Metro Africa Xpress (MAX.ng)

MAX is building technology and financial infrastructure for mass-market mobility in Africa. MAX's moto-taxi platform is a super-app that provides African commuters access to safe transportation, while helping drivers increase their income by up to 5x.
MAX has built a robust program for drivers including mobile-enabled driver recruitment, driver on-boarding, financing for vehicles, mobile payments and park operations. 
Moto-taxi mobility is an $80 billion market across Africa. Informal moto-taxi drivers complete over 300 million rides a day in West Africa, but they are the leading cause of death. One person dies every 20 minutes from an accident. Moto-taxi accidents account for 25% of road fatalities because only 4.3% of drivers and 1.4% of commuters wear helmets. MAX fixes these problems with a unique integrated operating model that delivers safety and access to drivers and users.

15 million commercial motorcycle-taxis transport people within African cities today, 99% of which are informal, untrained, unregulated and dangerous. Road traffic fatalities in Africa is among the highest in the world and accounts for 28.3 deaths/100,000 population. In Nigeria alone, 50% of road accidents are motorcycle related.

In 2012, Lagos State government restricted low engine-capacity motorcycle-taxis (below 200cc) to local roads, and kept them off major highways where accidents were prevalent. The law also mandated the use of protective helmets for all drivers and riders and prohibited drivers below the age of 18.  However, corruption within law enforcement agencies compromised enforcement. Instead, motorcycle-taxis became extortion targets. This underscores the urgent need to empower, incentivize and educate drivers and users on best-practices and safety.

Africa is the fastest growing region in the world and its leading economy is Nigeria - with 170 million consumers and 70 million Internet users. They already access Facebook and Whatsapp everyday, and they also send money on their phones. Now they want access to safe transportation on the same device. MAX is here to connect them to mobility services in a safe and reliable way, via their smartphones.

We provide training, finance and apps to our drivers (Champions) and help them generate more income. The average MAX Driver (Champion) makes 5x the Nigerian minimum wage.
Many of them come to MAX homeless, sometimes internally displaced by insurgencies in their homelands, and sometimes beaten by the harsh economic conditions in West Africa.
Michael Ehiguina, came to MAX living in a shipping container with his wife and four children who were out of school because he could not afford to pay their school fees. MAX created an opportunity for Michael. 2 years later, Michael now lives in a private 3 bedroom apartment and all his children now attend school. 
John Moses, an auto-repairer whose workshop was burnt down by Boko Haram insurgents in North East Nigeria, came down to Lagos and was given an opportunity to restart his life as a MAX Champion. His dream of opening a car repair workshop in Lagos is now about to become reality after just 12 months.
Our successes are the stories of men and women who now have sustainable economic opportunities, and whose dreams are being resuscitated because of the work we do at MAX.

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.

MAX is using mobile technology to aggregate and formalize West Africa’s fragmented and informal motorcycle taxi industry. MAX provides commuters access to safe and affordable motorcycle-transport service and is currently available on both Android and iOS platforms. MAX saves commuters 3 to 4 hours daily of time spent in traffic compare to other 4-wheel ride hailing services, MAX enforces the use of helmets for both drivers and passengers, provides transparent pricing and allows users to move quickly and safely through congested and unpaved roads in Lagos. 

MAX is the first motorcycle-taxi transportation platform in West Africa to build an end-to-end platform that licenses drivers, creates credit ratings for drivers, provides drivers access to finance, and guarantees safety to commuters and enterprises. 

Commission-based revenue models are popular in ride-hailing around the world, where driver-owners earn commissions. Our approach is different in MAX. We charge no commissions and motivate drivers with leasing programs that guarantee asset ownership within 1 year.
Our drivers pay a subsidized fee for training and on-boarding over an extended period of time. 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 has built web and mobile apps to connect commuters to moto-taxi drivers in real time; 

The MAX platform is an ecosystem of mobile apps and services responsible for ride-hailing, mobile payments, transparent pricing, and other features. MAX's apps are powered by APIs built on various micro-services within the MAX architecture. The MAX technology stack comprises of the following technologies; NodeJs, Typescript, ReactJS, Docker, Kubernetes, MongoDB, Postgres, RethinkDB, Redis, Firebase. Java, Kotlin, Swift.

15 million motorcycle taxi drivers in West Africa are mostly unlicensed, untrained and have no access to the formal financial system because they have no economic identities. Crime and accidents are frequent because drivers are not licensed or trained. Moto-taxi drivers account for 25% of road fatalities and most do not have any form of training in defensive driving. Less than 5% of drivers wear helmets, and an average driver does not own the motorcycle he/she drives.

