Develop taxi app like MAX Okada that has raised $7M and sail through startup-ready African market.

Startup movement has been breeding like rabbits across the world and the African continent is one area of the world that leads this movement. Over the last 5 years, the startup economy of Africa has witnessed excellent growth which is, like all other continents, driven by technological advancements such as high-speed internet and low-cost mobile phones. The cost of developing technologies has also fallen.

After the African FinTech industry, which raised a total of $284.6 million in 2018, the online taxi booking industry is all set to explode. Top online taxi service providing companies such as Uber and Lyft have deployed their taxi apps in the African market hoping a growing GDP and lifestyle of Africans might help them. But, their business journey to settle down in African market didn’t go according to their plan as they failed to understand the local market need, unlike those local taxi booking service providers who have been satisfying the users’ requirements in the most possible way.

In this blog, we will study how local entrepreneurs are taking advantages of the growing African startup economy. We will also discuss one of the most popular Nigeria-based motorbike taxi service providing companies, MAX Okada, which has recently raised $7 million. But first, let’s be familiar with the startup economy of African countries.
 

A startup-ready African market for Taxi service industry

 
Shreds of evidence suggest that African countries have been witnessing startup culture for many years. There was a time when due to lack of employment opportunities, African countries owned the highest number of people who have their own enterprises.

During the period of 2007-2009, the mobile communication technologies in Africa have blossomed and because of it, many local and international players jumped into the African market as FinTech startups to solve a few deep-rooted problems of Africans, like payment, insurance, and money lending. Those FinTech startups not only helped themselves to grow, but they offered their services to other new startups to use. This step can be considered as the turning point of the African startup market. It motivated many entrepreneurs to apply the business models of other moneymaking startups on African startup culture. It also enabled them to kick off the startup with fewer resources.

The following graph clearly depicts how many Venture deals African startups have seized between 2015 and 2017.

What is the current scenario of taxi app startups in Africa? Or

Top Africa-based online taxi booking service providers and how much have they raised?

 
As discussed, the startup environment of Africa turned into rain-forest from arid. Including FinTech, many other industries have contended to be a profitable industry. Online taxi booking industry is one of it which successfully managed to generate six-digit revenue by solving real problems of Africans.

Following are the top Africa-based online taxi service providing companies and their funding details. This list exhibits how profitable African market is for entrepreneurs like you who have a very unique taxi app development idea and more impotently, who have the guts to convert that idea into reality.

► Gokada

Gokada is the Nigeria-based motorcycle taxi service providing company which has recently raised $5.3 million in its Series A funding round. It was led by Adventure Capital, Global Partners, and First Midwest Group. According to sources, Gokada is also planning to jump into food delivery and courier delivery market. Know More»

► Yookoo

Yookoo is South Africa – based mobility company which claims that they are not only developing smart mobility technology, but they are also developing smart city technology products. Along with a taxi booking app, they are making people’s life easier with smart security, smart home, smart store, smart lighting, smart roads, and smart med. In 2017, Yookoo became the first ridesharing app in Africa which has the feature to accept payment in bitcoin.

► Swvl

Swvl is the Egypt-based on-demand taxi and bus service providing company which has raised $42 million from BECO Capital, Endevor Catalyst and Vostok Ventures. Swvl was founded by Mostafa in 2017 to offer van and bus services through the app.

Now, in the next section of this blog, let’s be acquainted with one of the top taxi app providers, MAX Okada very comprehensively.

What is MAX Okada, how much did they raise and how they are planning to use that cash injection to transmute online taxi booking industry?

MAX Okada or Max is the Nigeria-based taxi ride-hailing and last mile delivery app which is headquartered in Lagos. In 2015, It was founded by Adetayo Bamiduro and Chinedu Azodoh.

Unlike many taxi service providers, MAX Okada offers the multi-service platform which contains ride-hailing service and parcel delivery service. Any small or medium scale business can utilize its delivery service from the app itself. In fact, it is the delivery partner of the largest e-commerce store in Africa – Jumia.

Recently, MAX Okada has raised $7 million in its series A of the funding round which was led by Yamaha. With one of the leading tech sites, Shoji Shiraishi who is Yamaha’s new venture business development section shared a few thoughts on behalf of the company. He stated that they want to work with good entrepreneurs in Africa to develop new business in the most underrated region.

After getting a whopping $7 million of funding, MAX Okada has extended the menu! In one of his interviews, CFO of MAX Okada said that they will use this money to increase the technology capabilities and to acquire the fleet of electric vehicles. If they will achieve what he has said, the advent of electric vehicles in the taxi industry will dramatically change the future landscape of the taxi industry. 

Which are the top app features of the MAX Okada which you can ask taxi app development company to integrate into your app?

• As soon as a user opens the app, it asks him the preference, whether he wants to deliver parcel or hail a ride.
• App uses advanced tracking technology to locate the exact location of the rider and driver.
• The ride estimator shows the fare before the user confirms the trip.
• User can track the location of the driver.
• The app is equipped with a panic button. That means users can ask for help in the easiest way.
• Users can pay the fare in multiple ways. They can also store the cards or bank detail for the quick checkout.
• User can even pay through MAX Okada wallet.
• Ride history and payment history of the users are well documented.
• Users can refer the app to other people and earn free and discounted rides.
• And the user can rate the driver and his riding experience.

How much does it cost to develop a taxi app like MAX Okada?

 
Coruscate Solutions is the top taxi app development company which has entertained several taxi app development related queries. We accommodate some of the most knowledgeable designers and developers, who are well-suited to develop a next-gen app with some disruptive features.

With our rapid app development technique, we can develop a taxi app within 45-55 business days and under $10k. To know more about app features and ask for a free demo and free consultation, visit our taxi app development page.