SnooCODE

More than half of the world is reported to live without a formal address, making it challenging for authorities to adequately plan for their wellbeing or respond effectively to negative events. An infected contact who lives in a slum, for instance, is very difficult to trace in today’s pandemic or any other epidemic.

SnooCODE provides users with a private, memorable 6-digit alphanumeric code (e.g. 3CF-K8D) for their location, democratising access to emergency and public health services, as well as other core services like Banking and eCommerce for people of all demographics, including marginalised populations like people living with disabilities and the underprivileged. It also enables field workers, e.g. vaccination teams, to cover as much territory as possible within the shortest time, improving patient outcomes.

Using SnooCODE anywhere on the globe, people in even the most remote locations can receive timely emergency response, food deliveries, public health interventions and humanitarian relief.

We are working on the Health security and pandemics challenge to strengthen access to affordable primary healthcare systems, enhance disease surveillance systems, and improve healthcare supply chains.

Approximately 50% of the total disease burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are disease processes that frequently require emergency care. (https://bit.ly/3hxiKDW)

Battling entrenched attitudes where people often use taxis in emergencies or think of ambulances as used for carrying corpses, responders had typically struggled to find victims in densely populated and rural areas, and those in need of emergency care would often waste valuable time trying to direct ambulances to their location. We at SnooCODE wanted to ensure that our emergency services get all the help they need to respond quickly to crises, so in partnership with the Vodafone Ghana Foundation, we launched the SnooCODE RED system, a family of technologies that enables emergency responders to determine the nearest available ambulance station or hospital to a case and navigate easily to the emergency scene, improving response time and the case’s chances of survival. Built on our flagship innovation, SnooCODE, public health workers are also able to use the system in contact tracing and optimising healthcare supply chains.

SnooCODE is a digital addressing system that provides four main functions: accurate location, ultra-fast route optimisation, presence verification and proof of delivery, as well as integration into emerging and future technologies like drones and driverless cars – utilising unique 6-digit alphanumeric codes (SnooCODEs) for any location.

Anyone can generate a SnooCODE, e.g. COF-K8D, with their smartphone for wherever they are, and share with another person, enabling access to a map (chosen by the receiver from their stock of available mobile mapping systems) to the exact location, accurate to 6.8m on average and ±22cm when used in specialist applications like drone piloting.

We offer the system in four “flavours”: SnooCODE (GREEN) for easy navigation by the general public as well as communication of their location to emergency services; SnooCODE RED for emergency and public health services to accurately locate cases and convey them to the most appropriate facilities; SnooCODE BLACK for businesses (e.g. food delivery companies) to optimise their logistics and verify compliance; SnooCODE BLUE for the efficient administration of countries, cities and settlements. SnooCODE is registered as the first “postal code system and method” for smartphones (https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2014080186&redirectedID=true). It was built utilising radio navigation systems including GPS, GNSS and GLONASS.

SnooCODE recently changed her tagline from “an address for every man, woman and child” to “an address for everyone and everything.” Suffice to say, SnooCODE was designed to be usable by everybody, however, our target population is the developing world. Here, a significant number of those who would most need and use a digital addressing system – drivers, delivery people, community health nurses – are not well educated or cannot afford smartphones. The good thing about SnooCODE’s design is that even people who don't own a smartphone can have a SnooCODE for their home. One of our case studies is our founder’s grandmother who lives in the village. Her grandson paid a visit, stood in front of her house and used his Android smartphone to generate a SnooCODE. He got it in 3 seconds, wrote it on paper and stuck it to her fridge. If ever she had an emergency, she could call the ambulance and quickly say out the 6-digit code on her fridge, ensuring they could find her in good time and transport her to the nearest, most suitable facility. As reported on bbc.in/39AJOgA, “founder Sesinam Dagadu says the system is so easy his grandmother can use it.”

To end the Challenge Overview, Solve expresses that it is seeking “improved solutions for prevention, accurate detection, and rapid response” as well as “solutions that focus on preventative and mitigation measures that strengthen access to affordable primary healthcare systems, enhance disease surveillance systems, and improve healthcare supply chains.” Our innovation strengthens access to affordable primary healthcare systems like the Ambulance by empowering people of all demographics in the developing world with a simple digital address with which efficient disease surveillance and rapid response can also be achieved. Its route optimisation function also significantly improves healthcare supply chains.

SnooCODE has the unique selling point of being usable anywhere on earth – online or offline. It can be used by anyone, regardless of their level of education, unlike with our top competitor, What3words, which requires college-level vocabulary to be used; with SnooCODE, all one needs to know is their ABCs and 123s.

