Nigeria’s first online tyre store, eTyres, have shut down operation. This news was disclosed in a tweet thread by one of the founders of the startup, Olaseni Odukoya (@Senibobo).
Odukoya who founded the startup alongside Chiebuka Nworah and Godric Echefu in 2014 blamed the shut down on greed, tribalism and lack of trust.
He tweeted: “Just to let you know, http://etyres.ng which was the first online tyre store in Nigeria is no more. Why? Greed, tribalism and no trust destroyed it. I’m pained but in all honesty, it was for the sanity of all involved.”
The trio must have had great and monumental plans for the startup considering what Odukoya told Ventures Africa about the future of eTyres in an interview back in 2015 saying: “In future, tyre retailers will need to develop online offerings to offer multi-channels of communication for their customers, however, my view is the opportunity in taking the best of the web and web-based technology and coupling it with offline assets to develop a lean proposition that delivers a better, lower cost way to serve customers. We hope to keep rendering the best of service to Nigerian motorists. We are in the process of rolling out a network of Etyresnigeria.com authorized fitment centres across Lagos, where customers who have purchased tyres online can have the tyres fitted. ”
These services have unfortunately been halted. It is now expected that Odukoya will move his tyre load of experiences to a new venture (we guess it should be a tyre startup) which he is launching on February 1st. We look forward to that.
For now, adieu to eTyres as it joins the list of startups that have closed shop in Nigeria including Gloo.ng, Careers24, and DealDey
