Listed on the Nasdaq, it is undoubtedly one of the most important South African mobility startups. 

Swvl is an e-mobility solution developed by an eponymous Egyptian start-up. It allows users to easily run their errands with round-the-clock rides.  Based in Cairo, the startup behind the app was founded in 2017 by Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah, Mahmoud Nouh, and Rafael Coronel. 

Since its inception, it has raised about $264 million to accelerate its growth in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. It describes itself as a "tech-driven, affordable, and convenient transportation service, committed to enabling cities, people, and businesses to move everywhere." 

Through its mobile app available for iOS, Android, and Huawei devices, users can create an account and book the many bus or van routes available to get to work, an appointment, or run errands.

The app presents the most frequented routes and users only have to choose the ones on their way. They can also combine routes if there are no straight routes to their destinations. 

Since 2022, Swvl is experiencing rapid growth. After consecutive fundraisings, it is launched in 115 cities in 18 countries on four continents. The Android version of its app has been downloaded more than 10 million times. It claims more than 75 million rides booked and more than 20,000 drivers.  In 2022, the startup got listed on Nasdaq, the second largest stock exchange in the U.S., with an IPO price of $9.95 per share.

Adoni Conrad Quenum

The solution capitalizes on the free-movement-agreement between West African countries to easily move goods across the sub-region, facilitating transport and logistics operations for whosoever needs such services. 

Anaxar is a digital platform developed by a Togolese eponymous start-up, founded in 2020. It helps users easily transport goods across West Africa.  In fact, it connects freight owners, truck owners, and freight recipients.

Using its platform, users can request free quotes by filling out a dedicated form and providing information such as the nature of the goods, the weight, and the departure and arrival areas. Once the form is submitted, the startup gets in touch to evaluate needs and provide personalized and the most competitive quotes. When the user accepts the quote, he/she needs to validate it to get the goods transported to the desired location. 

Let’s note that once the goods arrive at the stated location, the startup once again contacts the user to notify it. Apart from transporting goods, Anaxar also specializes in removal and delivery. It is present in all the West African countries with a network of over 1,000 professional transporters. It claims competitive prices and points out that its priority is customer satisfaction, with the goal of becoming the leader in the sector. 

Adoni Conrad Quenum

Freight transport has become an attractive sector for tech entrepreneurs in recent years. The volume of investment and number of innovations is ever rising to allow timely and affordable deliveries. 

Chargel is a digital platform developed by a Senegalese eponymous start-up. It allows truckers to quickly find clients without driving around with empty trucks. It also allows shippers to quickly find truck drivers to transport their goods at affordable prices. 

It connects shippers and carriers, and offers value-added services like GPS tracking, discounted fuel purchases, and repair assistance to allow truckers to focus on their “core business and get shipments to their destination.” 

Shippers can book available trucks instantly or in advance, track their goods in real time and get electronic proof of delivery. 

The startup behind the solution aims to become the largest digital logistics platform in Francophone Africa. Earlier this year, it secured US$750,000 in pre-seed funding to support its growth. It is also hopeful for seed funding, by the end of the year, to scale up.  

For Raja Kaul, founder and managing partner of Logos Ventures, one of Chargel's investors, the startup's founders are well "positioned to build Chargel into a leading logistics marketplace in Senegal, and eventually across West Africa."

Adoni Conrad Quenum

The solution created in Ghana to facilitate freight transport across Africa has now taken on the international scene. 

Swiftly is a digital solution developed by a Ghanaian eponymous startup founded in 2016. It allows its users -namely freight forwarders and traders- access to freight quotes and expert advice on customs regulations, and ships goods worldwide.  

To use the solution, users have to visit its web platform and fill out a form with their freight details to get quotes from the startup’s network of freight forwarders.  They can thus select the best quote, make payment online and wait for the freight to be delivered. 

Air freights usually take between three and five working days against 30-40 days for sea freight and 1-2 days for road freights. For usual courier services, the delivery time is usually below three hours. 

Let’s note that to get quotes and order freight or courier services, users will have to create their Swiftly accounts by providing personal information like name, surname, email, phone number, etc. Using their Swiftly accounts, users can also negotiate with other Swiftly users to co-lease containers for their shipments. 

“It is a waste of space when someone has to ship a half-full container by sea, a half-full package by air, or hire a delivery service without fully utilizing the space in there. We aim to solve that by linking shippers to each other for them to share their extra space. Others also wish they could find someone to collaborate with to load a shipment, we are the matching platform for such people,”  explained Swiftly co-founder Edem Dotse.

The startup, which claims rates up to 30% lower than the competition, went from shipping just 100 kilograms yearly to 500 tons monthly. According to Edem Dotse, it already ships goods from all over the world to countries like Ghana, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, and China. 

Its plan is now to establish a physical presence in French-speaking West Africa, and East Africa. It also plans to introduce its business model in the United States, China, and Europe.

Adoni Conrad Quenum

He co-built his travel tech Tripesa from the ashes of another startup: Roundbob. The new startup has already earned the trust of several investors. 

