The digital solution is the result of one of Hybrid Designs' co-founders’ personal experience. Created to address security and affordability problems, it already claims over 100,000 users. 

Samrawit Fikru (photo) is an Ethiopian software developer, co-founder, and CEO of Hybrid Designs, a software development firm. In December 2014, her startup (founded in 2011) launched Ride, a ride-hailing solution.   

RIDE was created to address several problems including security and affordability.  “I used to constantly find myself at the office late at night and challenged by transport hurdles while heading to my home. [...]  I used to feel unsafe while taking a taxi…the driver also asks you to pay more than two times the price they charge in a day,” Samrawit recounted in 2019.

The co-founder graduated from MicroLink Information Technology College in 2004 with a diploma in software engineering and started her professional career in 2005 as a software engineer at Revots PLC. In 2006, while working at Revots, she graduated with a BSc in Computer Science from the HiLCoE School of Computer Science and Technology.

In 2007, she joined CNET Software Technology PLC as a programmer, and, the following year, she was recruited as a software developer by Cybersoft software Company. Two years later, she flew to Cameroon where she worked at  4Afri Mobile Technology Company as a senior application engineer. In 2011, she returned to Ethiopia and joined DH MicroHard Solutions as a product line manager.

Since 2013, Samrawit Fikru is a member of the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), a program providing technical support to its members. Last week, the Ethiopian entrepreneur earned international recognition as one of the Rest of World (RoW)'s 100 Global Tech Changemakers. The recognition celebrates her journey and achievement in the tech world.  

Melchior Koba