Untapped Global, an investment company focused on emerging markets, today announced the launch of its Climate Action Initiative with the support of a growing consortium of partners.
Untapped’s ‘Smart Asset Financing’ investment model provides asset financing to businesses across Africa. Smart Asset Financing uses IoT data and payments integration to track key metrics such as usage and revenue for the assets it finances, allowing for real-time due diligence, faster scalability, and lower risk.
Since 2021, Untapped claims to have established a network of mobility partners that manage over 30,000 vehicles across a half dozen countries, including most of the major economies of Africa such as Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
The consortium will integrate three essential components to accelerate the adoption of electric mobility in Africa:
- An established network of vehicle leasing companies with a proven ability to profitably deploy and manage thousands of vehicles in many regions;
- Validation and scaling of key early innovations in electric mobility; and
- Financing to shift up-front capital costs of EV to affordable ongoing payments that make the out-of-pocket cost of EV lower than that of petrol vehicles.
“The right kind of financing can make the daily out-of-pocket cost of riding an electric motorcycle cheaper than that of operating a petrol one – especially for small business operators and gig workers in Africa. That’s when the migration to EV will truly accelerate. Smart Asset Financing is key to this acceleration,” said Jim Chu, CEO of Untapped Global.
The company aims to achieve 25% electric vehicle adoption across its mobility partners by 2025, deploying over 10,000 EV’s, and displacing an estimated 240 metric tonnes of CO2 per year.