One concern users and opinion leaders have expressed about competitor products like What3words is the total randomness of their algorithm, such that neighbouring addresses are completely unrelated; the SnooCODE algorithm however is partially open, helping emergency services or anybody you have shared your code with to deduce your location down to 800m, while the second half of the code, which leads to your front door, is randomized in order to protect your privacy. Users can have a good level of confidence about their privacy – by default, the SnooCODE app stores all personal data on the user’s device and relies on the user actively transmitting their information to whomever they trust.

With its offline capability, the system is resilient to hacking, rendering it ideal for use by entities dealing with sensitive data, e.g. contact tracers.

Furthermore, SnooCODE provides more than just a location solution, with its ultra-fast route optimisation, proof of delivery and compliance verification, and integration into future technologies like driverless cars, none of which are offered directly by our competitors. As the first “postal code system and method for smartphones” (https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2014080186&redirectedID=true), SnooCODE has Prior Art, safeguarding its intellectual property.

The SnooCODE ecosystem (SnooCODE RED, GREEN, BLACK, BLUE) is powered by a combination of radio navigation systems, notably Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and GLONASS (Soviet Union GNSS).

The system is map-agnostic, acting as an addressing layer on top of the user’s selected mapping system, e.g. Google Maps, HERE maps, Apple Waze. This allows the user to use whichever mapping system they prefer or is suitable for them – HERE maps for instance, is ideal for ambulance services in the developing world, as it enables downloading and offline use of larger maps than Google’s.

The public can generate their SnooCODE, save it, share and navigate without the Internet (the only time an Internet connection is needed is when downloading the app from the app store or when sharing the code via Internet-dependent platforms like WhatsApp), provided they have a smartphone. As situations change, parameters within the app can be changed using SMS. SnooCODE has also been designed so it can be used by people who don't have a phone at all to help them organise themselves geographically using our 9Patch Zoning System.

Part of SnooCODE’s Verification component is the optional physical element of beautiful house address plaques with inbuilt RFID chips for field workers to tap their mobile devices against to initiate verification of their presence or compliance, incorporating the Internet of Things.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/13/google-maps-geocoder

What happens when a slum dweller catches an infectious disease like COVID-19?

In the developing world, even planned communities lack recognised street and home addresses, so it is unsettling to imagine how an infected slum resident’s contacts can be effectively traced and given medical attention to manage epidemic spread.

If every man, woman and child had a simple, official address for the place they called home, they could easily get help when sick, in danger, or in an emergency, and they could simply direct loved ones and required services to them. Outside of the individual, essential services will be able to accurately and efficiently reach citizens, while government authorities can manage several aspects of public service, from criminology to waste management to disease surveillance.

Conversely, addressing the previously unaddressed would enable an opening up of the tax bracket, causing evaders to suffer. In addition, corrupt officials who falsify information would suffer if this addressing system included a verification component that recorded exactly where and when transactions or other such events took place. The SnooCODE verification technology, which shows space-time-stamped evidence of compliance, was described by the World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) as a sister technology to Blockchain – chances of falsifying data when using it are 1 in 60.7 trillion.

In order for individuals, businesses and governments to embrace this new technology, they must first find it easy enough to understand, then see its value in their everyday lives over their perceived benefits of escaping civic duty (taxes, etc). Consequently, our strategy is to communicate that citizens should get their SnooCODEs before there’s ever an emergency; write it and paste on the fridge, and it belongs to you forever to be able to order anything from pizzas to face masks, as well as to call the ambulance when needed. One incentive we offer is free delivery for a limited period on orders from our partners. Using our innovation, this strategy, a considerable marketing budget and leveraging relationships in our network, we expect improved emergency and pandemic response leading to better patient outcomes in the developing world.

We currently serve 60,000 Android and iOS users. These were acquired with almost no marketing save word of mouth and exposure from international media coverage.

In one year, having one national addressing system deal signed and implemented, we estimate serving at least 2.5 million people. In five years, we envision a solid presence among more than 10 emergency service associations in at least 3 developing countries, serving about 10 million people.

Our mission for the next year is mainly threefold: a) help at least 5 emergency medical services in Africa improve their emergency response by an average 50%; b) help manage the COVID-19 pandemic through accurate contact tracing and optimised mobility; c) help one developing country to lay the foundation for sustainable smart cities and settlements with a digital national addressing system (NAS) complimented by smart house address plaques. We are currently advancing conversations with two African countries who have budgeted USD 100-250 million for their NAS. We look to also convert at least one of our multinational logistics leads to help make their business more efficient.

