SnooCODE for the vulnerable

In much of the developing world, very few streets are named, and swathes of neighbourhoods and towns are unlabelled on Google Maps. This makes it difficult for the vulnerable, the uneducated, even the everyday man in the lower middle-class neighbourhood in Ghana, to get access to core services.

SnooCODE provides users with a private, memorable 6-digit alphanumeric code (e.g. 3CF-K8D) unique to 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.

If SnooCODE were scaled globally, people everywhere – refugees, campers, tourists, the homeless, event guests, tax collectors – could easily identify and verify themselves and access timely emergency response, public health interventions, food deliveries and humanitarian relief.

We are working to solve the challenge of countries ensuring that digital authentication mechanisms—which often require smartphones, computers and/or internet access—are accessible and user-friendly for marginalized and vulnerable populations to facilitate remote access to services and benefits.

About 4 billion people are said to live without a formal address, meaning they are unable to easily access core services like the Ambulance. In Ghana, our headquarters, several banks still require customers to hand-draw maps of their neighbourhood indicating any popular landmarks to be able to open an account.

As the world quickly shifts more services to online and digital platforms, more and more people who do not have addresses to authenticate their identity get left behind – unless there’s a solution that gives each one of them a unique digital address with which they can do unprecedented (for even the privileged) things like remote voter registration, because they can sit at home and prove their identity. This solution is SnooCODE. SnooCODE will break one of the biggest barriers the vulnerable face, giving a slum dweller the same chance as an upper-class Airbnb host to have the ambulance reach them, register for health insurance or vote for a new leader.

SnooCODE was designed to be usable by everybody, however, our target population is the developing world. Here, a significant number of the people 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 do not own a smartphone can have a SnooCODE for their home. Our favourite case study 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.”

The Challenge seeks innovative solutions to increase inclusion and access to digital platforms such as identification systems.” These solutions must help countries ensure that everyone – particularly vulnerable groups – can apply/register for an ID in a safe, secure and fair way, and/or access user-friendly digital authentication mechanisms to facilitate remote access to services and benefits. SnooCODE answers both Challenge dimensions by: 

enabling everyone in the world to register for an ID with their unique, private 6-digit alphanumeric address, possible from the safety of their homes in times of health emergencies; authenticating everyone’s identity in a user-friendly, Internet-free manner.

SnooCODE has the USP of being usable anywhere on earth – online or offline. It can be used by anyone, regardless of 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've shared your code with to deduce your location down to 800m, while the second half of the code, leading 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 to actively transmit their information to whomever they are requiring a service from and/or trusts.

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

Furthermore, SnooCODE provides more than just a location solution, with its ultra-fast route optimisation, proof of presence 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 IP.

The SnooCODE ecosystem (SnooCODE RED, for emergencies; GREEN, for the public; other applications) 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 an Internet-dependent platform 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.

If having an official identity recognised by the world requires being able to prove one’s identity, then how do people who have no official address prove their identity? They would need someone reliable to vouch for them. And how would this person prove they could be trusted? With an official address where they could be found in any matter.

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. If this address were digital, it could be used on their phones to verify their home location, for purposes as diverse as bank KYC, remote voting and health monitoring.

Conversely, addressing the unaddressed would enable an opening up of the tax bracket, causing evaders to suffer. Furthermore, corrupt officials who falsify information would suffer if this digital addressing system included a verification component that recorded exactly where and when transactions took place. SnooCODE’s verification technology, which shows space-time-stamped proof of presence or 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 on it are 1 in 60.7 trillion.

If individuals, businesses and governments are to embrace this new technology, then they must understand it easily enough, then see its value in their everyday lives over any perceived benefits of escaping civic duty (taxes, etc). Consequently, our strategy is communicating that citizens must get their SnooCODE before there’s ever an emergency; write it and paste on the fridge, and it belongs to you forever to be able to vote, register for health insurance, order anything from pizzas to face masks, as well as to access the ambulance. 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 our partnerships, we expect a high rate of inclusion of vulnerable populations in the ownership of a dignified address.

Most identification systems require a person’s home address. This is to be able to find or visit them if there’s any issue, or to prove that they own a particular piece of property. With a digital addressing system like SnooCODE, more complex tasks can be executed, from remote registrations to medical drone deliveries. 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. A SnooCODE can be shared with, or entered into any digital identification system as a valid address for accurate Location. If this identification system has a licensed SnooCODE integration, it can also do the following: Optimise routes so that field workers such as census officials cover the most territory in the shortest possible time; Verify one’s address as their actual residence from gathering their location-time data over a period; enable the navigation of Emerging and Future technologies like drones to survey or make deliveries to marginalized populations.

SnooCODE works everywhere on Earth and has already been optimised for much of the developing world, including the entire African continent, South America, the Middle East and 70% of Asia. This means the codes in these areas have been fine-tuned to suit the different urban, suburban and rural plans. Users can therefore easily remember the codes and be able to deduce a location without a map down to 800m – useful for services like mail sorting and relief efforts. It takes less than a week to optimise the system for a country, thus we can include other geographical areas without difficulty.

