What is Eywa?
For a very long time, mobility has acted as an opportunity gateway for many. This is because, the ability to move, and how, usually dictates where one is able to work and trade, who they can meet as well as how they can access their wants and needs. Yet, while as to why we move has not changed that much, how we do is constantly evolving. This evolution is so fast that, unfortunately, we have failed to keep pace.
Despite the progress made in mobility over the years, moving people at a large scale still remains a very serious puzzle, especially in Africa where the infrastructure has remained sluggish while the urban population keeps growing and expected to double by 2050.
Up to 85% of the continent’s population still relies on shared vehicles to commute, even when there’s glaring evidence of the services being unsafe, unreliable and overcrowded. Coupled with the fact that the population also still relies mostly on cash, in times of a pandemic like these, these modes of transit can easily contribute to the escalation of such problems.
Because of the above shortcomings, existing mass-transit service providers instead scare away the fairly well off middle-class, leaving in mass-transit only the lowest income commuters. However, the fare that these lower-income commuters can afford decreases below the OPEX needed to maintain the fleet. This is why public run mass-transit initiatives are hardly viable without government subsidies. It also explains how informal transit has taken over Africa, compromising on safety (to save costs) and hiking fares at the first opportunity (rain). An example is during rain or peak seasons.
Solving the daily commute struggle for billions of people across Africa is already a big deal. Especially knowing that 90% of the world’s urban growth by 2050 will come from developing countries. In Africa alone, the addressable fare market stands at 800 million daily trips which translate into US $70 billion yearly fares, at a 75% annual growth estimate, by 2050.
That is why a couple of players have previously devised and proposed solutions to the problem. For example, in 2014, Kenya’s telecom giant Safaricom introduced the ‘My1963 Card’ while US-based technology firm Google also launched ‘Beba Card’ as cashless payment options for the Matatu sector in Kenya. Only to face fierce resistance from the bus drivers who looked at the initiatives as just an extra ‘tax’ as well as a surveillance tool. Both solutions ended up failing.
Another group of players that are trying to bring the Uber-like solo-dispatching into mass-transit. This requires the commuter to book a seat on a coming bus and the bus driver to also commit to picking them up. This is too rigid and leads to fatally low demand. All similar micro-transit apps in the US have faced the exact challenge and eventually failed.
Eywa’s dispatching relies on simpler checkins (demand signals) while prioritising the drivers' interest (more revenue). The added value is straightforward. Here is how we do it:
In today’s transit, bus or matatu drivers pick up commuters randomly on the roadside and therefore have to stop erratically to drop them along the same or different route. In the process, they waste 30% — 40% of the daytime stopping and 10% time managing cash and change. We have optimized this with;
- Ad-hoc mass-dispatching algorithms that let commuters ‘checkin’ at bus stations from their mobiles and receive incoming bus information in exchange. Commuters going to the same zone are smartly pooled for express trips. By skipping most stops, the bus saves time and can run more trips per day thanks to our algorithm. This generates more revenues while saving on fuel — because of the fewer stops.
- We also have devised a new Transit Card (Eywa QR Card) without any costly chip (replaced with software logic). The card is therefore very cost-effective because it can be printed locally making it cheaper than NFC. The economics make it easier to be mass-distributed to all commuters, automate the boarding and eliminate cash as well as to replace them once lost, damaged or destroyed.
This clever dispatching suddenly raises the supply at peak demand. A virtuous cycle can now begin: better and faster transit attracts higher-income commuters and creates a sustainable market with enough fare collected to renew the fleet.
We started as a consultancy business in transportation and mobile financial services before evolving into a mobility platform. This is how we gained domain expertise but could spot the gaps legacy ticketing solutions missed.
Our ultimate goal is to decently move over a billion commuters daily, at fares each one can afford without compromising on safety.
