Participated · Series A · Feb 2024

Roam designs, manufactures, and deploys electric motorcycles aimed at replacing the region’s dominant petrol two-wheelers with cleaner, lower-cost alternatives. The company assembles its bikes at a Nairobi factory and pairs them with battery-swapping and charging services to lower total cost of ownership for riders. Management sees a $1.2 billion addressable market in Kenya and a $15.5 billion opportunity across Africa and plans to expand into Eastern and Southern Africa while densifying its charging and service network. To fund this growth, Roam has attracted a mix of equity, debt, and now crowdfunding, accumulating more than $31 million to date. Its $24 million Series A earlier in 2023 combined $14 million in equity with $10 million in debt from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Equity backers include Equator Africa, At One Ventures, TES Ventures, Renew Capital, The World We Want, and One Small Planet. By coupling vehicle sales with infrastructure build-out, Roam positions itself as both a hardware manufacturer and an energy-network operator, a capital-intensive model that management believes will create long-term barriers to entry.