By Oriri Peter

Fast-growing mobility platform in Africa joins the leading global high-impact entrepreneur network Lagos, April 26.

Joy Mabia, Senior Associate, Marketing and Communications officer of Endeavor's Nigeria in a statement issued on Tuesday 26th April has announced today that Adetayo Bamiduro, Chinedu Azodoh, and Guy-Bertrand Njoya co-founders of Metro Africa Xpress (MAX) were selected as Endeavor Entrepreneurs after a panel deliberation.

The selection came after a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs and are committed to reinvesting their time and capital in their local entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Founded in 2015, MAX is building Africa's largest mobility-tech platform. It aims to serve the millions of independent commercial drivers across Africa who every day move people and goods to where they need to be through the use of 2, 3 and 4 wheeler vehicles. The company provides these independent commercial drivers with financing and tech solutions that ensure they are able to work safely, affordably and in a way that minimizes damage to the environment.

It does this by enabling access to a fast-growing fleet of low and zero-emission vehicles, which include its revolutionary M3 Electric Motorcycle, as well as a service bundle that solves their greatest pain points, such as digital wallets, savings products, insurance, maintenance plans and licensing support. MAX's innovative model helps independent commercial drivers to dramatically increase their income to more than 3x the national minimum wage.

With current operations in 5 cities in Nigeria and over 7K drivers on its platform, MAX aims to scale its platform and capture a significant portion of the $250B mobility market in Africa.

According to Tosin Faniro-Dada, Managing Director & CEO of Endeavor Nigeria, “We are proud to welcome Tayo, Chinedu, and Guy into Endeavor’s global network and look forward to working with them.

They join a select group of inspiring founders, leading some of the most innovative companies in the world”.

Speaking on the value of joining the Endeavor network, Tosin said, “Our goal is to help Endeavor Entrepreneurs become even more successful, pushing them to dream bigger, scale faster and invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs. We provide radical feedback, unparalleled peer and mentor networks, and curated services to help solve many of the common challenges entrepreneurs face. We look forward to supporting more Endeavor Entrepreneurs in Nigeria.”

Speaking on their selection experience and joining the Endeavor network, Tayo Bamiduro, CEO of Metro Africa Xpress (MAX) said, “We are thrilled to be joining a community of innovators and disruptors who are laying the foundations for a better world for all through the power of entrepreneurship. We are excited for the collaborations that this opportunity will unlock, as we continue to advance MAX’s mission of revolutionizing mobility in Africa”.

Guy-Bertrand Njoya, Adetayo Bamiduro, and Chinedu Azodoh were selected into the Endeavor network by a panel of global business leaders including Nabyl Al-Maskari (Executive Chairman, Al Maskari Holding & Chairman of the Board of Endeavor UAE), Arjuna Costa (Managing Partner, Flourish Ventures), Andreas Stavropoulos (Partner, Threshold), and by Sebastian Gunnigham (Chairman of Santander Consumer Finance and vice-chairman of Openbank).

MAX is the 14th company selected into the global Endeavor network through the regional affiliated office in Nigeria. All three entrepreneurs represent the growing expectation for exceptional entrepreneurs with big ambitions and the ability to execute at scale. They join Gbenga Agboola & Ife Orioke (Flutterwave), Ngozi Dozie & Chijioke Dozie (Carbon), Etop Ikpe (Autochek), Abasi Ene-Obong (54gene), Tayo Oviosu & Jay Alabraba (Paga), Ekechi Nwokah (Migo), Jasper Graf von Hardenberg & Christian Wessels (Daystar Power), Bukky George (HealthPlus), Obi Ozor & Ife Oyedele (Kobo360), Kene Okwuosa & Moses Babatope (FilmHouse Group), Onyekachi Izukanne, Michael Ukpong & Ruke Awaritefe (TradeDepot), Tosin Eniolorunda & Felix Ike (TeamApt), and Adegoke Olubusi, Tito Ovia, and Dimeji S (Helium Health).

