Motorcycle taxis are the easiest and cheapest way to get around Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, but the ubiquitous boda bodas, as locals call them, are a major polluter. Kenyan-Swedish startup Opibus is setting out to create a cleaner transportation option with a fleet of made-in-Kenya electric motorcycle taxis. It has deployed 160 prototypes and launched a successful pilot program with Uber. After raising $7.5 million in a November 2021 funding round, Opibus, led by CEO Filip Gardler, is poised to scale up to mass manufacturing, with an anticipated 3,000 vehicles ready for sale on the local market by the end of the year at a price on par with that of conventional motorcycles.
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