AFRICA – Heetch, a French ride-hailing company with operations in Morocco, Algeria, and Cameroon has raised US$4 million funds from Tunisia-based AfricInvest to expand its services to more countries in the Africa.
The fund joins its previous US$38 million Series B round which was raised in May 2019 from a mix of strategic investors and financial players led by Cathay Innovation and Total Ventures (the investment arm of the oil and energy giant.
Heetch was started in 2013 by Teddy Pellerin and Jacob Matthieu to fill what it saw as a clear gap in the market in Paris: providing rides to 20-somethings back to the outskirts and suburbs of Paris after late nights out in clubs in town.
Since inception the ride-hailing company has raised around $70 million (following from previous rounds of $12 million in 2017 and $20 million in 2018) with the latest addition from AfricInvest pushing that figure to US$74 million.
It has prudently used its funds to upscale operations and currently has a presence in France, Belgium, Morocco and the Ivory Coast, Algeria, Cameroon and aims to use the additional funds to expand into other Francophone countries.
The move by AfricaInvest to pump funds into the ride-hailing company speaks to both the untapped opportunity that investors (and founders) think still exists in the wider market.
It is also a testimony of the fact that many investors believe that Uber doesn’t address everything and everyone, and there remains room for more companies to approach the need to transport people in different ways.
In Africa, Heetch operates its ride-hailing services by partnering major Taxi unions. It permits commuters to use its app to order for rides as well as share rides.
The company also provides a Moto Taxi Service in Cameroon through which it offers exceptional training to drivers and seamlessly commutes Cameroonians. It will utilize the fund to expand to Tunisia, Senegal, and six additional countries.
