Teliman

In Bamako, the population has more than doubled over the 2000-2015 period. This creates strong transportation bottlenecks and limits economic development. Moto-taxi is expanding but the industry is informal: low-quality safety for the passenger and pressure on drivers (costs, low-quality bikes).

Teliman is a lease-to-own approach for drivers to acquire quality and low-fuel consumption bikes after 2 years while working for Teliman. An app connects them with passengers and allows them to use mobile payment. With this model, the drivers are Teliman’s main customers. 

The company creates job opportunities in the formal sector, thus contributing to professional reintegration and economic empowerment for the many unemployed young people of Bamako. By providing financial inclusion to drivers, reducing operation costs and bringing down fuel consumption by up to 30%, Teliman strives to address the main problems facing an uncontrolled Motorcycle Taxi industry across the continent. 

Urban population growth rate has been higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region of the world, at 4% per year. In Bamako, the fastest growing city in Africa (6th in the World) the population has more than doubled over the 2000-2015 period. This creates strong transportation bottlenecks and limits economic development. Moto-taxi is a solution rapidly expanding but the industry is informal and chaotic: low-quality safety for the passenger but also strong pressure on drivers (costs, low-quality bikes, no financing). It is difficult to find a good driver, on quality and well-maintained bikes, offering a ride with safety equipment and insurance. Despite the strong availability of moto-taxis in the streets, the main problem remains the lack of safety for passengers and the excess of pressure for drivers.

Teliman launched the first on-demand taxi-moto service in Bamako, connecting urban commuters with professional drivers (trained, equipped, and fully insured). Teliman recruits and trains drivers creating a formalized force of trained franchisee drivers, they are around 180 drivers in total at the moment. Teliman takes a daily-flat fee from the drivers (to repay the bike and use Teliman’s platform) while each driver collects 100% of the end-user payments for rides. This way end-users also have the choice to find a ride: by booking on Teliman’s mobile app, or, as it’s been for ages, by waving at a Teliman driver in the street. The innovative approach ensures passenger safety (equipment & safety), lowers operation costs, enables ownership of motorcycles for drivers, and ensures the transparent collection of tax revenues.

With this model, the drivers are Teliman’s main customers. They have access to a mobile app which enables them to be connected in real-time with their potential customers (a user app also exists) and also allows them to pay via mobile money, thus avoiding problems linked to cash circulation and rendering the financial flows of the informal sector visible and taxable.

The specificity of Teliman is to consider the drivers as the main target customers. Before working for Teliman, those drivers used to be informal, thus not having an official working contract, insurance, a decent and stable salary.

Most drivers currently working for Teliman (180+) were unemployed before being enrolled. They receive a motorbike, equipment, insurance, and safety training. Factoring that the average household size in Mali is around 8 persons, that means that Teliman has already positively impacted over 1400 people in the country. With Teliman, each driver, while buying the bike, makes at least net earnings of around €3,2/day (half of the Malian population lives below the international poverty line of $1.25/day).

To better understand their needs, Teliman surveys drivers before they start working for Teliman and six months later to see what changed in their professional life and at home. This work helps define the objectives in the interest of the community.

By formalizing the African taxi-moto industry into a safe and efficient service to passengers and profitable activity to drivers, Teliman significantly improves road safety, boosts economic growth by bringing useful innovations to many emerging businesses, and facilitates the life of thousands of isolated Africans. 

Thanks to the lease-to-own approach, Teliman allows drivers to manage their activity independently. This way, they are taught to behave like entrepreneurs, while being guaranteed a fixed and stable salary for themselves and their households. The use of the mobile app connects them directly to the passengers and contributes to increasing their technology and financial literacy. Economic empowerment and integration are key objectives for Teliman and are well-aligned to the Good Jobs &  Inclusive Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Teliman is the only provider of taxi-moto services in Mali. In other francophone countries, such as Togo and Benin, another actor, Gozem, is present. However, they operate a mere online platform, not a full-fledged service provider, unlike Teliman. Competition can still arise from them if they transform their business model. Nigerian operating providers such as Max.NG and Gokada are in a fierce competition over Nigeria at the moment and are not yet considering the francophone market.

While most ride-hailing startups in the continent are focusing on matching end-users (riders) with motorbikes (drivers) using the now well-known Uber model, Teliman’s approach is focusing on the core problem faced by end-users in most African cities: riding on quality and well-maintained vehicle, with a trained and safe driver, with good safety equipment and while being insured. The challenge in Africa has never been to find a taxi but to find a quality, secure taxi. Through the commission-free daily flat fee scheme, money flows from the user to the driver and then to Teliman daily.

