Google’s Africa Investment Fund Backs Ugandan Bike-Hailing Startup Safeboda

Google has invested an undisclosed amount in Ugandan bike-hailing startup SafeBoda, according to reports on Thursday (Dec. 16), marking the tech giant’s first cash disbursement since Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, launched the Africa Investment Fund at Google for Africa in October.

Google’s investment in SafeBoda will help the company grow its transportation app across Uganda and Nigeria through new payment and financial services solutions and expand its customer base among passengers, drivers and merchants.

“SafeBoda welcomes Google to their community and are excited to continue to drive innovation in informal transportation and payments in the Boda Boda (motorcycle taxi driver in East Africa) or okada (West Africa) industry,” said Ricky Rapa Thomson, SafeBoda co-founder, in a Technext report.

“As a former Boda driver in Kampala, I know that we are the lifeblood of Africa’s cities and we power economic development. SafeBoda is thrilled that leading global companies such as Google see the importance of backing start-ups working towards these goals,” he said.

The SafeBoda app launched in 2017 and now serves more than 1 million customers through ride-hailing, package delivery, food and shopping, payments, savings and other financial services.

Google’s Africa Investment Fund is part of the company’s five-year plan to invest $1 billion in five years on digital transformation across Africa. The fund will dole out $50 million to startups there and give them access to Google’s employees, network and technologies.

Google trained more than 6 million people in 25 African countries and supported more than 50 nonprofits across Africa with more than $16 million in investments as well as powering hundreds of millions of Africans to access internet services for the first time through Android.

“I am thrilled about our first investment from the $50 million Africa Investment Fund that we announced two months ago,” said Nitin Gajria, managing director for Google in Africa, in the announcement.

“This is part of our ongoing commitment to tech startups in Africa,” he said. “I am of the firm belief that no one is better placed to solve Africa’s biggest problems than Africa’s young developers and entrepreneurs. We look forward to announcing subsequent investments in other startups.”

SafeBoda last week hit a milestone of 100,000 rides in Nigeria.

Related: Google Pledges $1B to Boost Internet, Startups in Africa

In October, Google partnered with nonprofit Kiva on $10 million in low-interest loans for small businesses in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.