Shuttlers raises US$1.6m, plans pan-African expansion

In Nigeria, notably Africa’s largest country by population, shared transportation services are popular and lucrative, at least when done the conventional way: offline.

Currently, several millions of Nigerians use danfo, minibusses, and okada, and their primary means of commuting to their various workplaces and destinations. And in response to this flourishing trend, innovators in the mobility sector have begun looking for effective ways to digitize and disrupt the market.

While most mobility tech firms in Nigeria have focused on digitizing more personal two-wheelers and car-hailing options, there has been hardly any deliberate disruption in the bus-sharing and mass transit space.

Shuttlers, a tech-driven scheduled bus sharing firm, is actively working to alter that narrative. Following years of bootstrapping, the firm has now completed a seed funding round, raising US$1.6 million from a vast pool of investors. The new funding will help the startup scale both within Nigeria and beyond.

This round was led by Chicago and Africa-focused investment firm VestedWorld. Fintech unicorn Interswitch, Africa-centric VCs Rising Tide Africa, Launch Africa, EchoVC, Consonance Investment, CcHub Syndicate, CMC 21 & Alsa, ShEquity, Five35, Sakore, and Nikky Taurus also participated in the round.

Shutters was launched by CEO Damilola Olokesusi in 2016 with a vision to curb problems related to the efficiency and affordability of transportation in the country’s most renowned megacity, Lagos. Through its ridesharing platform, Shuttlers also offers firms better mobility options for their employees.