Filed in 2024, the company pointed to accumulating financial challenges, including liabilities surpassing $5.4 million and limited assets valued at just over $564,000.

Details of the Filing

According to court documents, Gokada listed its principal assets as its 100% ownership in Gokada Rides Limited, an operational entity in Nigeria valued at $500,000, and $64,132.56 in cash held in a Silicon Valley Bank account. 

The company’s liabilities included $5.3 million in nonpriority unsecured claims and $150,000 in secured debts tied to a loan from Deplacer LLC.

The filing reveals the company’s struggle to maintain its financial footing. CEO Olutosin Oni, who signed the bankruptcy petition, stated: “I have examined the information in this petition and have a reasonable belief that the information is true and correct.”

Revenue Decline

Court documents also revealed a decline in the company’s revenue. Gokada reported earnings of $268,779 in 2023, which fell to $118,988 in 2024 before its bankruptcy filing. 

These financial setbacks, coupled with operational challenges in Nigeria’s highly competitive and regulated transportation market, pushed the company into insolvency.

Creditors and Claims

Among Gokada’s largest unsecured creditors are:

• Rise Capital Gokada Holdings LLC: $1.2 million
• Rise Capital III LP: $880,101
• Amar Imam and Bashir Imam (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority): $286,504
• Casper Johansen: $244,624

Smaller creditors include former vendors, legal counsel, and individual investors based in Nigeria, the U.S., and the United Arab Emirates.

Legal Representation

Gokada is represented by Gregory Hauswirth of Carothers & Hauswirth LLP. The filing indicates that legal expenses amounting to $73,262 were paid to Carothers & Hauswirth and Leech Tishman Robinson Brog PLLC in the lead-up to the bankruptcy.

Founded in 2018, Gokada aimed to enhance transportation and logistics in Nigeria but faced numerous limitations, including regulatory bans on motorcycles in Lagos. 

These challenges forced the company to pivot to delivery and logistics services, which ultimately failed to generate sufficient revenue.

With operating costs surging, delivery companies are left with the challenge of balancing price hikes while retaining price-sensitive customers. As businesses struggle to adapt, a number of logistics companies are beginning to adjust their pricing models.

Remedial Health, a health-tech startup supplying medications to pharmacies, has been among the first to respond to these economic changes. In an email to its customers, the company highlighted the necessity of revising its delivery processes due to costly fuel prices. 

Similar changes are occurring across the industry, with several logistics companies adjusting their rates or preparing to do so. Fez Delivery, for example, has announced a 23% price increase, with the cost of deliveries between 0 and 5kg rising from ₦2,500 to ₦3,075. This change, while essential for business survival, is a tough pill to swallow for both the company and its customers.

Seun Alley, CEO of Fez Delivery, acknowledged the difficulty in implementing these changes: “Our prices definitely have to change. But what we want to do is to ease our clients into that phase. At the moment, we are taking serious blows to keep operations running.”

The rising cost of logistics is squeezing last-mile delivery services, many of which operate on thin margins. However, navigating these changes is a delicate balancing act. 

On one hand, companies must raise prices to remain operational, while on the other, they risk losing customers who are highly sensitive to cost fluctuations. According to Seun Omotosho, COO of Gokada, customers often opt for cheaper delivery options when urgency isn’t a factor, adding another layer of complexity to pricing decisions.

For smaller businesses, the situation is even worse. Olawale, an online phone and gadgets vendor, described how he has shifted to using public transport to deliver his goods after delivery services like DHL increased their prices significantly—from ₦12,000 to ₦14,000 for phones, and for laptops, from ₦12,000 to ₦21,000. 

This sharp rise has pushed many entrepreneurs to explore alternative, cost-effective ways of ensuring their products reach customers.

In response to these pressures, some delivery companies are exploring incentives and discounts to retain their customer base. In offering riders bonuses based on the number of completed orders or providing discounts to frequent customers, companies aim to mitigate the impact of rising costs. 

Others are looking further ahead, with a focus on electric vehicles (EVs) as a prospective long-term solution to the fuel price dilemma. While the adoption of EVs in Nigeria may still be a few years away, companies are optimistic that they could help reduce operating costs and stabilise delivery pricing in the future.

The issue of fuel price increases has also prompted discussions about how businesses in Nigeria can innovate to remain viable in an increasingly challenging economic climate. 

