Dr. Obi Ozor, co-founder of freight logistics startup Kobo360, is making an attempt a high-stakes revival after reclaiming management of the corporate by means of an fairness switch. His multi-year turnaround plan hinges on restructuring ₦10 billion owed to companion banks and securing new financing to restart operations by Q2 2025, in line with two individuals near the corporate.
However the path again is difficult. Kobo360’s future will depend on successful long-term haulage contracts from main shippers, similar to producers and distributors, and convincing lenders that the enterprise can generate predictable money stream. These contracts are crucial for securing contract-backed financing, the place banks fund companies based mostly on assured future income.
In a WhatsApp message to just lately laid-off workers, a few of who Kobo360 nonetheless owes months of unpaid salaries, Ozor claimed the corporate was near sealing essential offers. He assured them that operations, which have been on maintain throughout a number of markets, would resume by Q2 2025, with plans to recall laid-off workers by 2026.
Earlier than its monetary troubles, Kobo360 was one of the crucial celebrated logistics-tech startups in Africa, elevating over $79 million in fairness and debt from traders together with Juven, Goldman Sachs’ Africa funding arm, the Worldwide Finance Company (IFC), and TLcom Capital. It expanded into Kenya, Ghana, Benin, and Burkina Faso, aggregating over 50,000 vehicles and serving main company purchasers similar to Unilever, Dangote, and DHL.
However its fast growth masked deeper monetary weaknesses. The corporate relied closely on short-term financial institution loans to finance fleet operations reasonably than sustainable income. A breaking level got here when a key banking companion out of the blue lower its credit score line, leaving Kobo360 unable to pay truck homeowners and suppliers.
As its monetary place deteriorated, some traders pulled out. Some refused to take part in follow-on funding rounds, whereas others wrote down their investments fully. In the meantime, key executives resigned. By late 2024, Kobo360 had paused operations in a number of markets, laid off workers, and by December, had all however shut down.
Regardless of the corporate’s dramatic fall, Ozor insists Kobo360 can get well, two sources acquainted with the matter informed TechCabal. He has assembled a lean workforce to execute a restoration plan centered on cost-cutting, debt restructuring, and rebuilding the corporate’s core operations. However questions stay in regards to the new enterprise mannequin it’s going to undertake or how shut it really is to securing financing.
Ozor stays assured, writing in a WhatsApp memo seen by TechCabal that “Corporations for over a thousand years have struggled, come to the brink of whole failure, and a few—by means of grace, luck, or grit—have pulled themselves out of the ashes to emerge much more resilient and profitable.”
Editor’s notice: The IFC says it has not transferred its funding in Kobo360. This text’s headline and physique have been up to date to right this error.