About Endeavor

Endeavor is the world’s leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs. Founded in 1997, Endeavor is a global organization with a mission to unlock the transformational power of entrepreneurship by selecting, supporting, and investing in the world’s top founders. Today, Endeavor’s network spans nearly 40 markets and supports more than 2,300 entrepreneurs, whose companies generate combined revenues of over $42 billion US, and have created more than 3.9 million jobs. Endeavor’s unique entrepreneur-first model and network of trust provide a platform for founders to dream big, scale up, and pay it forward to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Endeavor launched its Nigeria office in 2018 to select and support the best founders of companies at the scale-up and growth stage, who recognise a responsibility to pay it forward and multiply their impact in Nigeria’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. In Nigeria, Endeavor aims to select 4-6 companies a year and today there are 27 Endeavor Entrepreneurs leading 14 companies in their portfolio.

About Metro Africa Xpress (MAX)

MAX is building Africa's largest mobility-tech platform. Every day, millions of independent commercial drivers across Africa move people and goods to where they need to be through the use of motorcycles (also known as okadas, boda-bodas or motos), three-wheelers (kekes or tuk-tuks), cars and mini-buses.

Founded in 2015, MAX provides these independent commercial drivers with financing and tech solutions that ensure they are able to work safely, affordably and in a way that minimizes damage to the environment. MAX does this by enabling access to a fast-growing fleet of low and zero-emission vehicles, which include its revolutionary M3 Electric Motorcycle. In addition, MAX offers drivers a service bundle designed to address their biggest pain points, including digital wallets, savings products, insurance, maintenance plans and licensing support - so they can keep the continent's economy in motion. MAX's innovative model helps independent commercial drivers to dramatically increase their income to more than 3x the national minimum wage.

With current operations in 5 cities in Nigeria and over 7K drivers on its platform with over 8 million trips completed, MAX aims to scale its platform and capture a significant portion of the $258B mobility market on the continent. In the short term, MAX is scaling to 100,000 drivers, across 10 cities and 3 countries by 2023. MAX is proud to enlist the support of a global and credible network of partners, including OEMs such as Yamaha, Bill Gates-sponsored Breakthrough Energy Ventures, global payment infrastructure provider Mastercard, and leading VCs such as Lightrock, Global Ventures, Novastar Ventures, Goodwell Investments, Shell Foundation, and others.

ABOUT THE FOUNDERS

Adetayo Bamiduro

Adetayo is the CEO at MAX. Adetayo studied Computer Science at the University of Ibadan, where he built one of Nigeria’s first mobility platforms. He 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, NLNG (a Shell subsidiary), Konga.com and Dalberg. Adetayo studied for his MBA at the MIT Sloan School and London Business School from 2013 to 2015. While at MIT, he co-founded MAX alongside Chinedu Azodoh. Adetayo is now focused on building MAX into a Unicorn.

Chinedu Azudoh

Chinedu leads new ventures at MAX. He started his journey as an Engineer studying Electrical & Computer Engineering at The Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago before becoming a Developer in the

Credit Derivatives team at Goldman Sachs. He then joined Barclays Bank in New York as a Mortgage

Technology Analyst, before transitioning into a Cash-Equities Professional. He co-founded MAX alongside

Adetayo Bamiduro while both were attending MIT’s Sloan School of Management.


Guy-Bertrand Njoya

Guy-Bertrand is CFO at MAX. He has close to 20 years of experience across investment banking, financial advisory, M&A, structured finance and strategy consulting. Prior to MAX, he was CFO of Terragon Group, a pan-African data and marketing technology company where he successfully sourced and arranged the company’s first ever round of venture funding and led its expansion into India through the acquisition of an R&D partner. Guy-Bertrand started his career in investment banking, spending time at Societe Generale, Lloyds Bank, Natixis and Standard Chartered, advising clients across Africa, Asia and the Middle East with access to capital and inorganic expansion strategies. He then established an independent advisory firm focused on supporting early stage organisations in their journey to scale and investment readiness. Guy-Bertrand holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Douala. He is currently pursuing an EMBA from London Business School and Columbia Business School.

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