Easy Taxi, is currently looking to hire a new chief executive officer in Nigeria, according to a week-old job listing on LinkedIn.
This means that the current Nigeria CEO of nearly two years, Bankole Cardoso, is likely leaving the Rocket Internet backed startup’s Nigerian operations. His LinkedIn profile lists him as co-founder of Easy Taxi, and for now things remain unchanged.
If Bankole leaves Easy Taxi, he would be the last local head of a Nigerian Rocket Internet startup the last Nigerian CEO of a Rocket Internet company will be Lamudi’s Obi Ejimofo. In 2014, Bankole Cardoso’s local CEO counterparts at Jumia, Raphael Afaedor and Tunde Kehinde left the ecommerce company to start Nigerian ventures of their own.
Left to right: Tunde Kehinde, Ayodeji Adewunmi and Bankole Cardoso at TechCabal Sessions, July 2014
According to the job listing, the company is looking for:
“strong leaders to manage the country operations. The entrepreneurial path at Rocket is unique in many ways, from the financial upside to the amazing learning that no other group can provide and the possibility of building innovative, exciting B2C internet/mobile models”.
Rocket Internet’s method is to execute proven internet business models in emerging markets using a combination of Ivy-league MBA-ed CEO-preneurs and lots of cash to generate scale in short amounts of time. The proven model has allowed the company to rapidly set up fast-growing businesses in over 57 countries. While not a lot of them are profitable, Rocket Internet tends to exit these investments by hocking stakes in these business to strategic corporate partners and financiers.
As of this writing, Easy Taxi has around 25 staff. With operations in Lagos and Abuja, the startup company is one of the prime horses in an increasingly competitive race for marketshare and success in an e-hailing space with major contenders like Uber and TaxiPixi.
It is not clear if Bankole Cardoso will be moving on altogether or will remain with the company in another capacity. We have reached out to Rocket Internet and Bankole Cardoso for comment.
Update: Bankole Cardoso has confirmed via email that he is indeed moving on from Easy Taxi, and that the startup is searching for a replacement.
Chioma Nkemdilim contributed to this report.