We are also working with the Emergency Medicine Kenya Foundation to equip emergency services in all 47 counties in Kenya with SnooCODE, and are pursuing a similar model throughout the continent, working with a database of more than 90 emergency services across 23 African countries. Our model here is to build a community of emergency health workers that benefit from our technology, projects and the knowledge resources of other members. In 5 years, we seek to be the go-to system for improving emergency response in Africa. This means having a sustainable model where emergency and public health services seek out SnooCODE through referrals from our existing clients and partner. Within this period, we also expect to have raised enough investment to venture into other markets in the developing world, particularly Asia.

We have not yet acquired the one big commercial customer or nation state that will use SnooCODE. Corruption in a number of African countries has made doing honest business difficult.

There is also a smaller pool of VC cash in Africa, and the risk perception is so high that it is almost impossible to raise any capital even at our conservative valuation ofThe fact that we are a long-tail business also means the capital we have has to be patient enough to give us the time to create a market and promote the importance of having a digital addressing system and getting emergency and public health services to start using it. We are therefore keen on building our system’s reputation as a widely recognised and trusted tool, raising funds on fair and favourable terms, and building relationships with local, country, regional and international partners.

We are advancing dialogue with the UK Export Finance (UKEF) to offer loan guarantees on National Addressing System deals where countries do not have adequate funds to pursue the project. In such instances, the UKEF serves as a strong layer of protection from not only non-payment but also corruption, owing to their supervisory powers during the project. 

Regarding raising capital, we pursue opportunities to increase exposure to potential investors, such as applying for grants like MIT Solve and participating in international conferences and expos. We also continue to leverage relationships with organisations such as the Royal Academy of Engineering, whose Africa Prize initiative we are alumni of, lending us more credibility before potential investors.

5 full-time staff; 3 part-time staff; 4 contractors

At SnooCODE Limited, creators, engineers, mathematicians and social scientists come together to provide next-generation location-based solutions to power core citizen centric services in the developing and developed world.  

Founder and CEO, Sesinam Dagadu, holds an MEng in Engineering and Business Management from Warwick University. He has a background in building mission critical, life-saving equipment in the automotive and military sectors for Jaguar Land Rover and the US and British Militaries.

Fred Soglohu, senior technologist and primary developer for the current Android version of SnooCODE, is a mathematician working on his PhD at the Africa Institute for Mathematical Sciences.

Zara Abbey leads the Marketing department. With a BA in International Management and a decade of experience in the Film, Advertising and Tech industries doing work for clients such as Ogilvy, Ghana Ministry of Trade & Industry, Samsung and Nestlé Central & West Africa, she crafts strategy and communications to promote SnooCODE to emergency services, international organisations and the general public.

Sheila Adufutse, Project Manager, holds a Bsc. Degree and Post-graduate diploma in Business Administration and is a certified monitoring and evaluation executive. She is actively involved in all project lifecycle aspects and ensures deliverables are achieved efficiently with the resources available.

Ebenezer Opoku-Ware is an all-round Creative with a BSc Natural Resources Management. He is skilled in photography and videography, graphic design and social media management.

The Emergency Medicine Society of Ghana is a valuable partner with whom we cooperate on various projects, such as grant applications, research projects and conferences. One such project was a proof-of-concept study of ambulances fitted with SnooCODE, which reduced emergency response times by up to 56%. This was done in collaboration with two other key partners – Oxford University and Ghana’s Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. We have also recently partnered the Emergency Medicine Kenya Foundation, which supports the work of emergency services in all 47 counties in Kenya. This partnership promotes the use of SnooCODE and SnooCODE RED to improve emergency response throughout Kenya. We are pursuing a similar model throughout the continent, working with a database of 95 emergency services across 23 African countries, and having advanced conversations with service providers in Nigeria, Namibia and Malawi.

We also enjoy the support of the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce (AHK) in Ghana, who are always keen on introducing SnooCODE to potential investors and other partners. A recent intervention from them facilitated a test of SnooCODE’s offline route optimisation feature against DHL’s systems – results showed SnooCODE beating DHL’s systems in route optimisation by an average of 19.6%, and in some cases, by as much as 38%. Our most recent partnership is with the Embassy of Switzerland in Ghana, who are largely sponsoring our project to assess the acuity levels of hospitals in the country and include them on our SnooCODE RED emergency services system.

We currently provide our SnooCODE RED system for free to Emergency services, save a small maintenance charge. This helps make the market for our other products and services. We are able to execute projects to develop SnooCODE RED solutions through funding won from different grants. A case in point is our recent project largely funded by the Embassy of Switzerland in Ghana to assess and incorporate the acuity levels of hospitals in the country on SnooCODE RED, enabling emergency responders to convey cases to the facilities most capable of handling the specific emergency.