Equally important is the fact that SnooCODE is generally language agnostic. The use of alphanumeric codes to communicate location does not require users to possess multilingual knowledge, a high level of education or social status. This breaks down the barrier of inclusion many new technologies face, making SnooCODE attractive to a wide audience.

Above all, because the system is offline and personal data remains on the user’s device, it will be difficult to compromise the integrity of the system and the data it gathers. For these reasons, SnooCODE is a very user-friendly solution to incorporate into a digital identification system.

We go beyond open APIs to allow integration into other systems. Any vendor can easily integrate our technology into their existing system. This is done by providing the vendor with an offline version of the system and a few lines of code for the integration. The system therefore sits on the vendor’s device and communicates with the vendor’s application in the background without the need for an Internet connection, making it highly resilient to abuse. We believe this is superior to APIs because it allows the system to be used in areas without Internet connectivity.

Our solution also allows data portability with functionality that enables conversion of a SnooCODE into Latitude and Longitude format, which all legacy and future systems use, avoiding vendor lock-in.

SnooCODE works without a SIM card or cellular connectivity. The public can generate their SnooCODE, save it, share and navigate without the Internet. The only time an Internet connection is needed is the one time downloading the app from the app store or when sharing a code via an Internet-dependent platform like WhatsApp. Otherwise, users can always convey the code by SMS or orally by phone, as is the case with the Ambulance. The majority of users with low literacy and numeracy levels are able to recognize letters of the alphabet and numbers 0 to 9, and can tell in which locality they reside – these are all the parts of a SnooCODE, e.g. Cairo 3FG-82C.

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 3 or more developing countries, serving at least 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 at least 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.The 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 the Mission Billion Challenge 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. He designs algorithms and leads the tech team.

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.

SnooCODE is marketed as a National Addressing System either directly to governments or by selling licence mandates to trusted entities to sell the system to their governments. We charge a one-time fee per head of the population to generate revenue here. As a National Addressing System, SnooCODE can easily be integrated with other services, from Police to Ambulance to Tax Collection, Banks, Land Registry – anything that has an addressing element to it.

We will charge commercial businesses that use SnooCODE to deliver services, e.g. 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 ultra-efficient logistics and e-Commerce, generating more jobs and reducing poverty.

In the meantime, we offer SnooCODE RED, our system customised for emergency services for free, and are able to do the same for other organisations that use the system for humanitarian purposes. In the same vein, we submit SnooCODE for the Global Prize Challenge, making it available on a public license for the specific use cases of:

i.  enabling everyone—especially vulnerable groups—to apply/register for an ID in a way that protects people’s health and the integrity of the ID system even where there’s no connectivity;

ii. ensuring that digital authentication mechanisms—which often require smartphones, computers and/or internet access—are accessible and user-friendly for marginalized and vulnerable populations to facilitate remote access to services and benefits.

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

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 our commercial solution, and governments for using our national addressing solution, as well as for consultancy services, as described in the previous answer on our business model. 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 seek USD 1-3million in equity. We hope to raise this money within a year to scale up our marketing and sell to governments and multinationals.  

DESCRIPTION

AMOUNT $

CASH INFLOW

Angel Investor

$153,600.00

Commercial Income

$250,135.41

Grants & Other Funding

$282,067.59

Sub-Total

$685,803.00

CASH OUTFLOW

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Internet

$3,600.00

Laptop Computers

$1,500.00

Desktop computers

$8,000.00

Servers

$2,000.00

Developer Supplies

$5,200.00

Developer Subscriptions

$6,000.00

Sub-Total

$26,300.00

OTHER EQUIPMENT

Laser Etcher

$8,000.00

Solar Power System

$5,000.00

Plaques (Pilot Addreses)

$250,020.00

Sub-Total

$263,020.00

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

WIPO Charges for PCT Renewal

$10,800.00

Fees for Patent Attorney

$4,800.00

Sub-Total

$15,600.00

MARKETING

Digital Marketing

$24,000.00

Marketing Creatives

$28,800.00

PR

$12,000.00

Sub-Total

$64,800.00

OPERATIONS

Utilities (Electricity & Water)

$1,920.00

Office Supplies

$2,400.00

Telephone

$1,200.00

Printers

$1,200.00

Work space chairs and tables (Additional)

$1,800.00

Office Improvements

$6,000.00

Rent for Office

$9,600.00

Bank Charges

$1,200.00

Legal Fees

$15,000.00

External Travel

$10,000.00

Internal Travel

$3,600.00

Staff salaries

$170,900.00

Corporate taxes

$2,000.00

Outsourced HR

$6,000.00

Outsourced UX Design Team

$24,000.00

Miscellaneous

$50,263.00

Sub-Total

$316,083.00

TOTAL

$685,803.00

Winning the Mission Billion Challenge would provide exposure to a community of funders to help scale up our solution. The funding won would also help us extend the solution to lower end phones for the vulnerable.

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 The World Bank, and national governments 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.