David Gonahasa (photo) is a Ugandan economist and entrepreneur. He is also the CEO of travel tech Tripesa, which he co-founded in 2021 with Thomas Karugaba and Raymond Byaruhanga.

Tripesa was born out of the ashes of travel booking platform Roundbob during the coronavirus pandemic, which affected the whole world.  It offers African SMEs operating in the tourism industry a solution to optimize their operations and improve their profitability. 

“Small businesses must be able to package tourism and digitally distribute a splendid tourism experience for it to sell, or else they stand to lose the market to the few bigger players. [...]  What Tripesa is doing is leveling the playing field, enabling small operators to leverage technology to escape the market limitations and scale their businesses,”  David told TechCabal in August 2022 when Tripesa closed an undisclosed pre-seed round to scale across Africa. 

Apart from his passion for the African tourism industry, David Gonahasa is also a wildlife conservation enthusiast. In 2021, he co-founded The Naturalist, a conservation company leveraging technology to protect wildlife resources. Through his conservation company, he launched the Home of the Gorillas project, which aims to create additional revenues to complement the tourist trekking income that remains the main source of financing the Mountain Gorilla conservation. 

In 2018, he participated in the Alibaba e-founders fellowship program. A year earlier, he won the Innovator of the Year Prize during the MTN Innovations Awards.  David is a seasoned entrepreneur with several ventures under his belt but, he also has an extensive professional career, which started in 2007. That year, after being the business development director of the e-business company Mediaflower Uganda he co-founded, he joined advertising company Creaxion Rwanda as an account director. The following year, he assumed services as a client services manager for the online marketing agency MAAD Advertising. He later joined Real Marketing Uganda, another marketing agency, as its strategic director before assuming office as the chief marketing officer of universal payment platform Mobicash Africa, in 2011. Some years later, he made a brief stint as a senior consultant for business manager SMEHUB. 

Melchior Koba

The former restaurant owner started a ride-hailing business in his native country to provide users with a safe and convenient transportation service. Thanks to the solution, he was recently selected for a Google program that will allow him to reach new horizons. 

Habtamu Tadesse (photo) is an Ethiopian tech entrepreneur who founded  Zaytech, a startup behind the ride-hailing solution ZayRide, in 2016.  With his ride-hailing solution, available as a mobile app -for Android and iOS devices, he connects users to taxi drivers. Apart from the mobile app, the solution is also accessible through a call center, that allows users to request delivery or ambulance dispatch services.  

With ZayRide, Habtamu Tadesse is contributing his experience to solve a crucial insecurity challenge. Indeed, the tech entrepreneur, who was once an Uber driver in the U.S., is well aware of how insecure it could be waiting for public transport services in his native country. So, he decided to adapt his Uber experience to local realities.

“We are trying to address the existing unsafe, expensive, and inconvenient means of transportation by rolling out an innovative taxi-hailing application designed to work on Africa’s slow Internet,” he told Tech In Africa in 2018. 

Less than two years after inception, Zayride already had 30,000 users, earning ZayTech several accolades including the title of the startup with the biggest market impact potential by Traction Camp Nairobi in 2017. ZayTech has also been selected to participate in the 2022 cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. That selection entitles it to US$50,000 to 100,000 in funding and a 6-month training program to support its development. 

Before launching ZayTech, Habtamu Tadesse was the owner of  Basha Restaurant and Bar, a Boston-based restaurant he co-founded with his brother. They sold the restaurant in 2015 to fund the mobility project ZayRide.

Melchior Koba

Currently, in Africa, the on-demand transportation market is mainly controlled by multinationals. Despite the competition, local tech entrepreneurs are moving to conquer it with more suited solutions. 

Mapauto is a digital solution developed by a Segealese car rental agency. It allows its users to rent cars with drivers for errands in major Senegalese cities. The solution was launched, in 2020, by tech entrepreneur Mapenda Diop. 

According to the latter, in Dakar, it was usually difficult to rent cars with drivers meeting international standards and being at the same time affordable. So, he assembled a team of young local talents to develop a digital solution allowing users to conveniently rent cars at competitive prices.  

Its mobile app is available for Android and iOS devices. Once installed, it enables users to access all of the services offered by Mapauto. Upon registration, users can request rides from the airport to major neighborhoods in Dakar, or rent both cars and drivers for a whole day or a single trip, depending on the need. 

Thanks to its integrated tracking system, Mapauto monitors its fleets in real-time. The tracking system also presents estimated waiting times to clients when they book a car. It also gives clients the identity of the driver coming to pick them up and the cost of the ride or errand.  

Drivers drive Mapauto’s exclusive fleet made of prestigious cars like Peugeot 508 and Maserati Levante. 

During an interview given in late 2021, when he was asked whether Mapauto is apprehensive of announced competition in the local car rental market, Mapenda Diop explained that far from being a threat, the arrival of new actors/competitors is a sign that the market has growth potentials. He explained that Mapauto would have to leverage technology to streamline its services. In the meantime, the startup expects to expand into the West African region first and then conquer the whole of Africa. By 2026, it hopes it would create over a thousand jobs. 

