Lagos-based on-demand motorcycle taxi app, Gokada on Friday said it will increase its daily rides by 10 fold, expand driver fleet and acquire local tech with its $5.3 million investment.
The funding led by San Francisco-based Rise Capital with participation from Adventure Capital, First MidWest Group, IC Global Partners and several local investors, will also help the company explore new verticals for business growth.
Although it is a relatively new player (launched in 2018 by Deji Oduntan) in the transport sector, Gokada has nonetheless, transformed the way Lagosians commute and reduced the hours spent in traffic significantly. According to a statement from the company, BusinessDay received riders can get to their destination 50 per cent quicker than travel by car.
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It became very popular when the Akinwunmi Ambode led administration banned movement of all 100 cc motorcikes because the pulic perception that they were unreliable and unregulated, thus paving the way for the new players with 200 cc motorbikes to scale.
“Our green Gokada motorcycles have become a regular feature of Lagos’ roads in the 14 months since our official launch,” said Fahim Saleh, co-founder and co-CEO of Gokada. “Gokada was built with the intention of becoming the future of two-wheel transport in West Africa, and we are fast becoming the go-to platform to hail a motorcycle ride in Lagos. Today’s announcement allows us to accelerate our growth projections significantly, as we continue to grow our market share and look to introduce more product features and services.”
READ ALSO: How Gokada, motorbike hiring service platform is reducing unemployment
With Gokada, riders can hail drivers via its mobile app which is available on Android and iOS. Since its launch, the number of okada, in Gokada’s fleet has grown from 20 to about 1,000 manned by trained, insured and verified drivers kitted out with helmets which as approved and certified by the US Department of Transportation and completed (DOT). The company has completed nearly one million rides since inception and about 5,000 rides across Lagos are completed each day. Its customer base has also surged to over 100,000.
With the funding, Ayodeji Adewunmi, director at Rise Capital and the co-founder and former CEO of Jobberman, will join Saleh as co-CEO of Gokada. Former CEO Deji Oduntan will be stepping down from his role at the company as part of the funding round.
“It is an incredible time to be joining Gokada on this journey to transform transportation in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. I am truly excited about the promise of Gokada becoming the operating system of how cities function optimally and efficiently across Africa. There is no doubt in my mind that this will become one of the most important companies in Africa,” said Ayodeji Adewunmi.
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