Nigerian taxi startup Max.ng raises $6m to launch in Ghana & Ivory Coast
Summary
Max uses data, machine learning and psychometric tests to push its financial services to would-be owners, verify and train drivers and onboard them to its platform among others. And just recently, former Jobberman CEO Ayodeji Adewunmi joined Gokada, another Lagos-based on-demand motorcycle taxi app as the firm raised $5.3m Series A round. Gokada said it will deploy its $5.3m investment to expand its driver fleet, increase daily rides by 10 fold and acquire local tech talent. Launched in 2018, Gokada says it has approximately 1,000 motorcycles and they have completed nearly one million rides since inception.Fahim Saleh, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Gokada added that, “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.” MAX.ng says it received the funds from similar investors in Singapore’s Grab which runs GrabTaxi, GrabCar, GrabHitch, GrabShare, GrabCoach, GrabShuttle, GrabShuttle Plus, GrabFamily, JustGrab, GrabRentals, GrabWheels, GrabFood, GrabExpress Beta, GrabPet among others. Launched in 2012, Grab has morphed from a ride-hailing service worth almost nothing to a valuation of close to US$14 billion after its March $1.46b Series H round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund.