Nopea taxi fleet on sale after Kenya exit
Nopea late last year announced it was shutting down operations in Kenya after one of its majority shareholders declared insolvency.
A fleet of 66 cars owned by the electric vehicle taxi company, Nopea has been put on auction months after the firm ended services in the Kenyan market citing cash woes.
The liquidator of the company that operated under EkoRent Africa Limited said prospecting buyers have until March 8, 2023, to place bids for the units.
The company late last year announced that it was shutting down operations in Kenya after one of its majority shareholders declared insolvency.
The company also attributed its decision to shut down its operations in the country to the Covid-19 pandemic which it said had affected its business.
“Following the announcement that our majority shareholder, EkoRent Oy, has declared insolvency in Finland, we are sad to announce that InfraCo Africa Limited the minority shareholder has now filed for the liquidation of EkoRent Africa Limited in the High Court of Kenya,” the statement said.
NopeaRide service was first launched in Kenya in August of 2018 under the name NopiaRide by a Finnish company EkoRent Oy founded in 2014.
At the time, the company had only started with about three electric vehicles and two chargers.
However, towards the end of 2019, Nopea received new funding and placed orders for additional electric vehicles and chargers, a plan it said was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Many of the additional vehicles arrived in Nairobi at just about the same time when the strict Covid-19 curfew rules were put in place in March 2020.
Dropping overnight
“Those rules lead to daily kilometers driven by Nopea vehicles dropping approximately 60 percent overnight. The timing of these additional Nopea vehicles arriving in Kenya could not have been much worse,” the company said.
The company also linked its departure from the country to the failure to raise additional funding to support and expand its operations.
“When closing the initial equity round for NopeaRide, we had estimated the number of vehicles needed to break even in Kenya. We were still short of that number by around 20 vehicles and signed an agreement with a financing consultant in February 2022 to help us find the needed financing,” the statement said.
“Funds would be spent to break even by adding more vehicles in our Nopea fleet, piloting eBoda 2-wheelers that would not remain in our balance sheet and consume our resources as much as 4-wheelers, and to expand our services outside of Nairobi,” it added.