Teliman’s unique positioning and focus on drivers as their customers and not end-users is what makes them stand out from the potential competition and creates entry barriers. Users can access a mobile app to localize motorbikes. Teliman also has a drivers' app which enables them to connect in real-time with their potential customers and get paid via mobile money.

Teliman has 3 major technology layers:

• Realtime tracking of drivers via integrated GPS. All motorcycles are equipped with GPS modules allowing them to be tracked at all time and followed on real-time dashboards. Furthermore, the data from GPS is used to rate drivers for safe driving. Finally, based on accumulated driver data, Teliman is also able to adjust routes.  
• Teliman’s mobile app allows drivers to connect in real-time with their potential customers.Users can order rides or plan deliveries to their convenience.
•  The mobile app also allows passengers to pay directly via mobile money, thus avoiding cash circulation for drivers and rendering the whole business transparent and taxable. 

Since the launch of the business in 2018, Teliman recorded over 230 000 trips with over 15000 recurrent customers and on average 6000 monthly call orders in Bamako. Over 200 jobs were created, including both Teliman employees and drivers. Although the COVID-19 crisis has strongly affected Teliman’s business, the turnaround focusing on B2B and B2C deliveries enables the company to reinforce its business model and to have over 120 drivers still on the road end of May 2020. The mobile app and advertising campaigns resulted to be very successful until now. 

Teliman is linking low-tech solutions (call center, ussd) with high-tech solutions (mobile app and live dashboards) to fill the gap between the 25% of the population that has access to internet and the 75% that are still to become smartphone users.

If Teliman formalizes the African taxi-moto industry into a safe and efficient service to passengers and profitable activity to drivers, then thousands of formal and sustainable jobs will be created, road safety will be improved, economic growth will be boosted by bringing useful innovations to many emerging businesses and the life of millions of isolated Africans will be facilitated. Teliman believes that taxi-moto is an efficient and economically adapted means to respond to the mobility needs of a fast-growing African population facing a high unemployment rate. Furthermore, Teliman positions itself as a next mobility company. Moto-Taxis is only the beginning. In the near future Teliman would like to work on finding adapted solutions for shared mobility, and use of renewable energies to fuel this change. 

Currently, over 180 drivers are working for Teliman. Factoring that the average household size in Mali is around 8 persons, that means that Teliman has already positively impacted over 1400 people in the country. With Teliman, each driver, while buying the bike, makes at least net earnings of around €3,2/day (half of the Malian population lives below the international poverty line of $1.25/day). Unlocked income for drivers reaches around €548 000 (based on an average earning of €3,2/driver/day, 253 working days per year, and the acquisition of a €1 500 motorbike). In the meantime, 10 women drivers were recruited within the Teliwoman program.

The current objective is to reach a fleet of over 600 drivers by 2021, which means multiplying the above numbers by three in the next 12-18 months.

Over the next 5 years, the objective is to reach a fleet of over 16000 drivers, meaning multiplying the above numbers by 90. Overall, over 1250 000 people should then benefit from the solution.

But more than just drivers, Teliman is making it possible today for low income population to travel safely, with known drivers, safety gear and an insurance. Having completed over 250,000 rides to date with a base of recurrent customers reaching 20,000, Teliman is thriving to bring deep changes within its community. 

As mentioned above, the objectives for the next year and the next five years are to increase the fleet respectively to 600 drivers and over 16000 drivers. Logically, more people among households will be positively affected by this increase: nearly 5000 within one year, and 126 000 in the next 5 years.

Another mid-term impact is to reduce fuel consumption by 30% by finding and adapting renewable energy powered bikes,

To acquire more motorbikes, the strategy is to use third-party financing and push financial institutions/investors to grant loans to the drivers via Teliman. In doing so, Teliman would bridge the gap from these institutions and low-income populations, that would otherwise be unsolvable for loans.

Teliman is also planning to expand its activities horizontally accross Western Africa, in particular Benin and Burkina-Faso. And vertically, by integrating shared mobility (ride-sharing), cars, and last mile delivery and logistics.

The main barrier for most companies involved in transportation is the regulatory one. As seen in Lagos beginning of 2020, the government has banned moto-taxi companies overnight in some areas of the city. The COVID-19 also demonstrated the vulnerability of such a sector. Indeed, the Malian government issued a ban end of March 2020 on all motorcyclists riding with a passenger. Teliman’s survival was seriously jeopardized.

The other risk is the potential default rate from drivers who wouldn’t be able to pay the motorbike leasing fee every day. 

Regulatory Barrier: This risk is being mitigated by Teliman by having an open and frequent communication channel with local authorities. Besides, during the COVID-19 crisis, Teliman made a turnaround and decided to focus its activities on B2B and B2C deliveries. Thanks to cooperation agreements with local retailers, Teliman could save its business, and even reinforce it.