MAX solves this problem for drivers and offers them an opportunity to re-invent themselves as credit worthy professional moto-taxi drivers who own their motorcycles and help improve the economy. MAX licenses and train drivers, creates credit ratings for drivers, provides drivers access to finance and provides a pathway for drivers to asset ownership. We have financed motorcycles for over 700 drivers and on-boarded over 1,000 drivers.

MAX provides safe and speedy transport to commuters who would normally spend 6 hours in traffic everyday. We provide transparent and affordable pricing, that is up to 50% cheaper than informal taxis. We use real-time customer and driver data to assign drivers to areas of high demand and to reduce wait-times.

We have served over 160,000 users, completed over 1 million trips, launched in 2 cities, created over 1,100 direct jobs and enabled over 30,000 indirect jobs. 

At MAX, we’ve served over 160,000 users and businesses who place a premium on safety, customer experience and quality. We are the safest and most affordable moto-taxi service.

We serve three target audiences;

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

2. Businesses (FMCG, SMEs, E-commerce) that require safe yet fast 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. 

We plan to serve a target population of 300 million people across 50 cities within 5 years. We convert users through referral programs, customer testimonials, social media, content marketing, advertorial content and offline activation campaigns among other things to achieve top of mind awareness and revenue generation.

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 motorcycle or are interested in learning how to ride as a source of income, we will also continue to create a safer, faster and more reliable and accessible way for people to commute on 2 wheel and 3 wheel vehicles. We are driven to create more opportunities and innovations that help our drivers (better known as Champions of MAX) to create more income.
MAX just completed its series A fundraising 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 non-collateralized financing of motorcycles for drivers. We have faced other challenges such as inconsistent regulations, absence of a large pool of skilled mobility experts, and some push back from local mafias controlling traditional transport operators. 

MAX currently works with a few innovative financial institutions and banks such as VFD Microfinance Bank, Mkobo, Union bank and others. 

MAX has just recently received a license to operate from the Ministry of Transportation in Lagos. We are also partnering with other Government institutions such as FRSC (Road Safety Agency) and LSETF (Lagos Employment Agency) to drive adoption.

MAX just recently announced the closing of its series A fund-raising round from investors in the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. 

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MAX currently has 80 full-time staff.

Our staff are spread across various departments such as Customer experience, Engineering, Product, Driver Welfare, Driver Recruitment, People, Operations and Marketing.

MAX was founded by Adetayo Bamiduro and Chinedu Azodoh at MIT.

Adetayo leads the MAX Team and directly oversees sales, operations, finance and strategy. Chinedu leads Product, Engineering and Growth teams at MAX. 

MAX has a diverse and balanced team of 8 managers across various important departments in the company.

MAX currently has partners across different sectors such as;

Telcos (MTN and Etisalat) who provide connectivity for drivers and users.

Asset financing partners such as banks who finance vehicles for drivers.

Cloud infrastructure partners such as Google.

Motorcycle manufacturing partners such as Bajaj and YAMAHA.

Healthcare providers who provide necessary medical coverage for drivers and employees.

Commission-based revenue models are popular in ride-hailing around the world, where driver-owners earn commissions. Our approach is different in MAX. We charge no commissions and motivate drivers with leasing programs that guarantee asset ownership within 1 year.

Our drivers pay a subsidized fee for training and on-boarding over an extended period of time. 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 100%, through the informal channels via which they avail of bikes, our value proposition is seen as extremely competitive by our Champions;

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.

MAX is applying for Solve as we would like Solve to assist MAX in creating more sophisticated business models, incentives and technology features for our target market. We will use the winning prize of 10,000 Dollars to create more advanced data models, build new features and implement new ideas that help us increase driver income, and provide safer and more cost effective rides to users. 

• Experiential and performance marketing
• Data Analytics
• IoT

MAX would like to partner with various stakeholders such as;

1. Development financial institutions such as OPIC
2. Impact Lending Institutions to provide support in financing motorcycles
3. Artificial Intelligence Platforms like AI- brain who can help optimize routes
4. Electric Vehicle and Battery Manufacturers 

MAX's mission is to make mobility safe, affordable and accessible to 1 billion Africans within 10 years. As an organization, our goal is to provide a decent source of income for the men and women who decide to become Champions of MAX.

We are driven to create more opportunities and leverage our data to help our drivers (better known as Champions of MAX) generate more income. The average MAX Champion makes 10 times the Nigerian minimum wage working on our platform. Many of them come to MAX sometimes homeless, sometimes as aliens- internally displaced by insurgencies in their homelands, other times beaten by the harsh economic reality of the country, no job and little opportunities to make money.

