Gokada Gets $5.3m for Expansion as Jobberman Founder Joins Firm

May 25, 2019
Gokada

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.

Dipo Olowookere

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan.

Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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