Default rate from drivers: This is being mitigated by having the drivers pick up and drop off their bikes after their days of work at the Teliman-owned facility. It’s also being mitigated by a very in-depth and careful vetting and selection process to recruit the drivers.

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Full-time staff is composed of 32 people and part-time of 2 people.

The founding team is composed of two people, Hawa Traoré (CEO), and Abdoulaye Maiga (CTO)

The management team is highly qualified, coming from various solid education and professional backgrounds, comprising leading universities (Centrale Paris, Arts et Métiers), renowned consulting firms, international banks, technology companies, and industrial companies (EDF, Rakuten, Accenture, etc.). The team is sharped and committed. 

Furthermore, the team is backed by CFAO which is a leading industrial group in many African countries with strong connections with Toyota, Yamaha, and Mitsubishi. CFAO has also recently signed an MoU with the government of Ghana to build the Toyota assembly plant.

Teliman partners with several major organizations, such as:

• CFAO Motors: leading industrial group in many African countries with strong connections with Toyota, Yamaha, and Mitsubishi. They financially back Teliman and provide support for expansion
• GreenTec Capital Partners: Investment company focused on Africa. Provides strategic support and business development.
• Orange Mali: telco operator. Assist Teliman to develop its mobile payment solution.

Teliman offers a lease-to-own approach for drivers to acquire quality and low-fuel consumption bikes after maximum of 2 years while working for Teliman. During this time, the bike is maintained by Teliman and the drivers are supported through on-going training. Teliman takes a daily-flat fee from the drivers (to repay the bike and use Teliman’s platform) while each driver collects 100% of the end-user payments for rides. This way end-users also have the choice to find a ride: by booking on Teliman’s mobile app, or, as it’s been for ages, by waving at a Teliman driver in the street.

Teliman operates therefore in the B2C and B2B side:

B2C: a specificity of Teliman is to consider the drivers as the main target customers. Most of the drivers currently working for Teliman were unemployed before being enrolled. They receive a motorbike, equipment, insurance, and safety training in exchange for a flat-daily fee (2€ fee + 4€ for the motorbike lease).

B2B: Beyond the B2C model, Teliman also offers business customers to make deliveries for them. This ranges from courier service to food deliveries on behalf of a shop. In this model, Teliman charges businesses on average a 1€ commission per trip.

To acquire motorbikes, the strategy is to use third-party financing and make financial institutions/investors grant loans to the drivers. This would offset the risk of default from Teliman's balance sheet. Third-party financing can be in terms of equities, loans, or grants. This way, Teliman wouldn’t need to purchase the motorbikes with its own generated revenue. The more drivers there are, the more flat-fees are being paid, and the higher the revenue is for Teliman.

Teliman is now expecting investments from two parties. In addition, Teliman would like to leverage saving from the population to build a lending platform. Hence, users can finance individual bikes and generate interest from this activitry. This could be not only a means to desincentivise informal sector activity but a good way create saving for the middle class.

Solve is a worldwide recognised initiative that promotes social inclusion and innovation. We believe that being part of the Solve community could help us have access to a huge network of partners, aligned with our ambitions and vision. Solve can therefore bring us the mentoring support we seek but also a financial support that will help us navigate through the COVID-19 crisis and recover our business as soon as possible.

Partnerships within the mobility sector would be an interesting option for us, as they could advise us on how to contribute to more sustainable cities in Bamako, or elsewhere. Having a partner, aware of the mobility issues and that could help us address the regulatory risk, would be an asset. A partner in the automotive sector willing to invest money to purchase motorbikes would be of interest to Teliman.

Another partnership could be with a telco company and/or IT company to support us in reinforcing and adding new functionalities to our mobile application.

Partnerships within the mobility sector would be an interesting option for us, as they could advise us on how to contribute to more sustainable cities in Bamako, or elsewhere. Having a partner, aware of the mobility issues and that could help us address the regulatory risk, would be an asset. A partner in the automotive sector willing to invest money to purchase motorbikes would be of interest for Teliman.

Another partnership could be with a telco company and/or IT company to support us in reinforcing and adding new functionalities to our mobile application.

Co-founded by a woman, Hawa Traoré, Teliman’s goal is to empower young unemployed people. Among them, women are a primary target, as they suffer the most from the lack of social inclusion and financial independence. Teliman has recently launched a program called Teliwoman to encourage more women to apply for a driver position. At the moment, 10 women were recruited.

Teliman allows drivers to manage independently their moto-taxi activities. They are free to take the number of passengers they want and to choose the frequency. This way, they are taught to behave like entrepreneurs, while receiving a stable salary and related-insurance. Besides, the mobile app and mobile payments contribute to increasing their technological and financial literacy.