88mph-backed Bus Ticketing Platform BookNow Raises $75000 From Local Angel Investors

88mph-backed BookNow, a bus booking platform has raised $75,000 from 10 angels including businessmen Mahendra K.D. Shah, Ravi Shah, Ritesh Doshi and four of 88mph’s investors and team members.

Confirming to TechMoran, Francis Gesora, Co-Founder and CEO of BookNow said, “We have raised $75,000 from angel investors and the bulk of this is going to be used on hiring customer support staff and to accelerating growth and also improve our product offering.”

Earlier the firm had raised $15,000 from 88mph to bring sanity to the public bus system which is used by the majority of travellers in Sub-Saharan Africa. BookNow, the first of its kind in East Africa gives users access to information on schedules, pricing, availability of seats as well as enabling them to book their bus tickets pre-travel to avoid congestion and commotion associated with last minute bus bookings.

The funds will also help BookNow continue its journey of bringing advantages in speed, information, cost and time savings to bus travellers and the industry. “We have been able to pull together an investor pool that brings strategic advantages to BookNow’s operations through their skills and expertise, which we are able to draw upon as we grow and expand,” he said in a statement.

Gesora together with a friend Michael Nguru founded the company in August 2013 and today, it is East Africa’s premier online bus ticket ordering service providing travellers the convenience of pre-booking their travel tickets online or on mobile phone for their journey’s in Kenya and Uganda.

The Nairobi-based company pegs its growth to its initial funding from pan-African seed fund 88mph.