MAX Okada

Adetayo leads the MAX Team and manages strategic relationships with investors, partners and regulators. Adetayo acquired an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he held dual fellowships at the MIT Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship and the MasterCard Foundation. He is also an Associate of the prestigious Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance - a Community of highly educated individuals spearheading social and business ventures across Africa. Earlier in his career, he built one of Nigeria’s first Mobile Asset Tracking Platforms. 

He then built a career in Product Management, Technology Strategy, e-Commerce and Management Consulting. Adetayo consistently delivered high impact products and platforms at Fortune 500 corporations and startups across 4 continents, including a Production Optimization Platform that generated $100m in revenue within its first year of launch. Adetayo pioneered the logistics division of one of Africa’s leading online e-Commerce marketplaces before founding MAX.

More than 80 Million Nigerians are economically disadvantaged and about 60% of this number are young people. Unemployment is in double digits, and high population-growth plus urban-sprawl encourages the continued growth of motorcycle taxis.

Through MAX, we have been able to develop an entire value chain that empowers economically disadvantaged youths with the  skills,  financing and technological platform to run a sustainable mobility business. 

Over the last 2 years, using this model, we have created direct jobs for 2500 drivers by providing them with  low cost financing for quality vehicle  acquisition, discounted comprehensive insurance, safety equipment  and training and technology. 

Our drivers currently take home between $10-$15 dollars daily therefore they are able to sustain themselves and their dependents. Small businesses that rely on our riders for logistics are also able to seamlessly connect to their customers using the platform. 

Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people. 47% of this population are poor.  It is estimated that there are over 2 million motorcycle taxi riders in Nigeria. Unemployment is in double digits, and high population-growth plus urban-sprawl encourages the continued growth of motorcycle taxis. Today, motorcycle-taxis provides direct employment to over 2 million Nigerians. 

While the growth of this industry has been rapid, safety and accessibility remain poor due to weak regulation and the fragmented nature of the informal sector. Informal motorcycle taxi riders do not have access to formal credit facilities and as a result, fall prey to predatory lenders who charge  up to 200% markup on the cost of  low quality assets. 

An average informal rider takes home less than $5 dollars per day after remitting the cost of the asset and other inefficiencies that could be avoided by technology adoption. Overall, millions of lives are dependent on this  sector and there is a crucial  need to build resilience in the sector.

To make the sector resilience, we have devised a comprehensive solution summarized below: 

Digital identities, defensive driving skills, quality vehicle financing, digital payments, electric vehicle infrastructure and an e-hailing platform (MAX.ng) that helps our riders connect to commuters and businesses in real time. We leverage exclusive manufacturer deals, low-cost credit, discounted insurance and a mobile marketplace to scale, and retain drivers and users on our platform.

This has ensured that the drivers on our platform take home about $15 daily and are able to improve their standard of living. 

Riders

An average informal motorcycle is faced with prohibitive cost of financing for asset acquisition, unsafe working conditions and other forms of vulnerability especially in a society with no safety nets. This ensures that they remain poor and may never break out of the poverty cycle. MAX provides low cost financing for quality assets and the riders fully own these assets within a 12-18 months repayment cycle. Provision of high quality helmets and strict compliance ensures the elimination of head injuries. Comprehensive insurance - life, vehicle, accident and health gives the riders adequate safety nets. Our business model essentially guarantees a substantial improvement in a rider’s standard of living. Currently, our rides makes 5x the national minimum wage (over 3x of what they earned as informal riders)

Commuters & SMEs

We provide commuters and small businesses  with access to safe and affordable  mobility. We have served about 400,000 users, completed over 2 million trips, launched in 4 Nigerian cities. Our customers seamlessly connect with our riders with our mobile app and anonymity is eliminated. This guarantees security and safety. 

Our solution fits perfectly with the first dimension of the challenge which is primarily creating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind.

Our model is setup in a way that helps economically disadvantaged Nigerians to become small sustainable business owners by providing them asset financing, proper training and a digital platform that connects them to commuters and businesses in real time.

Through our technology and financial infrastructural provisions, they are provided with decent work, an opportunity to  escape  poverty and therefore able to  sustain  their families.

Having grown up with a father who was a professor, leveraging data to address poverty, and a mother who was an investor and social advocate, I have always been driven by an ambition to improve the world. I decided early on a life goal of developing critical, sustainable infrastructure for the African continent.