Across various sectors, companies are experimenting with new strategies to absorb costs without losing customers. For example, some industries are leveraging digital platforms to simplify operations and reduce overhead costs, while others are shifting to more sustainable business models.

Similar challenges are being faced globally. In other African countries, last-mile delivery companies are dealing with rising costs due to fuel price hikes and inflation. In Kenya, for instance, logistics companies are looking into expanding their fleets with electric motorcycles to cut down on fuel expenses. 

The move towards electric vehicles is gaining traction in other regions too, as companies strive to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and explore greener, more cost-effective alternatives.

Ultimately, the ability of Nigerian last-mile delivery companies to weather the storm will depend on their flexibility in adjusting to these economic issues. 

Whether through gradual price increases, customer incentives, or long-term investments in sustainable technologies, the industry will need to adapt if it hopes to remain competitive.

The partnership which seeks to protect consumers, merchants and riders will focus on reducing the risks faced by users. This will be done by automating the insurance protection.

Through the partnership, Gokada’s access to digital insurance products will be enhanced with Octamile’s digital insurance infrastructure.

Gbenro Dara, Founder and CEO, Octamile said: “We have always said we want to make insurance work for all. Our partnership with Gokada is a testament to our commitment to making insurance accessible to protect the uninsured from financial loss.

We recognize Gokada as a leader in Nigeria’s last-mile delivery service, which  provides an opportunity to deepen insurance penetration in Nigeria and make easy access to the protection insurance offers in their ecosystem.”

Speaking further, he emphasized that Octamile’s efforts to build Africa’s Digital Insurance Infrastructure across Claims Automation and Distribution with Octamile’s Embedded Insurance APIs will lead to robust growth for the insurance sector across Nigeria and Africa.

The partnership will enable access to Insurance products via Octamile’s Embedded Insurance APIs on Gokada’s platforms and support applying for instant claims through Gokada’s App. Insurance will be embedded into Gokada’s Rider/GPartners and GBusinesses onboarding process.

Also, Gokada’s claims processes for Goods-in-transit insurance (GIT) and rider insurance will be automated and on-demand virtual inspection solution for Riders/GPartners via the Octamile Inspection App, as well as provision of on-demand virtual inspection solutions to insurers in Octamile’s ecosystem via its Inspection App will be made available.

Oluwaseun Omotoso, Chief Operating Officer of Gokada, said the partnership is targeted at ensuring the safety of riders. “We consider the health and safety of our pilots a top priority, which is why they are thoroughly trained in addition to the improved health and Goods in transit Insurance covers from leading Insurers which Octamile provides us access seamlessly. Our goal is to have zero casualties among our pilots.” 

Investee companies will initially be located across Nigeria and Ghana, with the fund set to target the wider West Africa region.

Recent advances in digital information technology provide an opportunity to both build and scale solutions to everyday challenges faced by millions of Africans – in particular, the aggregation of fragmented value chains, the formalisation of large sectors of the continent’s economy and the provision of much-needed access to financial services for both consumers and businesses.

The Constant Ventures fund has a unique structure that enables investment either directly in talented entrepreneurs and compelling start-ups across West Africa or through its proprietary venture studio, which serves as a catalyst to combine best-in-class entrepreneurs, ideas and capital to quickly build winning start-ups.

Constant Ventures created the fund on the back of its successful track record as an angel investor, as well as a respected developer of technology businesses.

To-date, it has invested US$3.2 million in nine Nigerian start-ups*, with a return of 5.6x, which is projected to return 15x after the next funding round.

Ike Echeruo, Chairman of the Constant Group and co-founder and Managing Partner of Constant Ventures, says:

“We are very excited to be announcing this fund today.  It has been a decade in the making, the result of deep-dive research and due diligence in anticipation of this moment when we knew that advances in information technology would enable start-ups across West Africa to commercially address real societal needs. 

“Technology was always going to provide the answer to so many of the critical issues faced by millions of people across Africa today.  We are now on the cusp of a paradigm shift with recent advances across information technology presenting a unique investment window.  We have looked at what has worked in other geographies.  Now, refined and optimised for Africa, we have modelled a fund to invest in businesses that will both improve the lives of millions of people and deliver outstanding returns for investors.”