Mobility app Moja Ride has partnered with Fintech O-CITY to fuel its digital innovation and future expansion plan in key West African markets.
Based in Ivory Coast’s capital city Abidjan, Moja’s partnership with O-CITY comes after a series of funding rounds from leading global investors, Orange Ventures, and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (“Toyota Tsusho”), and its group company CFAO SAS.
Founded in 2020 by Jean-Claude Gouesse, the Ivorian start-up allows commuters to book and pay for their rides digitally while enabling independent transport operators to manage their fleet, routes, and payment methods.
The app has onboarded over 35,000 share-taxis (“Woro-Woro”) and 8,000 mini-buses (“Gbaka”) since its launch and has been rapidly gaining market share across multiple transport services in Abidjan. With fresh funds in the kitty, Moja plans to expand its services in other West African countries piggy-backing on O-CITY that operates in 130 cities worldwide. O-CITY will enable public transport drivers to accept different payment methods from passengers, including QR codes, NFC, and prepaid cards.
The recharge is done either through mobile money or a network of agents. As a result, transport operators, owners, and drivers can also track their revenue in real-time and manage their fleet for the first time.
“The public transportation industry worldwide is becoming less dependent on proprietary closed-loop payment solutions. Africa, with little legacy infrastructure to slow down progress, has the potential to leapfrog the rest of the world by harnessing the benefits of mobile technology and payments processing solutions to deliver a better and safer customer experience for commuters and transportation providers.” Gousse said, adding that O-CITY’s technology is the key to accelerating the delivery of a frictionless payment.
Currently, thousands of independent owners and dependence on cash make it the mobility market difficult to ensure transparency in terms of pricing and operational management. Through O-CITY, Moja Ride hopes to overcome these bottlenecks.