Metro Africa Xpress (MAX), a Nigerian mobility financing startup, laid off about 150 staff, 30% of its workforce in January, in line with two folks acquainted with the corporate’s operations. The cuts come as MAX kicks off plans to finance 120,000 electrical autos (EVs) throughout Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon—thrice the mixed variety of electrical and inside combustion engine (ICE) autos, bikes, and tricycles it financed in 2024.
A MAX spokesperson instructed TechCabal that the restructuring was mandatory for the corporate’s transition to solely financing EVs. Beforehand, MAX supplied a mixture of electrical and ICE autos, some priced round ₦2 million (about $1,280) in 2024, and used a rent-to-own mannequin with day by day subscription charges.
“This choice was not made evenly,” the corporate wrote in an e-mail, emphasising its appreciation for affected staff and outlining help measures together with medical health insurance and job placement help. Nonetheless, MAX declined to touch upon the variety of jobs impacted.
One laid-off worker instructed TechCabal that the termination e-mail vaguely cited efficiency opinions, suggesting particular person efficiency points. “It wasn’t till later that I spotted it was a mass layoff,” stated the worker who requested to not be named to talk freely. The terminations had been efficient instantly and no financial severance packages had been supplied.
Past the layoffs, MAX has carried out cost-saving measures, together with diminished vitality consumption and generator utilization at its workplaces, in line with a extremely positioned employees who requested to not be named as they don’t seem to be the spokesperson for the corporate. The corporate confirmed these measures, stating the intention is to minimise its carbon footprint for the sake of the setting. “We’re investing considerably in vitality sources to energy our enterprise areas and battery swap stations,” MAX stated in an e-mail to TechCabal.
In November 2024, MAX partnered with PASH International, a renewable vitality and affect funding agency, to speculate $10 million to develop a community of EV charging stations throughout city centres in Nigeria.
MAX, which beforehand manufactured its electrical bikes, now sources them from authentic tools producers (OEMs) like Spiro. One automobile prices as a lot as $900, the extremely positioned MAX worker instructed TechCabal. With a goal of 120,000 autos, MAX faces vital capital calls for to help its growth.
Since 2019, MAX has raised about $63 million, a mixture of fairness and debt financing, to gas its progress. In 2020, the startup floated a ₦10 billion multicurrency bond ($22 million on the time) from which it secured a ₦400 million ($1 million) one-year fixed-rate be aware. Its final disclosed increase, in 2022, noticed the corporate safe $24 million by way of a personal placement beneath SEC Rule 506(b), permitting it to boost capital from “refined buyers” with out public solicitation. Elevating debt financing has allowed the corporate to reduce dilution.
Based in 2015 by Adetayo Bamiduro and Chinedu Azodoh, MAX has undergone a number of strategic pivots. Beginning as a supply service, it later expanded into ride-hailing and now focuses on automobile financing. This evolving technique displays the corporate’s efforts to adapt to the quickly altering mobility panorama.
Editor’s be aware: The article has been edited to replicate that Adetayo Bamiduro and Chinedu Azodoh are the one co-founders of MAX. Man-Bertrand Njoya who was beforehand listed as a co-founder was employed as a CFO till Might 2023.
