Intercity transportation in Africa to be reshaped, thanks to Yango Ventures' investment in BuuPass, aiming to revolutionize mobility services.
Yango Ventures, the corporate venture arm of global ride-hailing company Yango Group, has made a strategic investment in Kenyan mobility startup BuuPass. This investment is part of Yango Ventures' newly launched $20 million Africa-focused early-stage fund [1][2][3][4].
Background and Key Details
BuuPass, founded in 2016 by Sonia Kabra and Wyclife Omondi, operates a platform digitising intercity travel across Africa. Consumers can book buses, trains, flights, and parcel services through web, mobile app, USSD, and offline agents. Simultaneously, transport operators receive software for inventory, payments, and fleet management [1][3][4].
The platform has processed over $70 million in bookings and sold 20 million tickets in 2024, working with over 150 transport providers across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa (post-acquisition of QuickBus) [1][4].
Prior to this investment, BuuPass raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round in 2023, supported by investors including FrontEnd Ventures and Google for Startups Black Founders Fund [3]. Yango Ventures’ investment is both financial and strategic, with operational involvement from Yango going beyond capital, aiming to integrate intercity travel with urban mobility services across Africa [1][3].
Expansion Plans
BuuPass aims to leverage Yango’s backing to accelerate its expansion across the continent, becoming the "API for how Africa moves" by enabling more scalable and integrated mobility services [1][3]. The investment supports growth into new African markets beyond its current footprint in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, and Nigeria.
BuuPass intends to strengthen its software offerings to transport operators, boosting efficiency in ticketing, fleet, and logistics operations [1][3][4].
Impact and Future Prospects
BuuPass's digitisation efforts address fragmentation and reliance on cash-based transactions within Africa’s informal intercity transport sector, positioning the company as a critical infrastructure player for future growth [1][2][3].
By digitising Africa's largely informal long-distance public transport and logistics sector, BuuPass is well-placed to lead intercity ticketing and transport operations across Africa's rapidly digitising travel landscape, riding the wave of rising smartphone penetration and growing access to mobile payments and digital services.
Yango Group concentrates on urban mobility, but its backing of BuuPass provides a gateway into intercity travel markets. With this strategic investment, BuuPass is positioning itself as a foundational player in Africa’s evolving intercity mobility infrastructure.
[1] TechCrunch. (2025, March 23). Yango Ventures invests in Kenyan mobility startup BuuPass to fuel regional expansion and technology advancement. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/23/yango-ventures-invests-in-kenyan-mobility-startup-buupass-to-fuel-regional-expansion-and-technology-advancement/
[2] Business Daily Africa. (2025, March 23). Yango Ventures invests in Kenyan mobility startup BuuPass. Retrieved from https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/technology/yango-ventures-invests-in-kenyan-mobility-startup-buupass/
[3] TechCabal. (2025, March 23). Yango Ventures invests in Kenyan mobility startup BuuPass. Retrieved from https://techcabal.com/2025/03/23/yango-ventures-invests-in-kenyan-mobility-startup-buupass/
[4] Disrupt Africa. (2025, March 23). Yango Ventures invests in Kenyan mobility startup BuuPass. Retrieved from https://disrupt-africa.com/2025/03/23/yango-ventures-invests-in-kenyan-mobility-startup-buupass/
- Yango Ventures is not only providing financial resources to BuuPass but also aims to offer operational involvement, seeking to integrate intercity travel with urban mobility services across Africa, which is a significant step in the technology advancement of Africa's transportation industry.
- This strategic investment by Yango Ventures in BuuPass is part of their $20 million Africa-focused early-stage fund, which indicates an interest in expanding business in technology-driven transport solutions across the African continent.
