Afrigather Gokada, considered one of Nigeria’s most distinguished last-mile delivery companies, has pivoted to an asset-light mannequin amid efforts to lift funding, two sources near the corporate instructed TechCabal. Oluwaseun Omotosho, the corporate’s COO, additionally confirmed the strategic shift–which kicked off in 2022–to TechCabal.
Going asset-light implies that Gokada owns solely 10% of the estimated 5,000 bikes on its platform. Drivers are onboarded as companions and are charged a fee for each order they fulfill.
Based in 2017, Gokada initially started with a hire-purchase settlement for drivers. The association concerned the corporate shopping for the bikes and charging a each day compensation charge unfold for as much as three years. The plan was to transform these drivers into companions upon finishing their funds. However this method proved pricey.
Since Gokada owned the bikes, it took on costly upkeep prices that bumped into tens of hundreds of {dollars} month-to-month between late 2021 and early 2022.
“We thought to ourselves, what can we do to cease this? If we had continued, the enterprise would have closed down,” Omotosho mentioned. The corporate reworked the hire-purchase settlement and handed the upkeep price to drivers. These selections helped Gokada develop its income in 2022, the corporate mentioned.
Gokada will not purchase bikes for drivers and can as a substitute join drivers who want bikes to financing corporations. It can solely handle the bikes and oversee fee assortment.
The corporate can also be in talks with traders to lift funding this yr, Omotosho mentioned, declining to offer further particulars.
In 2022, Gokada was looking to sell a competitor, Kwik Logistics, however the deal didn’t undergo. In February 2023, TechCabal reported the corporate was trying to elevate $100,000 via crowdfunding. The corporate raised $5.3 million in Sequence A funding in 2019.
Gone via the ‘worst section’
2020 was a tough yr for Gokada. A ban on two-wheelers in Lagos pressured the corporate to pivot from ride-hailing providers to the supply enterprise. It additionally laid off 80% of its workforce. Fahim Saleh, the corporate’s former CEO, was also murdered in his New York residence in the identical yr.
In February 2023, Gokada laid off at least 54 employees, citing harsh macroeconomic situations. It additionally needed to turn out to be a leaner operation, lowering its two places of work into one and renegotiating phrases with a few of its distributors. The COO mentioned no worker has been let go for the reason that final layoffs and the workers depend is now round 30.
“We have now gone via the worst section. We’re not above the water but. This survival interval has allowed see what must be supported and what isn’t crucial,” he mentioned.
