Tech in Africa
ORide is a bike hailing service run by Opay. The company runs a fleet of motorcycles that run the lion’s market share in bike-hailing within Lagos. The move was preceded by the February ban on motorbikes. This also affected other bike-hailing startups such as Gokada and MaxNG.
As of now, ORide’s bike-hailing operation does well in places like Ibadan. However, the company will continue rebranding its business shift towards logistics. The basis for their argument is to move more focus towards their delivery segment called OExpress. The startup will be joining other competitors who had already transitioned into the logistics space.
OExpress’s Director Of Operations and Business Development, Moses Awolowo, communicated to TechCabal that ORide’s services will continue as usual in Ibadan, as the service finalizes its “pivot” into “logistics.” This will require them to sell a “small percentage” of their motorbike inventory in the process.
OExpress and Ride are both owned by Many Wheels Services which in turn is owned by Opay. The company operates the fintech aspect of transportation such as OBus, OCar, and ORide. By running these companies through a separate legal entity, the company does not have to alter its memorandum of association anytime it intends to introduce new vertigo.
The news of the sale first broke out on Twitter when someone shared that the bikes were being sold for 180K. At first, Opay did not confirm or deny the story. The bikes will be sold for ₦180,000 and ₦270,000, depending on their duration of use.
