SWVL, a shuttle-hailing firm with operations in Egypt and Nairobi today announced plans to pump $15 million (KES 1.5 billion) into its Kenyan operations to improve its current operations and scale into other towns and routes.
SWVL is also expanding globally and is set to launch its global headquarters in Dubai. In the meantime, SWVL is hiring for the position of a global launcher to help establish Swvl’s footprint across multiple continents, countries, cities and verticals. The interesting bit for this role is finding exciting new verticals for Swvl, meaning the firm is not done with shuttle-hailing.
SWVL has signed up more than 55 routes to the initial four routes when they launched in Kenya in February 2019 and is set to start operations outside the capital city.
“I believe the potential for growth and value creation is tremendous and given the different entities providing varied solutions, we are looking to fill a gap that has yet to be sufficiently covered by what is already available. That is what has prompted us to expand our route offering to match the convenience of ride-hailing services but at the same time matching the capacity provided by the traditional matatu industry for an even larger customer base than we have before”, said Shivachi Muleji, SWVL General Manager for Kenya.
“We see this as a win-win for us as SWVL and for Kenyans because this investment will not only allow us to grow the size of our fleet, but also by extension create employment and support the government in providing high quality public transportation,” he added
The first six months of the company’s operations had essentially been a pilot phase, and the move to increase their investment and the routes they operate in is seen as the official launch of their services locally.
SWVL recently closed its $42 million Series B-2 funding led by BECO Capital and Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures. This increased the start-up’s valuation to $150 million and comes almost seven months after it was valued at around $100 million after the last round of fundraising making it among the best-funded start-ups in the region.
SWVL co-founder and CEO, Mostafa Kandil said,“Kenya is a market with a need for a stable solution for the perennial traffic snarl ups and SWVL believes that we can be of great benefit to the local consumer and the transport sector as a whole,” said Mr. Kandil. “We are very excited to provide a solution that makes the lives of Kenyans easier whilst proving beneficial to the Kenyan transport sector.”
Kandil told TechMoran SWVL is still launching in Lagos before the end of this year but stayed away from mentioning timelines.
In Kenya, SWVL said it was launching a corporate platform for partners who want to sign up their employees for trips to and from work.
