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By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian vehicle repair and maintenance startup, Mecho Autotech, has raised a $2.15 million seed funding round to expand its capacities and acquire more customers.
The seed round was oversubscribed by 300 per cent and featured participation from Future Africa, Hoaq Capital, Cathexis Ventures, V8 Capital, Silver Squid and Tekedia Capital.
The company has both workshop – Mecho Shops – and mobile service – Mecho Mobile – capabilities, and has so far onboarded over 7,000 third-party mechanics to its platform.
Mecho Autotech will now use the capital to expand its multi-channel service capacity, engineering team, and marketing budget for B2C acquisition.
Last year, in the same year it was established, the company was a participant in the S21 batch of the Y Combinator accelerator, and raised funding from Ingressive Capital.
The startup has so far built three Mecho Shops across Lagos and will continue to expand this capacity.
Its B2B customers include some of Nigeria’s largest corporate fleets including Uber partner Moove, Tolaram Group, and UAC Group, while the startup aims to grow in B2C via a subscription service model and individual service requests.
Moreover, Mecho is developing a spare parts value chain that has already served over 100 third-party mechanics and several large ticket inventory purchases for B2B customers.
According to Mr Olusegun Owoade, the chief executive officer of the company, there will be further automation of the industry in order to make things easier for Nigerians.
“When you consider the state of Nigeria’s used cars and our roads, car maintenance isn’t optional. We want to automate high-quality vehicle repair and maintenance for Nigerians by making it easy, convenient, and affordable.
“We aspire to build a maintenance culture in Nigeria and beyond to keep roads and people safe,” he said.
According to Mr Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Future Africa’s founder and general partner, his fund’s thesis was to back founders solving hard problems in large markets.
“With over 12 million cars on our roads and more on the way, leveraging technology to bring order to vehicle maintenance and repair is overdue.
“We are delighted to work with the Mecho Autotech team as they brilliantly execute on building out the vehicle repair value chain across Africa and create new and decent highly skilled auto repair jobs,” he said.
Founded in 2021 by Mr Olusegun Owoade and Mr Ayoola Akinkunmi, Mecho Autotech offers repair and maintenance services to businesses and consumers through in-house and third-party service capacity which has passed rigorous assessments.
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Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.
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Jiji Cars (formerly Cars45), one of the most popular car marketplaces in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria for buying and selling verified cars, has scooped the Motor Vehicle Dealer of the Year, 2022, just a year and a half, after its acquisition by Jiji, the largest online marketplace in Africa.
The award was presented to Jiji Cars during the Global Top Digitally Fit Awards, which was held at the Movenpick Hotel and Residences, Nairobi. The Global Top Digitally Fit Awards recognizes and rewards companies creating an online impact.
Since its acquisition by Jiji, Jiji Cars (formerly Cars45) has created a new advanced experience for its users. They have continuously offered a new car buying and selling experience, where they can inspect cars on behalf of buyers, making them the safest marketplace to buy cars in Africa. This unparalleled experience has helped their market reach exponentially grow since car sellers and buyers benefit from them by selling and buying their cars faster now than ever before.
They beat all other motor vehicle dealers in Kenya, such as BMW Kenya, Hyundai, Simba Colt Motors, Subaru (K) Ltd, Toyota Kenya, CMC Motors, Nissan Kenya, Jaguar Kenya, Mahindra, Car Soko, DT Dobie, Mobius Motors, Yamaha Motors, Foton East Africa, Tata Africa Holdings, etc., to take home the award for the Best Motor Vehicle Dealers in Kenya.
Kenya Auto Bazaar Association (KABA) reported an increase in the demand for third-generation cars (second-hand cars that have been used locally) amid reduced global production of units and soaring prices. However, buyers are also very concerned about the longevity of vehicles once bought. This is why Jiji Cars offers users detailed inspection reports by 200+ parameters, documentation checks, inspections, and concierge service. They also assist buyers with getting car loans, amongst other benefits.
After receiving the award, Ann Bindi, Head of Operations at Jiji Cars, said, “We are thrilled to receive this award. This shows how we have consistently built a trusted buying and selling experience in autos. We want to thank all our clients who have placed their trust in our marketplace and recognized our efforts to ensure they can safely buy and sell their cars through us.”
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Almost a month after the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) announced the proposed resumption of the Abuja-Kaduna passenger train service, the facility will start running on Monday, December 5, 2022, with only two return services.
The announcement by the Managing Director of the NRC, Mr Fidet Okhiria, said the first train would depart Rigasa train station in Kaduna State to Abuja by 8:00 in the morning while from Abuja, the first train will depart Idu train station to Kaduna State by 9:45 in the morning.
The NRC management also revealed that as part of the new security measures, it is now mandatory for passengers to present their National Identity Number (NIN) and valid boarding ticket before they will be allowed to board.
It also says the purchase of tickets by proxy is only limited to minors and a specified number of adult passengers.
It explained that online and mobile app ticketing would be available from 8:00 in the morning on Sunday, December 4, 2022, while the ticket offices at the train stations will open from 6:30 in the morning on Monday, December 5.
Recall that the NRC suspended the Abuja-Kaduna train service along the route after Boko Haram terrorists attacked a moving passenger train in Kaduna on March 28, 2022.
The insurgents had blown up the rail track and bombed the moving train, killing some and abducting more than 60 passengers. The unprecedented attack attracted international and national outrage.
The terrorists who attacked the Kaduna-bound train released hostages in tranches, with the last release coming on October 5, 2022.
Before the hostages were completely released, distraught family members had protested several times to demand the release of their loved ones.
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Ugandan bike-hailing startup, SafeBoda, has announced that it is exiting Nigeria.
After the Lagos State government banned ride-hailing services from the metropolis, the company forayed into Ibadan in December 2019 but began only operations in March 2020.
This March, the company announced that it had completed over 3 million rides, and 50,000 deliveries with over 10,000 riders and 100,000 passengers.
In just a little over one year since launch, the startup crossed the one million rides milestone, growing at an impressive 150 per cent month-on-month. In another 11 months, it tripled its traction to three million completed rides, cementing its dominant position in the region.
However, due to the reality facing the business now, the organisation wants to leave Africa’s largest economy to focus on bringing the company to profitability by deepening its core transportation offering in Uganda, its largest market.
In a statement, it said Nigeria “in its current state is not economically viable and unfortunately requires significant investment at this challenging time in the global economic landscape.”
This will make Nigeria the second market, but first in West Africa, it is exiting after it left Kenya in November 2020, less than two years after expanding its services to the east African country.
The firm said this was due to the negative effects of COVID-19 on its operations.
It is not clear the next step for its other businesses but in August 2022, SafeBoda announced a car-hailing service, SafeCar, in Kampala and one month after, it also launched in Ibadan, Nigeria.
It was reported that SafeBoda claims its car-hailing business has grown 40 per cent weekly since its launch in early September.
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