Nigeria’s RideMe Launches to Pioneer New Ride-Sharing Model and Challenge UBER

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July 2, 2018

RideMe, a new ride-sharing startup, has launched in Lagos. Its value proposition is to help in reducing the level of frictions Nigerians experience as they move from one location to another across the nation. It connects drivers with riders giving the riders comfort, style and fair rates while providing the drivers and partners a tool for total business ownership. This is a platform business and one that is built on the Aggregation Construct where the technology of RideMe will anchor efficient linkages among different partners. This company will have to battle with old industry veterans like Uber and Taxify which are already operating in Nigeria. But with huge driver-benefits like pension, health insurance and housing schemes, it has a promise.

With a few clicks on RideMe App, you can order a ride. You have multipple payment options. You can pay with cash, card, paypal and more.

RideMe offers a loyalty programme that ensures that you earn even while you ride. You can use your earnings to order future rides, or simply cash out!

With the Lady for Lady feature, if you are a lady, you can book a female driver. The SOS feature provides a single click which helps you to call for help by sending your location and details of your Driver to your nominated emergency contact.

Interestingly, RideMe is associated with one of the emerging software companies in Nigeria: ATB Techsoft Solutions Ltd. ATB Techsoft technical team is behind this business and geeks there are pursuing a fully differentiated business model to create a separation from competitors. It is always good when there is competition because customers always benefit. ATB Techsoft takes it to other players and Nigerian riders will see better and improved services.

The efficient and optimized allocation of the factors of production can never happen if there is no competition. So, Nigeria welcomes new entrants like RideMe into the transportation sector. Our cities need total redesign in how we move and travel to reduce loss of productivity exacerbated daily by the agonizing traffic congestions. As the road infrastructures are expanded, optimization models like the ones offered by e-hailing companies promise a future.

Aggregation-Integration Construct

RideMe is pursuing an Aggregation-Integration Construct (expanded from Aggregation Construct) business model. It is a business system with high scalable advantage as the marginal cost is low. Integration is a very important component of aggregation and without it no one can achieve aggregation capabilities. Aggregation drives scalable advantage because of the relative low marginal cost it anchors. The cost of adding extra rider is largely low because there are many drivers to support them with RideMe not having to buy any vehicle for that.

Here, RideMe is aggregating four elements which are demand, supply, platform and enabler using the unbounded and unconstrained capability of mobile internet. It is the platform and it would be enabled by margins as it brings demand and supply together. To succeed, it needs to get as many riders and drivers as possible in the ecosystem in order to create a positive continuum of network effect which is critical in a platform business. It has a plan to get those partners into the platform.

The RideMe Strategy

To execute this business, RideMe has a strategy which is slightly different from the Ubers and Taxifys of this world. First, it does believe fundamentally that happy drivers and partners make happy riders. That means this firm is built at the heart of making drivers and riders happy. First, it charges no commission to drivers meaning that drivers get to keep what they make.

RideMe charges zero commission. Say you make N150K per week driving with RideMe, we will not charge you a kobo out of your earnings. You get to keep all you make unlike others that charge you as high as 15% or 25%.

The company pays drivers daily for card payments removing the need of waiting for a week. That means drivers get their monies back on time.

The firm also has a service dedicated to ladies where lady drivers pick ladies: “Verified lady riders now have the option of selecting a lady driver to come pick them up and take them to their destination”.

The Opportunities for Riders and Drivers

RideMe has the local domain experience and wants to run an agency model where it would appoint partner coordinators across many cities in Nigeria (contact them if interested). The goal is that its technology can enable and power many cities immediately making it possible to scale nationwide. It sees its drivers and partners as key enablers of its growth model. The firm also offers many benefits which include pension, mortgage, insurance, etc.

RideMe offers you total business freedom. Here are some of the benefits:

No commission on taxi fares, all you earn is all you get
Pension scheme
Health insurance
Vehicle license renewal on flexible monthly payment
Same day card payment of taxi fare to driver
Direct payment of Taxi fare from riders using card into driver/partners bank account.
24 hours loan for vehicle repair, school fees, house rent, domestic issues with repayment plan in 6 months.

The company according to its business document I reviewed noted that it is poised to make drivers owners of the business and provide them with social welfare that drives happiness. It focuses on making sure that drivers are the true owners of their businesses by not collecting any commission from them. By keeping all that the drivers make, they make more money. The health insurance, pension and vehicle insurance benefits through its networks are certainly industry-leading.