While  conducting research for Konga to support the development of a framework for last-mile delivery of packages, my desire to create a company. I realized that this was a “compelling problem and big opportunity” for scalable innovation and disruption.

Last-mile delivery struck him as a critical infrastructure need that was “preventing online business growth across every sector.” Additionally, since Nigeria’s small business economy was largely cash-based, another key challenge for ecommerce firms was reconciling online purchases with cash payments upon delivery.

Bamiduro discovered in 2015, there were over 9 million retailers in Nigeria, 99% of which were micro and small businesses. This discovery led to the creation of MAX as a last mile delivery startup and as we continued in the mobility business, we saw how big the problem and opportunity truly is which led to the holistic approach that we redeveloped our model into.

I have always had a passion for entrepreneurship and economic development even before founding MAX. While studying computer science as an undergrad in Nigeria, I founded a software development company and after graduating I had  developed one of Nigeria’s first mobile asset-tracking platforms, which allowed companies to remotely track and disable vehicles. 

I then spent some time as a consultant, and eventually became a product manager at a Shell Natural Gas Subsidiary where I launched a process control platform to help scale operations. Despite these personal successes, I felt frustrated by the lack of transparency in the oil and gas sector. 

At NLNG, it became clear that if I wanted to have a direct impact on Nigeria’s development, I had to leave my lucrative job and start a social enterprise that would deliver impact at scale. With this goal in mind, I  began a two-year MBA program at MIT Sloan in 2013 to acquire the entrepreneurial and scaling skills I felt I needed.

By the time I returned to MIT for my second year, my startup vision had crystallized and I devoted all my time to building a new company to transform mobility in Africa called MAX. 

I started my career in Nigeria’s tech and mobility. I studied Computer Science at the University of Ibadan, where I built one of Nigeria’s first mobility platforms. I moved on to build a stellar career as a Software Engineer, Product Manager and Management Consultant at leading companies such as the UAC Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, a Shell Gas Company, Konga.com and Dalberg. I  launched a Production Optimization Platform that generated $100M in revenue within one year.

I left a stellar career to study innovation, entrepreneurship and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and London Business School (from 2013 to 2015). While at MIT, I co-founded MAX alongside Chinedu Azodoh - my Co-founder. My mission at MAX is to make mobility safe, affordable, and accessible to 1 billion Africans within 5 years. Our work  has attracted a lot of support that has helped us grow our work at MAX . This was documented by MIT Sloan School of Management in a 16-page Case Study that is used to teach entrepreneurship at MIT. We have mobilized over $10m for this  mission.

I am a recipient of over 20 awards and fellowships. I was awarded the Mastercard Foundation and MIT Legatum Fellowships at MIT. I am an Associate and Gold Award recipient of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance - a community of African innovators described by The Economist Magazine as “Africa’s Secret Weapon”.

In January 2020, after enjoying an average MoM growth of 9% in 2019, the Lagos State Government famously announced the “Lagos Okada Ban” which essentially shut down almost 80% of our operations immediately because Lagos, being Nigeria’s largest city, was by far our biggest market.

After all attempts to convince government officials on why we should be exempted failed, we soon accepted the fact that our biggest market and major revenue driver is now out of our reach and we must do everything possible to survive. We quickly focused on new cities where we were already piloting, then again, the COVID-19 induced lock-downs arrived and restricted growth even further. These adversities are so harsh that it has successfully driven some of our biggest competitors out of the moto-taxi business but we have been resilient in our approach by embracing flexibility and adaptability.

We have piloted new projects that are exploiting these difficulties as opportunities, leveraging our past experiences. MetroGov is one of those new projects which partners with State Governments in Southwest Nigeria to enumerate, register,  train and licence  close to 50,000 informal transport operators in the State. It provides us access to a pool of drivers for our business. 

My parents have always somehow believed that I will play a major in Nigeria’s transformation and as a result, they have always taught me about the fact that true change-makers and leaders always place people over profits.

However, when we first launched our business, this belief encountered a very keen test. We had a large client for whom we provided last-mile delivery services. But, this customer harassed our drivers and really disrespected them; he repeatedly called them “stupid”. He will accuse them of late deliveries, although the orders were put in too late for same-day fulfillment. It got to a point where many of our drivers were deeply demoralized.