From the improvement of emergency response and epidemiology in different countries, we will present the results to governments as a compelling case for using SnooCODE as the National Addressing System (NAS). We intend to charge a one-time fee per head of the population to generate revenue here. In the meantime, we sell licence mandates to trusted entities to sell the system to their governments. We expect to close at least 1 NAS deal this year, following our advanced dialogue with two countries who have budgeted USD 100-250 million for their NAS. In the long term, we will charge businesses that use SnooCODE to deliver services, e.g. multinational businesses like Uber and UPS. We will also provide logistics intelligence and consultancy services gleaned from the anonymised data we will collect in our operations. Our technology together with this intelligence opens up developing markets for logistics and e-Commerce, generating more jobs and reducing poverty.

Our path to financial sustainability is a combination of grant funding, raising investment capital, and selling our products and services.

We have been focused on developing our products to world-class standards, testing them through grant-funded projects and developing our human resource and operations with angel investment. We are now well-positioned to raise investment capital to scale up and take our offerings to new markets. While we advance conversations and build relationships with potential investors, we will continue to pursue grant funding to execute projects.

In selling our products and services, we will charge logistics, transport, finance and other service sector businesses for using SnooCODE BLACK, and governments for using SnooCODE BLUE, as well as for consultancy services, as described in the previous answer. We also plan to incorporate location-based advertising into our non-commercial apps (SnooCODE GREEN and RED), selling advertising space to accredited pharmacies, insurance companies, wellness businesses and associated organisations. There is the potential to earn USD150,000 in advertising revenue if 1 million Africans download the app, based on a standard of USD0.15 per download.

We look forward to gaining access to a community of funders to scale up our solution through MIT Solve.

In our recent partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland in Ghana, we are receiving not only funding but also an agreement to promote/distribute the resulting innovation among their embassy network. This is the kind of partnership we seek, where partners can help with funding as well as distributing our products.

Emergency services, eCommerce and delivery companies, postal services, international development organisations like UN Habitat, and nation states are our ideal partners and customers because our solution is most relevant to them. We are also always happy to engage researchers and academics as partners, especially in global health, emergency and disaster management to help us develop our product better for such applications.

We are elevating opportunities for all people, enabling those who were traditionally left behind - from slum dwellers to refugees - to be able to also easily access emergency and public health services.

With the Elevate Prize for Health Security, we can pursue our motorbike ambulance project, which aims to reduce response times even further and allow emergency services to reach hard-to-access locations to administer basic life support and reduce preventable deaths.

Our solution can advance the economic, financial, and political inclusion of refugees by empowering them with addresses even for makeshift shelter with which they can register with private sector companies, open bank accounts and enjoy the right to vote.

With the Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion, we can update and execute an educational campaign on our 9Patch Zoning System for people who do not own a phone at all.

SnooCODE contributes to attaining the following 7 SDGs: 

SDG 1 - No Poverty - With a SnooCODE address, all men and women, in particular the poor and vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources like bank accounts.

SDG 3 - Good Health & Wellbeing - SnooCODE enables all to have access to emergency and public health services.

SDG 8 - Decent Work & Economic Growth - SnooCODE opens up developing economies to eCommerce and advanced logistics, creating more delivery jobs.

SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure - SnooCODE can help retrofit industries such as the healthcare industry, e.g. pharmaceutical cold chains, to make it sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency.

SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities - Marginalised populations like refugees can easily access emergency and public health services, financial services and other essential services like waste management.

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities - SnooCODE serves as critical infrastructure for smart cities and settlements with the incorporation of Internet of things technology and the enabling of efficient mobility and logistics.

SDG 13 - Climate Action - Our route optimisation system enables deliveries to be done more efficiently, ensuring that Logistics has minimal impact (carbon footprint) on the environment. We recently helped a customer make more than twice their average number of deliveries over a total of 173km in 6 hours 40 minutes, instead of a conventional route of 406km in 11hours 40minutes.

With The People's Prize, we can pursue a project advancing our smart house plaques in selected communities to provide visibility for businesses and enable compliance verification by service workers.

"Four billion people are excluded from the rule of law, as the lack of a legal identity often prevents them from enjoying their rights as citizens. Setting up an addressing system is the first step towards tackling that issue." -Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, United Nations Development Programme

With the Future Planet Capital Prize, we can update and translate SnooCODE and SnooCODE RED into different languages, execute marketing and public education campaigns on emergency preparedness with SnooCODE, and perform effective monitoring and evaluation of the work done.