The problem
Lagos traffic is among the worst on earth, and the commercial motorcycle — the okada — is the only vehicle that threads through it. But okadas ran informal and unsafe: no training, no helmets, no accountability, no app. Gokada set out to formalise the fastest seat in Lagos.
How it works
At launch, passengers hailed uniformed, trained Gokada riders through an app and paid per trip. When Lagos State banned commercial motorcycles and tricycles across most of the city in early 2020, CEO Fahim Saleh pivoted the fleet to parcel logistics (GSend) and food delivery (GShop) — even floating a 24-passenger Gokada boat service. By February 2024 the company had gone asset-light, owning only 10% of the 5,000 bikes on its platform and matching third-party riders to orders.
Pain points
Commuters losing hours to gridlock; riders earning on unsafe, unregulated bikes; and after the ban, merchants and customers needing reliable last-mile delivery while the naira’s collapse kept pushing costs up.
Business model
Commission per ride on bike-hailing, then fees per delivery order on logistics and food — eventually earned without owning the motorcycles at all.
Why it worked (or didn’t)
It didn’t survive. The early model clearly worked — about 1 million trips by 2019 and a $5.3M Series A — but the February 2020 ban made 80% of the workforce redundant overnight and forced a 70% layoff. The delivery pivot bought years, not profitability: a 2023 GetEquity crowdfunding attempt ($750,000 at a $10M valuation) fizzled, acquisition talks with logistics firm Kwik never materialised, and CEO Olutosin Oni told investors the company had been “on the brink of shutting down for the entirety of 2024,” blaming naira depreciation for elusive profitability. In October 2024 Gokada filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware: $5.2M in liabilities ($1.8M owed to its 20 largest outside creditors) against $560,000 in assets and $64,000 in cash, with year-to-date gross revenue of just $118,988 versus $268,779 in 2023.
Challenges
A single regulatory decree erased the core business; leadership churned (Oduntan out, Saleh then Adewunmi, Oni from 2022); currency collapse made unit economics unfixable; and cost-cutting to an asset-light model could not outrun the debt.
Funding
- Raised: $5.3M Series A in 2019 (TechCabal); later attempted a $750,000 community crowdfund via GetEquity in 2023.
- Valuation: MISSING.
- Status: failed — Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filed October 2024; lead investor Rise Capital “no longer able to single-handedly shoulder the economic burden” (CEO email via TechCabal).
Latest — January 2025
On 8 January 2025 TechCabal reported Gokada’s October 2024 Chapter 11 filing in Delaware, with CEO Olutosin Oni’s investor email confirming the company spent all of 2024 on the brink of shutting down and would use the filing to restructure its debts and attempt a turnaround.