This situation was tough for us because we really needed the revenue – we were still a very young business – and this client was responsible for over 25% of our total revenue stream. We deliberated over what to do for two months.

As difficult as the situation was, I ultimately aligned with my values and prioritized our Riders’ comfort and happiness because in the end, improving the entire livelihoods of riders on our platform is what matters most to us - that is why we exist in the first place.

There is no doubt that the inventions needed to eradicate poverty already exist, the innovation lies in how we deploy these inventions to holistically defeat the menace of poverty in our society. While many aspects of the MAX model existed before MAX, it was mostly fragmented in a way that those who needed those services the most were disenfranchised. Basic medical insurance has always existed but rare for motorcycle riders. 

What makes MAX innovative is how our approach tackles poverty holistically.  We start by training them, helping them become properly skilled in defensive driving, then provide them with  asset financing for vehicle acquisition,  helmets and  smartphones . To provide safety nets for them, we provide them with medical insurance cover, vehicle insurance, accident insurance and life policy.  Using our platform,  they  seamlessly connect with customers in real time to ensure that they continue to generate revenues.  We believe that this is the most sustainable approach because it creates even bigger opportunities for the next generation to prosper and this is what we believe makes MAX one of the most innovative social enterprises in the world.

The MAX ToC comprises four major activities and they all have their respective immediate outputs, short-term, medium term and long term outcomes as outlined below.

1. Our Riders training & licensing program empowers our Riders with top-notch defense driving skills and identification tags that immediately results in the availability of well trained, traceable and licensed drivers to commuters in Nigeria. This in turn ensures that driving in Nigeria becomes generally safer and ultimately, road accidents are significantly reduced. Furthermore, being able to track riders and vehicles through our tracking system ultimately ensures that transport based crime is drastically reduced. 

2. Our asset financing and deployment program provides access to income generating assets for the unbanked with flexible repayment plans. This results in the short term outcome of drivers being empowered with wider access to 5x more customers and earn over 200% more income as a result of brand association. In the medium term, the drivers enjoy increased income and ultimately have improved livelihoods and access to basic medical insurance for themselves and their families. 

3. Our ride hailing program which leverages the use of technology to match trip requests to drivers on our platform which also enables real time trip analysis and tracking. A short term outcome is reducing the time wasted in traffic by more than 80% for commuters and also ensuring that they have access to safe transport in real time. In the medium term, this results in reduced traffic related stress for commuters and ultimately results in improved health for commuters and better productive use of time for commuters.

4. Our last mile delivery program connects retailers, farmers and small businesses last mile customers in real time, ensuring that they can deliver their goods in a reliable and efficient manner. In the short term, this enables small businesses access new and hard to reach customers, promoting electronically powered commerce across Nigeria. This enables small businesses to grow their individual customer bases and ultimately grow their income and create more sustainable jobs. 

You can also check out this Impact Report of our model and operations published by BFA Global and Shell Foundation. 

At MAX, we have served over 400,000 users and businesses and onboarded 2,500 drivers 

We primarily serve three target audiences;

1. Africans that live in communities with no access to safe and reliable mobility and are exposed to security and safety risks from unsafe service providers. 

2. Businesses (FMCG, SMEs, E-commerce) that require safe, quick  and affordable last mile delivery services.

3. Moto-taxi drivers that are not licensed and do not have any form of training in defensive driving and have no means of vehicle ownership  

We plan to serve a target population of 300 million  people across 50 cities within 5 years while  onboarding 100,000 drivers.

MAX's mission is to make mobility safe, affordable and accessible to 1 billion Africans. As an organization, our goal is to provide a decent source of income for the men and women who can ride a moto-taxi or are interested in learning how to ride as a source of income. We will also continue to create a safer, cleaner and more reliable and accessible means for people to commute. We are driven to create more opportunities and innovations that help our drivers to generate more income.

MAX completed its series A fundraising  in June 2019 and we are currently pursuing our next growth phase and would like to connect with strategic investors and partners with interest in 2-wheel and 3-wheel mobility. We’ve invested in launching 3 apps over the past 1 year and have achieved product-market fit in Africa.

