Nigerian mobility startup MAX has slowly evolved over the last seven years, from moto-taxi app to driver support community, and now it plans to raise US$100 million over the next year to permanently transform mobility across Africa.
Founded in 2015 by Adetayo Bamiduro and Chinedu Azodoh, MAX began life as a mobility platform that connects users to vetted professional motorcycle-taxi drivers via a mobile app. The startup has since completed millions of trips, and took part in the World Bank’s XL Africa accelerator in 2017.
MAX, Bamiduro told Disrupt Africa, was on a mission to “transform Africa”, but how it is doing that has changed over time. Now powering clean energy transportation technology on the continent, and already Africa’s largest, low-to-zero emission vehicle subscription and finance platform, MAX is going great guns. But it all started very differently.
“MAX was born from the understanding that the key to unlocking Africa’s development is to enable people and goods to move from point A to point B – safely, affordably, and sustainably. We also understood that this movement would not be driven by governments or large corporations, but by the millions of independent commercial drivers that operate on our continent,” Bamiduro said.
For that reason, MAX built a business centred on enabling entrepreneurial two, three and four-wheel vehicle drivers across Africa, though that business has evolved from the moto-taxi app platform it began as.
“As our driver community and our understanding of their needs grew – and as new technology has become available, we have branched out into new ways of serving their most pressing needs,” said Bamiduro.
“We fill a critical gap for independent commercial drivers in Africa, by providing access to a vehicle via a lease to own model as well as a range of value-added services – all bundled in a single affordable subscription. This means we are building the largest vehicle subscription and financial services platform for commercial drivers and transport operators across Africa.”
MAX’s proprietary technology enables drivers with no banking history to access low-to-zero emission vehicles, insurance, digital wallets and e-hailing services on a subscription basis.
“Since 2019, we scaled to over 15,000 drivers served, and have over 50,000 more in our pipeline. In the short-term, we are scaling our impact to 100,000 drivers across 10 cities in three countries. Our next goal is to then serve 14 million gig drivers across Africa’s US$250 billion mobility industry.”
Beyond that, MAX’s next focus area is developing products to help independent commercial drivers, and others in their communities, save money more effectively in good times, whilst providing responsible credit during adverse times.
“We are also pioneering the field of electric mobility – being the first company to design and supply electric motorcycles and three-wheelers specifically designed for Africa,” said Bamiduro.
“We are creating direct and indirect jobs via income-generating assets, technology, and continuous skill development training. We do this by deploying electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and battery swapping stations to propel the transition to clean mobility.”
MAX has proven attractive to investors, having raised over US$70 million in funding since inception from the likes of Lightrock, Global Ventures, Yamaha, Mastercard, Shell Foundation, Novastar, Goodwell Investments, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Techstars, and DLM Capital. Its Series B first close of US$31 million was delivered in December 2021, after which it announced plans to scale vehicle subscriptions, fintech products, and electric vehicles across Africa.
“In the next 12 months MAX will raise over US$100 million to permanently transform mobility across Africa. The diversity of our investors – geographically and strategic focus – is a major endorsement of our strategy implemented to date, the uniqueness of our proposition and the scale of our market opportunity,” Bamiduro said.
