Roam’s crowd raises $100,000 in 24 hours

November 20, 2025

Dear subscriber,

We know fundraising is a key strengths in the race to dominate the African electric motorcycle market. Innovation matters, of course, but in the end market leadership may come down to money. That makes innovative fundraising a potential superpower.

Brian Ambani – Editor 

Electric motorcycle startup Roam has raised $100,000 in 24 hours from retail investors in its debut crowdfunding campaign that went live on Wednesday. The campaign is being conducted through European crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. Roam plans to raise $2 million in the short term. The firm has also received $1.48 million in pledges from professional investors.  

  • Roam plans to use the money to scale production, launch in more markets, and expand charging and service locations. 

  • The company says it has annual recurring revenues of about $8.6 million. With 55 million motorcycles forecast for Africa by 2030, Roam sees a $15.5 billion addressable & serviceable market opportunity, with $1.2 billion in Kenya. 

  • Our take: The performance of the crowdfunding campaign could impact Roam’s valuation narrative heading into its Series B… Read more (2 min)

The Mobility Rising labour index is by 1.04% in the past month as measured by the change in the number of open jobs, companies advertising jobs, and the most recent shift in our sector salary survey. It also includes the change in the total staff size and the attrition rate at 25 select companies. Included are senior staff listed on LinkedIn. 

  • The index grew from 1,942.11 in October to 1,962.31 in November. This was mainly driven by an increase in the number of open jobs, and the number of companies that advertised jobs. 

  • The number of senior staff at the top 25 companies grew from 4,032 in October to 4,136 in November, but the rate of growth over the last 12 months slowed down during the same period.  

  • Our take: Expect a wider gap between the pace of hiring by a few well-funded companies and smaller, less well capitalised ones … Read more (2 min)

Mobility Rising spotted 13 new roles this week, lower than the average of 21 jobs per week over the past month. All the jobs are in East Africa. Kenya was represented by Zeno and Ampersand, while Rwanda featured roles from Spiro, BasiGo and Kabisa. Ethiopia had roles from Dodai. Tanzania and Uganda were represented by Watu Credit and M-Kopa, respectively.

  • The decline in open roles may be attributed to the aggressive, back-to-back hiring seen over the past four weeks. Companies are still vetting new talent as they wind up Q4 2025 and prepare for the year ahead. 

  • Most roles advertised this week focus on technical skills in logistics, service, maintenance and battery swapping, with all positions in Rwanda falling into this category. Administrative and sales roles follow closely behind.

  • View the jobs here… (2 min)

Kabisa hands over 2 Radar electric pickups to the Bank of Kigali (Source: Kabisa)

Events

📅 Attend the The Kenya National Public Transport Summit (Nov 26)

📅 Register for EV Revolution Africa Conference in Ghana (Dec 3)

📅 Book a slot at the EVs Electrify Egypt (Dec 12)

Various 

📝 Read NAAMSA’s business review report for Q3 2025

🔌 EV charging stations are coming to Cameron

🚗 SHOVeBike secures full commercial insurance for its fleet & riders

Seen on LinkedIn 

Matt Lloyd, Managing Director of AVA, says, “It’s interesting how often the first question people ask about an electric vehicle is: “How far does it go on a single charge?” Yet most of us hardly drive 30% of that range in a typical day.”