This strategic funding positions Zimi to scale its end-to-end EV ecosystem with fleets. The DBSA’s involvement is a strategic positioning of South Africa within the global green economy.

“The DBSA is committed to building Africa’s prosperity through sustainable infrastructure,” said Ms. Phindile Masangane, Group Executive: Programmes from the Development Bank of Southern Africa. “Our investment in Zimi is a calculated move to support a project that provides essential EV charging infrastructure and management services to corporate clients. We recognise that Zimi is not just a service provider, but a critical architect of the new energy economy. This partnership is a testament to our belief that South Africa is ready for the EV shift, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this historic transition.”

Within the South African context, where grid constraints and high upfront costs have hindered EV adoption, Zimi is delivering a turnkey solution that ensures reliability, a customer experience tailored to fleets, and customed integration into existing operational systems to reduce change management across fleet and logistics organisations.

“This funding is instrumental in helping us make EVs possible for fleets across South Africa,” said Michael Maas, CEO and founder of Zimi. “Our funders are more than investors; they are door-openers who share our vision of shifting all commercial vehicles in South Africa to EVs”.

By providing a seamless ecosystem of best-in-class electric vehicles suited to fleets, charging infrastructure, solar and energy management systems, we empower fleets to transition from diesel to electric without downtime, saving money from day one.”

Zimi’s approach centres on financial flexibility and de-risking the transition for commercial fleets. Backed by this landmark institutional funding, Zimi is uniquely positioned to offer agile, tailored financial paths, supporting both outright upfront purchases and its pioneering Full Maintenance Lease (FML) model. This funding enables Zimi to accommodate diverse procurement strategies, whether an organisation prefers to own its assets or eliminate heavy capital expenditure by converting costs into predictable operational expenses. By offering these versatile structures, Zimi provides fleets with the financial freedom to transition on their own terms, allowing businesses to immediately decouple from volatile fossil fuel markets while achieving up to a 90% reduction energy costs per kilometre from day one.

To accelerate this transition, Zimi’s recent R50 million funding round was led by the DBSA, with Keyo Ventures and a strategic group of angel investors completing the round. This capital injection provides the vital momentum needed to scale the company's proven framework across the region.

Maas continued. “This capital will immediately enable us to expand our existing customer sites and pilots, while opening up the conversation with many additional fleets. Over the next 18 months, our targets are ambitious but fully achievable: we are aiming to deploy around 200 commercial fleet stations and 2,000 EVs, making commercial e-mobility a highly scalable, frictionless reality.”