Adoni Conrad Quenum

Logistics is a real challenge in most African countries. To address those challenges, a Nigerian startup is leveraging technology and micro fleets. 

Kobo360 is a digital logistics platform developed by an eponymous Nigerian tech company. It connects truck drivers with freight companies to ensure a quick delivery. The tech company founded in 2017 by Ife Oyedele and Obi Ozor, is active in seven African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Uganda, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. 

According to Wale Ayeni who led IFC’s venture capital investing group in Africa for over five years, “Kobo360 is empowering and enhancing the capacity of the vast underserved network of “micro” fleets in Africa to serve the huge unmet long-haul freight needs of large enterprises and SMEs, delivering value to both sides.”

To fulfill its mission, Kobo360 has developed a mobile app, available on AppStore and PlayStore. The app allows transporters and clients to access all the services it offers once they register. Thanks to its mobile and web platforms, it guarantees clients fast and efficient freight transportation and allows them access to a vast network of warehousing, customs clearance, and freight forwarding partners. It also enables real-time tracking. It allows transporters to boost their revenues above-average rate, expand their trucking business and get discounts for diesel and tire purchases. 

The startup currently claims over nine billion kilograms of freight transported, more than 50,000 active trucks, over 150,000 jobs created and some 700 companies served. In 2019, the Africa CEO Forum Awards awarded it the ‘Disrupter of the Year’ award for its quick and significant success in the logistics sector. The same year, its co-founder Obi Ozor was named  'Young Business Leader of the Year' and 'Innovator of the Year'. In 2020, during the AppsAfrica Awards, Kobo360 won the ‘Mobility Award’, outcompeting distinguished African startups operating in the same segment. Since its creation, it has completed several funding rounds totaling US$37.3 million to support its growth. 

Adoni Conrad Quenum

During his post-graduate studies in France, he witnessed the success of the ridesharing platform Blablacar and how it helped improve users’ traveling conditions. He later decided to replicate the success in Africa, while taking into account local realities. 

Raynald Ballo (photo) is the founder and CEO of Raynis, a startup based in Abomey-Calavi, Benin. The startup specializes in the development of web solutions and supports clients in their digital transformation. Its founder made a name for himself in the African tech industry in 2021, with the launch of RMobility, a mobility platform. 

RMobility is a ridesharing app that connects drivers who wish to share their empty seats with passengers who want to travel securely and cheaply. Currently, it claims over 10,000 ridesharers in Benin and Togo. 

“... RMobility is first and foremost one of the modern solutions born from the digital revolution in Africa. [...] it helps save money, meet new people and maintain the social bond between members of RCommunauté [note: RMobility users] who are mostly young people,”  Raynald Ballo explains. The tech entrepreneur adds that the solution helps the youth contribute to the reduction of green gas emissions.  

The success of RMobility demonstrates users’ need for affordable mobility solutions. In that light, Raynald replicated the concept in the parcel delivery segment with RColis, a platform that allows the delivery of the RCommunauté’s parcels.  RDigital was also created to develop web and mobile solutions to support clients’ projects.  

Raynald's involvement in the mobility segment is the result of years of professional experience in that segment. He was a parking studies manager for the Urban Forum initiated by Sciences Po Bordeaux, France.  He later worked as a researcher for ITEC Etudes, a consulting firm specializing in transportation and traffic surveys. He was also a mobility and transport project manager for travel agency Prêt à Partir and a parking study engineer for SARECO, a transport and mobility research company.  Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in geography and planning in Nantes, France. 

Melchior Koba

The startup allows users to safely and comfortably travel to major cities in the country.  

Easy Matatu is a Ugandan startup founded in 2019 to help commuters access reliable and convenient transportation means. The startup founded by Andrew Ssali, Lema Carl Andrew, and Precious Turinawe has raised US$500,000 in two funding rounds to successfully carry out its mission.

“ We are a platform that is connecting commuters in Africa to safer, more reliable, and cleaner transportation. Easy Matatu is built for the working professional looking to make it in this world, for the bold African woman raising a nation,” the startup explains on its website. 

The startup has a mobile app (available on PlayStore and AppStore) through which users can access the various services it offers. Through the mobile app, users can register by filling in a set of personal information, to become an Easy Matatu driver or commuter.  

Whenever a user signs in on the mobile app, available pick-up points are shown on the map. So, commuters can choose the closest to them. To keep true to its reliability commitment, Easy Matatu is always on time at the pickup points and its waiting time at those points rarely exceeds five minutes. To facilitate payments, the startup’s mobile app integrates a wallet that can be loaded via mobile money. The startup also has a reward system to encourage its commuters. For instance, commuters can refer their friends and family members and earn up to USh5,000 (about US$1.37). 

Let’s note that the startup is one of the 45 startups selected for the first edition of the AfricaTech Awards. It was selected in the category of Climate Tech startups. 

Adoni Conrad Quenum