Captain MAX: Democratizing Access to Electric Vehicles

The Trajectory Africa

Back in Episode 7 of Trajectory Africa’s first series, Barbara Iyayi, CEO & Founding Partner of Unicorn Growth Capital made a strong statement about the ubiquity of financial services, arguing that every company should be a fintech company. Because as long as financial inclusion is a huge problem, every company should be able to offer financial services. This is the essence of embedded finance, which McKinsey defines as placing a financial product in a nonfinancial customer experience, journey, or platform.

In the previous episode’s conversation with Tunzaa’s Ng’winula Kingamkono, we learned about how an embedded finance model called Save now, Buy later enables responsible consumption. In this episode, we’ll hear from 'Tayo Bamiduro, Co-Founder and CEO of MAX, a company that’s powering eco-friendly mobility through high performance electric vehicles. So, we’re keeping the assets, but shifting from consumption to production.

And in this case the finance is in service of democratizing access to vehicles for mobility entrepreneurs. This flavor of embedded finance is called asset-based lending, or when a borrower's assets serve as collateral for a loan. But MAX isn’t just helping riders and drivers finance productive assets, it’s building the digital infrastructure needed to reimagine the mobility space with environmental sustainability at its core. Asset-based lending as an engine for EV-led mobility? Let’s dig in…

Tune in to hear about:

[2:08] - inspiration for MAX’s two-wheeler design

[4:16] - the evolution of MAX’s business over time

[9:12] - pillars for shepherding EV transition and market size

[13:55] - MAX’s product offerings

[18:44] - how credit decisions are made, sources of loan capital

[23:00] - access to assets vs. ownership of assets and the best path to wealth creation

[32:55] - integrating operator and vehicle productivity

[55:00] - MAX’s business model, fleet financing, unit economics, and moat

[1:13] - Collaboration vs. competition in nascent industries

[1:21] - Counterintuitive first principle

Recommendations:

Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa, a report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa.

Connect on social media:

• 'Tayo Bamiduro on LinkedIn
• 'Tayo Bamiduro on Twitter
• The Trajectory Africa on LinkedIn
• Tayo Akinyemi on LinkedIn
• Tayo Akinyemi on Twitter