We are partnering with auto-financiers and complementary digital platforms to drive user adoption, scale our technology, on-board more drivers and launch new cities in West Africa. We are also putting a good amount of money to accelerate growth and to take significant market share in the 300 million rides/day moto-taxi market in West Africa within the next year. Our ultimate goal is to make mobility safe, efficient and affordable for 1 billion Africans within 5 to 10 years and empower millions of drivers giving access to credit, financial freedom and promoting economic development.

One of the major barriers we've faced has been in the area of unlocking cheap non-collateralized financing of vehicles for drivers. We have faced other challenges such as absence of a large pool of skilled mobility experts, and some push back from local mafias controlling traditional transport operations. 

We are structuring  sophisticated modes of financing that guarantees sustainable and low cost financing. We have structured a receivable-backed private bond programme that significantly reduces our cost of financing to 12%. We have also structured a supplier financing with a major manufacturer  that further reduces the cost of financing to a single digit. 

We are working hard in partnering with Ministries of Transportation of various States and other Government institutions such as FRSC (Road Safety Agency) to drive adoption.

Apart from our key investors, have partnered with Investment banks, commercial banks and microfinance banks to provide financing. These include: 

• Dunn Loren Merrifield

• VFD Microfinance Bank

• Union Bank

• Mkobo

MAX operates a radically different model from traditional delivery and transportation companies in Africa. MAX neither owns vehicles nor hires full time drivers. MAX partners with drivers, and provides asset-finance and mobile apps that connect them with commuters and businesses in real time. Unlike other 2 and 3 wheeled ride hailing platforms, MAX has integrated a speed limiter into its motorcycle fleet to re-assure safety for commuters. We do not charge commuters on time spent commuting but strictly on distance covered. Most importantly, MAX provides drivers access to premium grade motorcycles.

MAX's apps use GPS addresses and google maps to navigate complex road networks, in addition to capturing user provided address descriptions and landmarks to guide riders. This helps MAX riders navigate faster than traditional motorcycle taxis.

MAX is turning Infrastructure barriers into Competitive Advantage by creating its own driver licensing system, building a network of credit providers, implementing an IoT network to secure vehicles, providing digital wallets to drivers and enabling mobile payments. MAX uses transaction data to build credit history and provide financial services to drivers.

We make money from asset-finance and leases. We add a 15% to 20% margin to the cost of financing and on-boarding drivers. MAX enforces the use of helmets for both drivers and passengers, provides transparent pricing and allows users to move quickly and safely.

MAX generates revenue from 2 main sources:

1. Leasing margin of approximately 20% on our motorcycle financing business. Considering that motorcycle taxi drivers are typically charged very prohibitive mark-ups, of up to 200%, through the informal channels, our value proposition is seen as extremely competitive by our Riders;

2. Last-mile delivery fees of $1.80 per package; 

As we continue to generate increased appetite for providing asset finance to the transportation and ride-hailing industry, we will continue raising funds for asset-finance from an ever expanding list of capital sources, including commercial banking partners, development finance institutions, institutional investors and crowdfunding sources. 

Also, as we expand across West Africa over the coming months, we will scale our technology infrastructure, deploy an expanded range of financial services to the sector, introduce an electric vehicle (EV) fleet and deploy new vehicle categories. We will keep tapping into additional venture capital funding from our existing and new investors.

In March 2016, we raised a $1m seed round from Techstars, Olive Tree Capital, Venture Garden Group, RightSide Capital Management and a few angel investors.

In 2018, we received $300k in grant funding.

In 2019, we received about $1m in grant funding.

In June 2019, we raised $6m in equity from strategic investors including:

• Novastar Ventures;

• Breakthrough Energy Ventures;

• Yamaha Motor Corporation;

• Goodwell Investments;

• Zrosk Investment Management;

In Nov 2019, we raised $500k in equity from Mastercard

By the end of the year, we target $25m in equity funding to expand into additional cities and countries across Africa, deploy a full suite of financial inclusion solutions, scale our technology and physical infrastructure, and also deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

We are essentially at our scale-up stage at the moment. We are deploying assets to hundreds of economically disadvantaged people monthly and we want to ramp up the momentum and increase these numbers to thousands of people in no time. 

The Elevate Prize not only provides us with additional funding (to significantly drive down the cost of financing)  make this goal a reality but it also connects us to a wider network of professionals that can support us in solidifying our growth structure and ultimately expand our impact across the African continent.