Nadya Eka Lestari
TechInAfrica — Central Africa’s first on-demand ride-hailing platform, CanGo, has reportedly shut down its operations due to the inability to raise sufficient funds.
According to a report, this move traced through a mail sent from the startup’s co-founders to an investor. The report claimed that the startup’s current funding strength was not enough to bring them to a series A which will not turn out as a huge risk any investor would be willing to take.
“The co-founders decided that the funds it has [sic] committed to the SAFE as of now, US$180,000, are not sufficient to bring us [sic] to a healthy Series A without an ‘irresponsible risk the investors willing to put that money in.’”
It was said that an alternative move would have been bootstrapping a pivot, but the co-founders were discouraged taking a cue from SafeMotos’ outing in Rwanda, when the ride-hailing platform began in 2014, according to the report. It also added that the best opportunity is to halt the operations while, when the business still owes the employees, there is enough money in the bank to pay them.
Stated in an interview last year, Barrett Nash, the company’s CEO, expressed optimism that new investments were in the tunnel after the $1.1 million funding round raised earlier in the year.
“To date, we’ve raised $1.8 million from investors and we are looking actively for additional investors that bring greater strategic value inside the African continent, especially Congo,” he said.
As the case is, with anticipated investments not forthcoming, we suspect Nash’s high prospects from CanGo’s first-mover advantage in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its super-app plans may have to come up against this obstacle.
Nash had not confirmed this report, at the time of article writing. This article will be updated when new details appear.
Source: techpoint.africa
