{"id":44731,"date":"2021-11-02T01:42:23","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T01:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/ampersand-rwanda-ltd-secures-us-9-million-debt-facility-from-the-u-s\/"},"modified":"2021-11-04T04:58:43","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T04:58:43","slug":"ampersand-rwanda-ltd-secures-us-9-million-debt-facility-from-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/ampersand-rwanda-ltd-secures-us-9-million-debt-facility-from-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Ampersand Rwanda secures US$9 million debt facility from U.S. International Development Finance Corporation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda, Ampersand assembles and finances electric motorcycles (\u2018e-motos\u2019 or \u2018e-bodas\u2019) that cost less to buy and operate, and perform better than the 5 million petrol motorcycle taxis in use across East Africa &#8211; all with up to 83% less carbon emissions. <\/p>\n<p>The core of Ampersand\u2019s business is the network of battery swap stations and fleet of batteries Ampersand builds and operates. This system allows drivers to swap batteries faster than refilling a tank with petrol and shields vehicle buyers from the high upfront cost of a lithium battery pack. Since its commercial launch in May 2019, Ampersand\u2019s team has performed over 50,000 battery swaps, powering Ampersand\u2019s fleet of 56 drivers for over 2 million kilometers.<\/p>\n<p>DFC\u2019s US$9 million loan will allow Ampersand to scale up the number of electric motorcycles on the road in Rwanda and Kenya to several thousand by the end of 2022. The loan is part of DFC\u2019s Portfolio for Impact and Innovation (PI\u00b2) initiative and contributes to DFC\u2019s commitment to the U.S. Energy Compact and its target to address climate change with one third of its investments by 2023.<\/p>\n<p>DFC\u2019s facility builds on a US$4 million Series A round Ampersand secured earlier in 2021, which was supported by Silicon Valley investor Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF) and TotalEnergies. <\/p>\n<p>DFC\u2019s investment also builds on early-stage support Ampersand received from USAID\u2019s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), Rwanda\u2019s Green Fund and the UK Government\u2019s Frontier Technology Livestreaming initiative among others.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the development, Josh Whale, Founder and CEO of Ampersand said: \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to have DFC on board with this historic investment, which is building momentum to electrify all of East Africa\u2019s 5 million motorcycle taxis by 2030. DFC\u2019s support underlines the viability and investability of electric two wheelers for mass-market customers in the Global South, and the importance of this market to reaching net zero. On the eve of COP26 in Glasgow we believe more bold, fast-moving and innovative funds like PI\u00b2 are urgently needed.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>DFC\u2019s Chief Climate Officer Jake Levine has revealed that the institution is proud to support Ampersand in their important and innovative work bringing e-mobility and electric motorcycles to Rwanda and Kenya. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDFC is focused on making impactful investments in developing countries that will help communities progress and grow while simultaneously building resilience and prosperity for a clean energy future &#8212; this investment and the incredible growth that Ampersand has demonstrated in the market represents a great step in that direction,\u201d she said.  <\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-39935 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/ampersand_rwanda_ltd_e-motos_rukundo_-_swap_-_wide_view_1_.jpg\" alt=\"DFC\u2019s US$9 million loan will allow Ampersand to scale up the number of electric motorcycles on the road in Rwanda and Kenya to several thousand by the end of 2022.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Ampersand Rwanda Ltd, Africa\u2019s first electric motorcycle company has secured a US$9 million loan facility from the United States (U.S.) International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to expand its operations in Rwanda and Kenya. The deal represents DFC\u2019s first loan for electric mobility and signifies increasing investor confidence in Africa\u2019s rising e-mobility sector.}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-44731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44731"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=44731"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=44731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}