Kenyan technopreneur Kamal Budhabhatti has announced plans to expand his ride-hailing firm, Little Limited, to the Ethiopian market following the launch of Safaricom in Africa’s second-largest economy, Business Daily reported.
“Ethiopia has always been on our sights,” Little CEO Kamal Budhabatti said. “When we saw Safaricom heading to Ethiopia, we got the courage to get there. It is a large market and we see an opportunity to extend our services there.”
Budhabhatti founded Little in collaboration with the telecom giant Safaricom in 2016. He is also the founder of Craft Silicon, a Kenyan tech company that provides software solutions for core banking, micro-finance, switching and electronic payments.
The Kenyan businessman is looking to invest an estimated $10 million (Ksh 1.08 billion) in the long term in the Horn of Africa market.
According to the Business Daily, Budhabhatti hinted that Little will initially invest $5 million (Ksh540 million) in the Ethiopian market within the next five years, plus an additional $5 million (Ksh540 million), depending on its growth trajectory.
In the Kenyan market, Little competes with global players such as Uber and Taxify.
In 2018, Reuters reported that the startup sold just under 10 percent of its shares to an unnamed Indian investor for $3 million.
Although Budhabhatti claimed the investment was unplanned, he assured that Little will still raise $100 million for pan-African expansion, hoping to raise funds from Silicon Valley.
As of 2019, Budhabhatti mentioned that Little was valued at $70 million to $75 million.
Little is currently active in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ghana.
