed participation from follow-on investors, including VestedWorld, which led the mobility startup’s $1.6 million round 18 months ago. ShEquity, CMC 21 & Alsa and EchoVC are the startup’s other backers in this round, which has seen the mobility company secure over $5.6 million in total venture backing.

Shuttlers’ business primarily focuses on corporate trips and commutes. In Lagos, Africa’s most populous city, the average professional who commutes to work daily or several times a week — whether with a personal car or danfo minibuses and okadas — meets roads riddled with intense traffic congestion and dangerous carbon emissions. Since transportation isn’t a common employee perk in Nigeria, what Shuttlers has managed to do since CEO Damilola Olokesusi launched the startup in 2016 is provide partner companies, in Lagos and Abuja, with a bus-sharing platform with mobility options for their employees.

With Shuttlers, these employees can book seats on one of the buses along predetermined and scheduled routes. Its other features include live bus tracking, optimal routing based on traffic, digital payments, and ride schedules. It has three payment plans: Companies pay full fare for employees, companies split fares with employees, and individual customers — unaffiliated with any partner company — pay fares themselves. The fares range from N850 (~$1.96) and N1300 (~$2.60).

Shuttlers has doubled down on traction since we covered its seed round in November 2021. Back then, the Lagos-based startup said it had over 100 buses plowing 30 routes across the city. Currently, nearly 260 buses go through 300 routes across Lagos and Abuja daily, according to co-founder and chief executive Olokesusi. Meanwhile, with a clientele of 80+ companies, including Interswitch, MainOne and Paga, the company sells over 9,000 tickets daily to individual and corporate passengers — and recorded 3 million B2B trips, per its website. The company claims to have 70,000 users while half that number have taken a ride on its platform.

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