@thirdnetwork The $7M EV Play in Ethiopia 🇪🇹🔌 #ethiopia #ethiopian #startup #africa #africans @Dodai ♬ original sound - THIRD

🌺 Mintiwab of the Electric Dawn 🌅

Yalemwork Jemberu’s “Mintiwab / ምንትዋብ”, a song that celebrates cherished beauty and quiet devotion, becomes an unexpected but fitting echo to the story of Yuma Sasaki, the Japanese entrepreneur building Ethiopia’s fastest‑growing EV company. Just as Mintiwab praises what is precious and full of promise, Sasaki’s $7‑million‑backed venture Dodai embodies a new kind of admiration—one directed toward Ethiopia’s future: clean mobility, local innovation, and electric motorcycles designed for everyday life. The song’s emotional warmth mirrors the cultural optimism behind Dodai’s battery‑swapping vision, where affection for people becomes affection for progress, and where a love song’s tenderness aligns with a nation’s accelerating leap into sustainable technology.

🎶 🌅🚗🌀🧩🇪🇹🧵🫓🦁🏔️🌾🪘⛪🧥🎺🍲 🔊 Mintiwab / ምንትዋብ - Yalemwork Jemberu

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Ethiopia’s electric‑mobility revolution has an unlikely architect: a young Japanese entrepreneur who once dreamed of Africa long before he ever set foot on the continent.

Today, that dream has become Dodai — Ethiopia’s fastest‑growing EV company, powered by $7 million in patient Japanese capital and a vision for cleaner, smarter mobility.

🇯🇵✨ Tokyo Dreams, Addis Beginnings

Yuma Sasaki’s journey to Ethiopia started thousands of kilometres away at the University of Tokyo, where he imagined a career that would take him across Africa in energy and technology roles. After joining a major Japanese oil and gas company, he quickly realised the corporate ladder would never send him to the continent he longed to work in — so he quit. He moved to West Africa with PEG Africa, sharpened his skills at ESSEC Business School in France, and later joined Uber before becoming a founding member of Luup, a Japanese e‑mobility startup now valued at nearly half a billion dollars. But Africa kept calling. By 2021, Sasaki relocated first to Djibouti, then to Ethiopia, and in 2022 he founded Dodai — a company built to solve mobility challenges in one of Africa’s most complex markets.

🛵🌍 Tough Terrain, Tougher Vision

While most investors flock to Lagos, Nairobi, or Johannesburg, Sasaki deliberately chose Ethiopia — a market large, difficult, and often overlooked. He saw opportunity where others saw bureaucracy, logistical hurdles, and the challenges of a landlocked nation dependent on Djibouti’s ports. Yet he also saw momentum: Ethiopia’s rapid reforms in retail, banking, and real estate signalled a country opening to innovation. Dodai’s early breakthrough came in 2023 when the Ethiopian Postal Service became its exclusive partner, even before the company sold a single bike to the public. For Sasaki, difficult terrain simply meant deeper impact if he succeeded.

🔋⚡ Electric Dreams on Ethiopian Streets

Dodai manufactures and sells locally assembled lithium‑ion electric motorcycles priced between $1,200 and $2,000 — a game‑changer for delivery businesses and urban commuters. With ranges up to 150 km per charge and a shift away from outdated lead‑acid batteries, Dodai has already sold around 1,500 units in just 18 months. The company is now preparing to roll out battery‑swapping stations, allowing riders to exchange depleted batteries for fully charged ones within minutes. This model slashes upfront costs by up to 50% and makes electric mobility accessible to thousands more. A soft launch began in August, with a full rollout expected early next year — and Sasaki envisions 50,000 battery‑swapping users across Ethiopia within five years.

💴🇯🇵 Japanese Capital, African Patience

Raising money in Ethiopia is notoriously difficult, so Sasaki turned to Japanese investors who understood long‑term bets and were willing to learn Africa rather than fear it. Dodai has secured $7 million from backers including Nissay Capital, Inclusion Japan, and Musashi Seimitsu — investors who value patience over quick returns. Their support gives Dodai the freedom to experiment with battery‑swapping, software, and local assembly without the pressure of short‑term profitability. Sasaki believes this patient capital is one of Dodai’s greatest advantages, allowing the company to build infrastructure that lasts.

🏗️🌐 Local Hands, Continental Future

Although Dodai currently imports most parts for assembly, Sasaki aims to partner with Ethiopian manufacturers to create jobs and strengthen local industry. Ethiopia will remain the company’s testbed, but the ambition is continental: expansion into five or six African countries through local operator partnerships. For Sasaki, Dodai is proof that Africa can build sophisticated mobility ecosystems powered by software, data, and local production. His advice to entrepreneurs is simple — embrace complexity, look beyond the obvious hotspots, and recognise that the continent’s toughest markets often hold its greatest opportunities.

#ElectricDawn 🌅 #EVRevolution 🚗 #DodaiRise ✨ #TechMeetsAfrica 🌀 #JapanToEthiopia 🧩