Raye7, Egypt’s carpooling founded by siblings Samira and Ahmed Negm wants to bring sanity to Cairo’s roads by connecting city residents to others of similar interests or workplaces.
Raye7, which aims to solve the traffic menace in Cairo and end the long hours people spent in traffic and instead focus on productive work. Though the concept is not new in Africa or globally, most of the ventures have failed where Raye7 sees opportunity by focusing on a near-entreprise only model which focuses co-workers, schoolmates among others than just people headed to the same direction like carpooling has been traditionally done.
Samira Negm a Computer Engineer and Project Manager says Raye7 was inspired during her experience working in Cairo. Having worked for several companies in Cairo, she realized how difficult it was for employees to reach their places of work and other destinations. For women, it was even messier as cases of harassment were on the rise. All these challenges she says, led to the creation of Raye7.
Raye 7 is a culturally sensitive ride-sharing application that connects people within the same social communities for instances work colleagues, students or acquaintances going to the same destination. When a new user signs up to this platform, Raye7 begins a verification process by automatically asking for information on where the new user woks and lives, it then verifies their identity, phone number, work email and linked in or Facebook profile. Riders and drivers are only matched when they are within the same social networks and communities.
According to Raye7, this service helps to cut on time wasted in traffic, congestion which results in unnecessary fuel consumption, additional wear and tear on vehicles and harmful emissions lowering air quality and reduced transport costs.
Launched in 2015, the firm last year announced it had reached 15,000 registered users with 20 per cent of them being women. The company partners with like-minded companies, for example, Dsquare which runs Vodafone’s local loyalty programme dubbed Sherkety platform.
This partnership allows companies that are Vodafone clients to give employees access to Raye 7 services and in exchange Raye earns points through the Sherkety platform. The Company uses Orange Egypt SMS API to send customised messages and notifications to rider sharers when a match is found, such as the estimated arrival time, pick up details and changes to their trip.
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Raye 7 is not the only mobile startup offering carpooling services in Cairo. Other companies that have ventured in this service include Go-Go Car, Normad and Carpool World among others but regardless of this competition, Raye has managed to remain at the top.
