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

An Uber-for-trucks freight marketplace connecting shippers with vetted trucks and drivers across Nigeria and other African markets.

That an Uber-for-trucks app could digitize Africa's fragmented road freight and outscale the cash gap: paying drivers upfront while waiting 30–90 days for invoices.

$20M Series A led by Goldman Sachs plus $10M working-capital loans from Nigerian banks (2019); ~$48M Series B by 2021; over $79M raised in total per TechSoma.

Founded in Lagos in 2017 by Obi Ozor and Ife Oyedele II, Kobo360 built an Uber-like app matching truckers with companies. By 2019 it operated in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Kenya, claimed 10,000+ trucks and drivers, and counted Honeywell, Olam, Unilever, Dangote and DHL among its clients.

Goldman Sachs led a $20M Series A in Aug 2019, plus $10M in working capital from Nigerian commercial banks, with IFC, TLcom and Y Combinator joining; a ~$48M Series B followed by 2021. Growth toward a 50,000-truck network rode on a cash gap: drivers were paid upfront while shippers settled invoices 30–90 days later, bridged by bank credit lines. When a financial partner cut credit over unserviced debt, Kobo360 could not pay drivers, trip volumes fell and the spiral worsened; co-founder Obi Ozor left in 2023 for a government post, and by late 2024 the company had all but shut down.

In March 2025 investors — including Goldman's Africa-focused vehicle, TLcom and IFC — sold their equity back to co-founder Obi Ozor, who took on roughly ₦10 billion in debt and planned a Q2 2025 restart with a team of under ten.

It attacked a real, huge inefficiency: African road freight was fragmented with empty return trips and opaque pricing, so load-matching had genuine value.

Early traction was strong and verifiable: 10,000+ trucks and drivers, shippers like Dangote, Unilever and DHL, and Goldman Sachs leading a $20M Series A.

The fatal design was financial: paying drivers upfront while waiting 30–90 days for invoices meant every expansion ran on borrowed working capital, not unit economics.

One credit-line withdrawal cascaded: unpaid drivers produced fewer trips, fewer trips produced less revenue, and investor confidence collapsed in a spiral.

The March 2025 buyback — with Ozor taking on ₦10 billion of debt — showed the brand and fleet relationships still had value, but without working capital the model could not restart.

When a marketplace must pay suppliers upfront but clients settle in 30–90 days, scale is a cash furnace; bank credit lines fund growth until one withdrawal turns expansion into a shutdown.

As of September 2, 2026, Kobo360's operations remain largely paused: after the all-but-shutdown in late 2024, Obi Ozor bought the equity back from investors in March 2025, taking on roughly ₦10 billion in debt and promising a Q2 2025 restart with a team of under ten. No major independent reporting confirms a return to anything close to former scale. The wider African freight-tech segment contracted in the same period, with only three logistics startups raising a combined $2.1M in 2024 and rivals Lori and Sendy also retrenching.