Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Lagos-based motorcycle hail company, Gokada, has secured a funding support worth $5.3 million to spread its operations across states of the federation.
Rise Capital led the Series A investment package with support from Adventure Capital, IC Global Partners and First MidWest Group.
In a chat with TechCrunch, co-founder of the company, Mr Fahim Saleh, explained that the financing would be used to increase its fleet and ride volume, while developing a network to offer goods and services to its drivers.
“We’re going to start a Gokada club in each of the cities with a restaurant where drivers can relax, and we’ll experiment with a Gokada Shop, where drivers can get things they need on a regular basis, such as plantains, yams and rice,” Saleh was quoted as saying.
The Bangladeshi entrepreneur who previously founded and exited Pathao, a motorcycle, bicycle and car transportation company, further said, “We don’t do anything with the fares. We want to create an Amazon Prime-type membership…and ecosystem around the driver where we’re going to provide them more and more services, such as motorcycle insurance, maintenance, personal life-insurance and micro-finance loans.”
“We’re trying to provide a network of great services for our drivers that make them stick with us, and not necessarily see a reason to switch to other platforms,” he added.
The development is coming when founder of Jobberman, a job searching website, Mr Ayodeji Adewunmi, is joining Gokada as co-CEO.
Gokada has trained and on-boarded more than 1,000 motorcycles and their pilots on its app that connects commuters to moto-taxis and the company’s signature green, DOT– approved helmets.
The startup has completed nearly one million rides since it was established in 2018.
