Kobo360's Uber-of-trucks bet: Goldman-backed, then a 2024 collapse and Ozor buyback

Kobo360, founded in Lagos in 2017 by Obi Ozor and Ife Oyedele II, built an Uber-like app connecting truckers with companies needing freight moved. Its bet was that digitizing Africa's fragmented road freight — matching loads, cutting empty return trips and making prices transparent — could build a pan-African logistics platform, and that early scale would protect it while shipper payments lagged.

The story validated fast. By August 2019 Kobo360 operated in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Kenya, claimed 10,000+ trucks and drivers, and served clients like Dangote, Unilever, Olam and DHL. Goldman Sachs led a $20M Series A, with $10M in working capital from Nigerian banks and participation from IFC, TLcom and Y Combinator. A roughly $48M Series B followed by 2021, and the network peaked at about 50,000 trucks.

The model's weakness was its cash cycle. Drivers were paid upfront, while manufacturers and distributors settled invoices 30–90 days later; the gap was bridged with bank credit lines. When a financial partner cut credit over unserviced debt, Kobo360 could not pay drivers on time, trip volumes and revenue fell, and the downward spiral shook investor confidence. Ozor stepped down in 2023 to become Enugu State's transport commissioner, and by late 2024 the company had all but shut down, with unpaid salaries and a skeletal staff.

In March 2025, investors sold their equity back to Ozor, who took on roughly ₦10 billion in debt and promised to restart operations in Q2 2025 with a team of under ten. The collapse mirrored the wider sector: only three African logistics startups raised a combined $2.1M in 2024, while rivals Lori Systems and Sendy also retrenched. The case is a warning that in cash-intensive logistics, marketplace scale without working-capital discipline is leverage, not moat.