They have no formal identity, no access to credit or finance to start a business and earn a decent wage, although having basic education, they are forced to become beggars or paying leases that are exorbitant, and never-ending, yet constantly harassed by the very people who should protect them.

Our successes are these men and women who now have valid economic identities, can access finance and have opened their very first bank accounts.

We are a passionate and dedicated team committed to building and operating a high-impact and high-growth platform in Africa. We are adapting a disruptive business model, for the African context, a market very few people understand.

MAX's mission is to make mobility safe, affordable and accessible to 1 billion Africans within 10 years. As an organization, our goal is to provide a decent source of income for the men and women who decide to become Champions of MAX.

We are driven to create more opportunities and innovations that help our drivers (better known as Champions of MAX) to create more income. The average MAX Champion makes 10 times the Nigerian minimum wage working on our platform. Many of them come to MAX sometimes homeless, sometimes as aliens- internally displaced by insurgencies in their homelands, other times beaten by the harsh economic reality of the country, no job and little opportunities to make money.

They have no formal identity, no access to credit or finance to start a business and earn a decent wage, although having basic education, they are forced to become beggars or paying leases that are exorbitant, and never-ending, yet constantly harassed by the very people who should protect them.

Our successes are these men and women who now have valid economic identities, can access finance and have opened their very first bank accounts.

We are a passionate and dedicated team committed to building and operating a high-impact and high-growth platform in Africa. We are adapting a disruptive business model, for the African context, a market very few people understand.

MAX's mission is to make mobility safe, affordable and accessible to 1 billion Africans within 10 years. As an organization, our goal is to provide a decent source of income for the men and women who decide to become Champions of MAX.

We are driven to create more opportunities and leverage our data to help our drivers (better known as Champions of MAX) generate more income. The average MAX Champion makes 10 times the Nigerian minimum wage working on our platform. Many of them come to MAX sometimes homeless, sometimes as aliens- internally displaced by insurgencies in their homelands, other times beaten by the harsh economic reality of the country, no job and little opportunities to make money.

They have no formal identity, no access to credit or finance to start a business and earn a decent wage, although having basic education, they are forced to become beggars or paying leases that are exorbitant, and never-ending, yet constantly harassed by the very people who should protect them.

Our successes are these men and women who now have valid economic identities, can access finance and have opened their very first bank accounts.

We are a passionate and dedicated team committed to building and operating a high-impact and high-growth platform in Africa. We are adapting a disruptive business model, for the African context, a market very few people understand.

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MAX's mission is to make mobility safe, affordable and accessible to 1 billion Africans within 10 years. As an organization, our goal is to provide a decent source of income for the men and women who decide to become Champions of MAX.

We are driven to create more opportunities and leverage our data to help our drivers (better known as Champions of MAX) generate more income. The average MAX Champion makes 10 times the Nigerian minimum wage working on our platform. Many of them come to MAX sometimes homeless, sometimes as aliens- internally displaced by insurgencies in their homelands, other times beaten by the harsh economic reality of the country, no job and little opportunities to make money.

They have no formal identity, no access to credit or finance to start a business and earn a decent wage, although having basic education, they are forced to become beggars or paying leases that are exorbitant, and never-ending, yet constantly harassed by the very people who should protect them.

Our successes are these men and women who now have valid economic identities, can access finance and have opened their very first bank accounts.

We are a passionate and dedicated team committed to building and operating a high-impact and high-growth platform in Africa. We are adapting a disruptive business model, for the African context, a market very few people understand.

MAX's mission is to make mobility safe, affordable and accessible to 1 billion Africans within 10 years. As an organization, our goal is to provide a decent source of income for the men and women who decide to become Champions of MAX.

We are driven to create more opportunities and leverage our data to help our drivers (better known as Champions of MAX) generate more income. The average MAX Champion makes 10 times the Nigerian minimum wage working on our platform. Many of them come to MAX sometimes homeless, sometimes as aliens- internally displaced by insurgencies in their homelands, other times beaten by the harsh economic reality of the country, no job and little opportunities to make money.

They have no formal identity, no access to credit or finance to start a business and earn a decent wage, although having basic education, they are forced to become beggars or paying leases that are exorbitant, and never-ending, yet constantly harassed by the very people who should protect them.

Our successes are these men and women who now have valid economic identities, can access finance and have opened their very first bank accounts.

We are a passionate and dedicated team committed to building and operating a high-impact and high-growth platform in Africa. We are adapting a disruptive business model, for the African context, a market very few people understand.

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