Safeboda co-founders Maxime Dieudonne, commonly referred to as Max and Alastair Sussock, have departed their joint role as Co-CEOs of Uganda’s biggest ride-hailing startup in a surprising move that was announced by their successor on LinkedIn. The nature of their departure remains unclear at the moment. Also, it remains to be seen what this means for the third co-founder Rapa Ricky Thomson. Alastair has since transitioned into a chairman role, but Max is yet to offer an update.
Max and Alastair had been Safeboda’s Co-CEOs since the founding of the startup in August 2014. They have overseen the phenomenal growth of the startup from a small office space in Kyebando and a couple of employees into arguably Uganda’s biggest startup.
They will be replaced by Rob Sanford, who has been at Safeboda in different capacities since August 2020. He joined the company as a Head of Finance before becoming the Vice President of Global Finance a year later. In August 2021, he started his role as the Chief Financial Officer, one that he held until his promotion to the top job.
Not much is known about Rob Sanford as he has not granted many interviews in the past. But as per his LinkedIn, he graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the University of Bristol in the UK. He started his career as an Assistant Audit Manager at the big four accountancy firm KPMG, based at their London offices, a role he held for four years. Prior to joining Safeboda, he was a Financial Controller at BASF, a chemical manufacturing company located in Germany with more than 110,000 employees.
In the announcement post, Rob Sanford expressed gratitude to become the new CEO and listed the existing senior management team at Safeboda that he is going to work with including CTO Scott Noel, Country Director Catherine Tulina Kafumbe and COO Frida Mwaura. He also referenced the strong foundation established by Max and Alastair.
Max and Alastair’s departure comes at a time when Safeboda is trying to become profitable. The startup pulled out of the Nigerian and Kenyan markets to focus on its key market of Uganda. It has also scaled back on a number of features it launched during the tough COVID-19 lockdown era as it sought to survive when boda bodas were not allowed to operate. However, these services have since been shut down. They include food delivery and e-commerce. Safeboda has since launched SafeCar, its car-hailing feature that has even better profit margins than its core product of ride-hailing.
Rob Sanford’s first task will be to navigate the economic downturn that is ravaging the startup world. This has led to investors holding back on cheques as the global public markets continue to tumble. It will also be a key task for Rob to continue the work of his predecessor to drive Safeboda towards profitability.
Safeboda was founded in August 2014 by Maxime Dieudonne, Alastair Sussock and Rapa Ricky Thomson. The company grew from its humble beginnings to almost 35,000 riders (car drivers inclusive) and about 100 employees at its base in Kyebando. It managed to fend off an assault from global giants, Bolt/Taxify and Uber, to maintain a grip on Uganda’s ride-hailing market. As per Digest Africa, Safeboda has raised about $5 million in disclosed funding.
But the startup has faced setbacks in its journey to becoming a true Pan-African company despite testing the waters in both Kenya and Nigeria. Questions still remain about its ability to make returns for its investors due to the fact that it is now operating in just Uganda, a relatively small market.