Roam & Maintain It Cool Accomplice To Launch Electrical Chilly Chain Supply Community In Kenya

Final 12 months, the Clicks Group and United Pharmaceutical Distributors (UPD) partnered with Everlectric and Investec Sustainable Options to introduce South Africa’s first fleet of zero-emission, pharma-compliant electrical automobiles (EVs) with solar-powered refrigeration. This partnership makes use of Maxus eDeliver 3 electrical panel vans that have been chosen due to their purpose-built gentle industrial EV nature. They function light-weight composite supplies, a laser-welded aluminum chassis, market-leading lithium-ion batteries, and very excessive effectivity. The refrigeration compartment is fully powered by the van’s built-in photo voltaic panels. On the roof of the refrigeration compartment are 2 x 400W photo voltaic PV panels, offering a complete output of 800Wp. The refrigeration system is accompanied by an inverter and a battery system (with an MPPT Cost controller and a 200AH lithium-ion battery) to assist the refrigeration. This setup means the refrigerated compartment can run for as much as two days with out daylight. The automobile’s personal battery (50.5kW traction battery) can be used to energy the refrigeration unit if wanted.

We’ve got extra thrilling information for electrical chilly chain supply automobiles in Africa. This time from Kenya. Earthshot Prize Finalists Roam and Maintain It Cool (KIC) have teamed as much as launch a completely electrical cold-chain supply community in Kenya. Maintain It Cool is a Nairobi-based startup redefining meals provide chains in East Africa by means of its sensible chilly chain platform, Markiti. By integrating solar-powered chilly storage, hybrid transport, and direct-to-market know-how, the corporate drastically reduces post-harvest losses, improves provide chain effectivity, and ensures market entry for smallholder farmers and fishers. Its tech-driven strategy cuts meals waste by 98%, slashes emissions by 51%, and will increase incomes throughout underserved communities—proving that clear, inclusive logistics is feasible and scalable.

In a serious transfer for local weather resilience and meals safety, Earthshot Prize 2022 Finalist Roam and Earthshot Prize 2024 winners Maintain It Cool (KIC) have partnered to launch a completely electrical cold-chain distribution community, combining solar-powered refrigeration with clear electrical supply bikes. The collaboration is beginning with 5 Roam Air electrical bikes added to Maintain It Cool’s sensible cold-chain system. KIC already strikes greater than 250,000 kilograms of contemporary meals every week to over 4,000 small companies and 40 supermarkets throughout main cities in Kenya, together with Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Mombasa. Designed and inbuilt Kenya, Roam Air bikes carry as much as 240 kg and cut back working prices by as much as 75% in comparison with inside combustion engine (ICE) bikes, making them reasonably priced and sensible for supply companies.

There’s a extreme post-harvest-loss meals disaster in a variety of African nations attributable to insufficient transport programs and lack of adequate chilly chain amenities. This new partnership due to this fact marks a big step in addressing East Africa’s post-harvest disaster, the place almost half of fish and poultry is misplaced earlier than reaching markets attributable to an absence of chilly storage and transport. Maintain It Cool tackles this problem with solar-powered chilly rooms close to fishing ports, hybrid supply vans, and a digital platform that hyperlinks producers on to retailers with assured costs, serving to take away middlemen and enhance income.

To this point, KIC has helped over 5,600 fisherfolk elevate their incomes by greater than 15% and decreased post-harvest losses by 98% for over 1.5 million kg of meals. With Roam’s electrical bikes now closing the last-mile supply hole, the system is totally clear, from the purpose of harvest to the purpose of sale. Roam was not too long ago named Kenya’s fastest-growing firm by the Monetary Instances, expanded its gross sales and charging infrastructure providers out of Nairobi, and launched its new Roam Air Era 2, designed with enter from Kenyan riders.

Roam has simply launched the brand new Era 2 Roam Air, an upgraded electrical bike designed with direct enter from native bike riders. The nice factor is we are actually beginning to see rising numbers of electrical bikes from Roam and different gamers hit the street in Kenya. The KNBS Financial Survey Report (2025) exhibits that 68,804 new bikes have been registered in Kenya in 2024. Of those, 4,862 bikes have been electrical in accordance with information introduced by the Electrical Mobility Affiliation of Kenya (EMAK). Meaning 7.1% of all new bike registrations in Kenya in 2024 have been electrical. With all these electrical bikes hitting the street, it provides corporations similar to Roam a large alternative to get a variety of actual use case information from the customers of their electrical bikes. This information can then be used to make enhancements and adapt the product providing to satisfy customers’ wants. Roam has due to this fact integrated a variety of suggestions from customers of their Roam Air Gen 1 to provide the a lot improved Gen 2 Roam Air.

Maintain It Cool now will get to learn from the brand new and improved Roam Air 2. Maintain It Cool is ready to open the nation’s largest solar-powered cold-chain hub this 12 months, with a 70-tonne capability and a plan to achieve 1.6 million folks by 2030. By combining clear power, sensible logistics, and African-made know-how, Roam and KIC are proving that it’s attainable to develop rural incomes, cut back waste, and struggle local weather change — abruptly.

Elijah Gakomo, Gross sales Government at Roam: “This partnership exhibits how clear transport can drive actual affect, decreasing emissions, reducing prices, and strengthening native provide chains. Collectively, we’re proving that the way forward for logistics in Africa is electrical, environment friendly, and constructed at house.”

Abigail Gichigi, Operations Director at Maintain IT Cool: “Annually, we’re saving almost 400 tonnes of fish that will in any other case find yourself in landfills—by investing in environment friendly chilly storage and clear energy-powered chilly logistics. These improvements are making protected, reasonably priced meals distribution scalable. With our partnership with Roam, we’re accelerating this affect even additional—delivering tangible advantages for each folks and the planet.”

Jason Knauf, CEO of The Earthshot Prize: “This collaboration is a shining instance of pressing optimism in motion. Roam and Maintain It Cool are proving that cleaner air, more healthy lives, and higher prosperity are inside attain. It’s a robust reminder of what The Earthshot Prize was created to do: highlight daring concepts, again the good minds behind them, and present the world that change shouldn’t be solely attainable, it’s already taking place.”

The 2 partnerships — Everlectric, the Clicks Group, and United Pharmaceutical Distributors (UPD) in South Africa; and this newest one between Roam and Maintain It Cool — are nice examples to showcase the rising B2B offers that will likely be key drivers within the quest to catalyse adoption of electrical automobiles on the continent. These two are much more thrilling, as they’re serving to tackle the important chilly chain logistics sector.

Photographs courtesy of Roam