How to Download

This product is ready in the market. Yes, the RideMe app is available for download on Google Playstore and Apple Appstore. The pricing model is industry-competitive: Base fare: N300;N65/KM with wait counting after 10 minutes of wait at N9 per minute for waiting time. Get it, drive or be driven, frictionlessly!

(Disclosure: The parent company of RideMe is a client to Fasmicro Group Advisory)

Zenvus zManager Can Now Predict Your Farm Profitability

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Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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June 30, 2018

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With Zenvus zManager, a farm diary, we now have the ability to predict Farm Profitability if a farmer records all activities (labour, inputs, etc) in the system and the primary market is covered by our pricing engine. For example, if you produce pepper in Isiala Ngwa (Nigeria) and plans to sell in Aba (Nigeria), and allows our AI to “see” your records in zManager, we would concatenate data from our sensors, weather, diary data etc to tell you how much you would make at the end of the farming season. We have probability models which constantly update with capabilities to estimate your profits few weeks into the farming season. The models evolve as the season progresses.

zManager is an electronic farm diary which helps Zenvus farmers run their farming operations. A Farm Management solution, it simplifies the business of farming by helping farms record activities, track inventory, prevent waste, manage employees, manages finances (sales and expenses), organize business calendar, record incidences (say, pest and disease outbreaks), track profitability, and more.

This service is available to farmers through their cooperatives and governments. Zenvus team would need to collect produce prices at least three months in the primary markets to attain equilibrium in the models.

zManager >> making farmers businesspeople.

Russia 2018 Prediction – France Defeats England to Win World Cup

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Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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June 29, 2018

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My Russia 2018 Prediction – France Defeats England to Win World Cup.

This is football, the king of sports and a religion in some places. Unfortunately, there is no emotion as my teams (Nigeria and Senegal) are already out.

We Need a Society of INNOVATORS, not just INVENTORS [Video]

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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June 29, 2018

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Innovation = Invention + Commercialization

I wish you a great weekend of reflection on the differences between Innovation and Invention. An Inventive Society may not be rich but an Innovative Society is always rich.

Make your community innovative. Yes, Nigeria needs INNOVATORS, not just inventors who have great ideas but no products/services. We cannot be a nation like the old man in the sea who sees water everywhere but not a single drop to drink.

We need products/services – we must INNOVATE. In my Practice, we help companies and startups innovate (learn more).

Great weekend ahead.

Updated – March 2020

In the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium discussing what EU can do to support Africa. The thesis of my lead presentation and a subsequent panel discussion was this: Europe is an innovation society, the best gift to Africa from EU will never be the cash donations, but helping to replace our inventive societies with innovation societies.

Nigeria’s Kobo360, a Logistics Startup, Raises $1.2 million

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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June 29, 2018

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Nigeria’s Kobo360, accepted into YC’s 2018, has raised $1.2 million. The logistics startup built on the aggregation construct will use the capital to expand its business and introduce a new product – Kobo Wealth Investment Network (KoboWIN). KoboWIN is a crowd-invest, vehicle financing program which will make it possible for drivers to finance new trucks through citizen investors.

Kobo360 was accepted into YC’s 2018 class and gained some working capital in the form of $1.2M in pre-seed funding round led by Western Technology Investment announced this week. Lagos based Verod Capital Management also joined to support Kobo360.

The startup — with an Uber -like app that connects Nigerian truckers to companies with freight needs — will use the funds to pay drivers online immediately after successful hauls.

Kobo360 is also launching the Kobo Wealth Investment Network, or KoboWIN—a crowd-invest, vehicle financing program. Through it Kobo drivers can finance new trucks through citizen investors and pay them back directly (with interest) over a 60 month period.

I wrote about this company last year calling it ‘Nigeria’s best logistic company”. Its business model is asset-light (if not asset-free) and is engineered to use customer service to deepen competitive advantage. This news has simply validated the points I made about its vision.

Kobo operates under the principle of Aggregation Construct which depends on network orchestration where it works as an arbiter for many partners and customers. With this model, the customer experience becomes a key part of its business. It does not have ships, planes and trucks delivering services from U.S. to Nigeria and beyond. But it has a technology to simplify trade and commerce. It has got happy customers who do think its services are even better than firms like DHL. Interestingly, companies like DHL make it possible for Kobo to serve those customers.

This company is doing great – innovation always wins: “Kobo360 has served 324 businesses, aggregated a fleet of 5480 drivers, and moved 37.6M kilograms of cargo since 2017, per company stats. Top clients include Honeywell, Olam, Unilever, and DHL.” Congrats to Obi and Ife.