Global Brain, a venture capital firm based in Japan, has recently invested an undisclosed amount in Mecho Autotech Inc, a Nigeria-based automotive aftersales platform.
The investment was made through the firm’s GB-VIII Growth Fund Investment Limited Partnership. Mecho Autotech is a leading player in Nigeria’s automotive aftersales market, which is currently powered by imported substandard parts that go through a broken supply chain. The company aims to streamline this process by providing solutions to fleet owners, workshop owners, and parts vendors.
With a population of over 210 million and more than 12 million registered vehicles, Nigeria presents a significant opportunity for growth in the automotive aftersales market. Mecho Autotech’s network of vetted technicians, insurance plans, and spare parts value chain has already served over 100 third-party mechanics and several large ticket inventory purchases for B2B customers.
Mecho Autotech was founded by Olusegun Owoade and Ayoola Akinkunmi, who built a network of approved in-house and third-party mechanics with client affordability in mind. The startup was accepted into the YC Summer 2021 batch and currently works with B2B customers who possess over over 20,000 automobiles. The company chose to engage with commercial clients first to fine-tune its service, as these clients usually collaborate with many workshops and spend more than $30 million on car repairs and maintenance each year. Mecho Autotech aims to provide a single company that will coordinate all of their workshops.
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In addition to Global Brain, the startup secured a $2.15 million seed round last year from investors such as Future Africa, HoaQ Capital, Cathexis Ventures, V8 Capital, Silver Squid, and Tekedia Capital. With the support of Global Brain and its team’s vast field experiences, Mecho Autotech plans to continue expanding its operations and procure parts from Asian suppliers to penetrate Nigeria’s fragmented market.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard