Gokada is raising $200k to keep the engines running

Raise or die for one of Africa's mobility pioneers

“Nigeria is God’s experiment with the impossible.”
— Dele Giwa

It’s comforting to know that Nigeria isn’t the only theater of the absurd. This week, Trump’s tariffs tanked global markets, until a CNBC news report claimed the tariffs were being lifted, sparking a short-lived rally. The White House called the news fake, then, just 24 hours later, suspended the tariffs for everyone except China.

I know. It’s a lot. Breathe.

If Americans are only just learning to deal with governmental absurdity, Nigerians know that the unexpected is woven into how we live, govern, and build companies.

Sometimes, the government is the weapon fashioned against your startup. Other times, your optimism and overexposure to one risky model can come back to bite you. In Gokada’s case, it’s a bit of both.

In late 2024, the once-buzzy bike-hailing startup filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court. It was a continuation of a tough media run for the startup. Since 2020, the company has had three rounds of layoffs, one near-acquisition, and a founder’s tragic murder.

Still, the filing gave us a clear window into how far things had slid: Gokada had racked up $6.7 million in debt, with $5.2 million of that unsecured.

Chapter 11 means the company is trying to reorganize that debt while staying operational.

But here’s the part that isn’t public: while waiting for court approval on its restructuring plan, Gokada is also raising $200,000 to stay alive. Three people with knowledge of the situation told me the company has made significant progress toward its goal. All three asked not to be named discussing a sensitive company matter.

Gokada’s CEO, Tosin Oni, declined to comment on any part of this story.

This is the kind of story that makes people pause mid-scroll and ask, “Wait: whatever happened to Gokada?”

Gokada launched in 2018 with a simple, irresistible proposition: make Lagos okada rides safer and more predictable, using an app and standardised bikes. The branding was smart: green helmets with the cheeky G-spot logo (get your mind out of the gutter). It didn’t hurt that the bikes looked good and the fares were relatively cheap.

Investors didn’t need much convincing. Southeast Asia had already shown what was possible with Gojek and Grab. In 2019, Gokada raised $5.3 million in a Series A round while Max.ng raised $7 million. ORide, backed by Opera, was also in the mix, though it never disclosed how much it raised.

Competition intensified. A price war ensued. Everyone was trying to own the roads. Gokada even took the battle to the seas and launched a boat-hailing service(GBoat).

Ayodeji Adewunmi, then co-CEO, was optimistic.

“It’s a space that’s receiving a lot of attention. We’re experiencing something similar to what we experienced in e-commerce three or four years ago,” he told Arise TV in 2019.

He also spoke about expanding to other African countries. VC money and (expensive) expansions go hand in hand.

In August 2019, founder Fahim Saleh briefly “shut down” Gokada to announce Gokada 2.0: new bikes, free training, and company-supported maintenance. The plan sounded generous. In hindsight, maybe too generous, considering the startup’s other costs.

Here’s how Gokada (and ORide) worked: it bought the motorcycles upfront (around ₦200,000 per unit) and then put riders on a hire-purchase plan. According to a 2019 article:

“They deliver ₦2,000 per day to ORide, no matter how much they earn. New riders remit ₦1,000 daily for the first two months. After 12 months, the motorcycle becomes theirs.”

It was simple, if capital-intensive. Without a third-party financing the purchase, it meant Gokada would be on the hook if the unexpected happened. And that’s exactly how it played out.

In February 2020, the Lagos State government banned motorcycles for passenger transportation in most local government areas. Despite intensive lobbying, the government held firm. The bike-hailing sector was dead.

Unlike Max, Gokada hadn’t expanded outside Lagos. Unlike ORide, it didn’t have other verticals to lean on. It laid off 80% of its workforce and pivoted to delivery.

The pivot worked to an extent and Gokada became a familiar face in logistics. But the model stayed expensive. The company was still buying bikes, handling repairs, and still bleeding cash.

In 2024, that changed. According to a TechCabal article:

“We thought to ourselves, what can we do to stop this? If we had continued, the business would have closed down,” said Gokada CEO Omotosho.

Gokada stopped buying bikes for drivers, opting instead to connect them with financing partners, while focusing on collecting payments. Leaner, scrappier, and a lot more pragmatic.

But given how much cash it has burned in the past, these late-hour reinventions can’t work without new capital injection. So for now, the company hopes $200,000 can work the trick required to buy time and maybe find success.

When one looks back at its story, there was no one moment when it all fell apart. Just a series of tough breaks, compounded by timing and public policy. If you want employee perspective, you can check the company out on Glassdoor.

Bonus: You know you’re deep in the trenches of B2C (Business-to-customer) when you launch an app and spend the next two weeks in the press for stories of trademark wahala and questions around licencing. Let’s hope the worst of the coverage is over and Zap can now face the real hurdle of putting the product in the hands of its target market. In the meantime, repeat after me: B2C is the ghetto.

Links I swear I read:

The founder of an AI startup that raised $50 million has been charged with defrauding investors. You can also read a 2022 investigation into the startup here.

There’s many reasons to marvel at the world and here’s my latest one: you can pay a Spanish guy 500 Euros to crash your wedding. “I’ll show up at the ceremony, claim to be the love of your life, and we’ll leave hand in hand.” Damn.

And as I continue to marvel…this article about men with an OnlyFans addiction

Bonus: I found this quote in a The Information article from 2022 and it stuck with me: “Across the startup landscape, there is a realization that a lot of companies had a great story, but their reality.People are waking up and saying these valuations cannot be sustained.” – Keval Desai, an investor at InterWest Partners who previously backed e-commerce firms such as The RealReal.

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See you on Sunday!