Kenya’s BuuPass has raised $1....

• Kenya’s BuuPass has raised $1.3 million to digitise Kenya’s pain and paper bus ticketing system.
• The funding included investors such as Ajim Capital, Adaverse, Gullit, Founders Factory Africa, and others.
• The startup plans to invest in growth activities, increasing its market share in East Africa, focusing on Kenya and Uganda with the funding.

Known formerly as Magic Bus Ticketing when it was founded in 2016, BuuPass is digitising Kenya’s public transport sector for operators and their customers.

Founded by Wycliffe Omondi and Sonia Kabra, the duo attempted to run the startup as a B2C company where Kenyans could book bus rides digitally, but they realised most bus companies in the country operated manually.

The pair adopted a B2B2C model that provides bus companies with a bus management system (BMS) that helps them manage their fleet, sales, and inventory. It then connects them with a marketplace where passengers can book tickets and compare prices of different bus operators via a mobile app, website, and USSD.

Per TechCrunch, BuPass has just raised $1.3 million in a pre-seed round, including investors such as  Ajim Capital, Adaverse, Gullit, Founders Factory Africa, and FrontEnd Ventures.

According to Kabra, “The funding will enable us to invest in growth activities, increasing our market share in East Africa, with a focus on Kenya and Uganda. We will hire a team, especially on the growth side, and technology experts so that we can build systems for scale because our plan is to become a pan-African infrastructure for long-distance transportation.”

The startup already has 25 bus companies on its platform and can support up to 1,200 fleets per company.

BuPass says it currently processes up to 12,000 transactions per day and has sold 9 million tickets so far.

Article by: chpoint.africa