RideSafe

90% of deaths involving two-wheel taxi drivers are due to delayed emergency response & delayed medical intervention at the point of treatment.

The major factors contributing to this are lack of funds to get treatment, no insurance culture and a poor emergency response ecosystem. 

There are over 10,000,000 and growing two-wheel taxi drivers in Africa and over 50,000,000 dependants who are directly affected when the driver dies.

RideSafe is taking on the challenge to solve the two main pains by providing a platform that enables the two-wheel taxi drivers to easily report accidents and quickly get connected to the nearest first responders on one dial or tap of a button, also to make micro savings that will enable them access quick and affordable services at the point its really needed to save a life or permanent damage, thus enabling this fast growing sector to thrive and put food on the table for hundreds of millions of africans.  

East Africa which is very similar to West Africa two-wheel taxi are fast growing and mostly unregulated 30% of road accidents now constitute two-wheel taxis in East Africa there are over 4,000,000 and fast growing two-wheel taxi drivers who have over 10,000,000 dependents

With the sector not being regulated drivers hardly have any form of insurance or plans when involved in accidents, many are turned away by medical centers or shunned by emergency response services, leading to delayed intervention hence deaths or permanent disability for the casualty. 

The two wheeler taxi operators have attempted to create savings groups but are struggling to maximise the potential of their savings e.g getting the best offers for various group services. Ridesafe enables them to pay a monthly affordable sum of contributions to ensure that members are swiftly responded to during an accident as opposed to their current model of making cash contributions for such emergencies.

Contributions are easily made through a mobile application that updates the group's payment status immediately. The next step is to negotiate better rates with affordable insurance agencies to provide an all round Accident cover & health insurance cover from the contributions of the group in affordable monthly instalments. 

RideSafe is targeting two-wheel taxi drivers, a main characteristic of a two-wheel taxi driver are, 

1) Between the age bracket of 18years to 45years

2) Primary level or secondary level education

3) Live with wife or girlfriend with either two or one child

5) Make $ 25 to $ 40 a day

6) Have limited or no health insurance knowledge 

This specific sector has taken the youth with storm many rushing to it as the easiest means to earn a living, RideSafe has been engaging with two-wheel taxi drivers for two years now, we have done different surveys and are fully involved in their lives outside their line of duty

To better understand the drivers we have conducted series of first aid trainings and welfare activities in different areas getting up close and candid with them this has helped us to understand deeper on their needs and how we can fine tune our solution to not only benefit the driver but cut across their life at a 360 degrees. 

This has helped us to build partnerships with different key players in the insurance sector that has seen us work on a joint product to provide all things insurance platform for the drivers. 

Two-wheel taxi drivers fall under the category of informal sector, as of this year it has been the fastest growing informal sector in Africa, last year alone it surpassed a leading telecom in Kenya in revenues.  

The ripple effect of dependents in the sector cant be ignored as it soars up every passing day, with millions depending on these drivers as bread winners.

Our solution not only provides these drivers a platform to access quick emergency response but also a platform to access affordable health and motor insurance that is paid for in small instalments of up to $ 0.9 daily or $ 1.5 monthly for a 24hr emergency response. All transparent and accessible to the driver 24hrs through our mobile App or hotline.  

unlike the existing platforms RideSafe is utilising the well distributed network of small clinics and medical centres as nodes to respond to injured two wheel taxi drivers, as well as working as a two sided platform that also allows the drivers to save for their care, our model is unique as we do not focus on underwriting processes since we deal directly with the responder and compensate instantly once responder has delivered their service. 

another competitive advantage we have is on the pricing we have managed to provide the lowest fees in the market of up to $1.5 monthly and are working on a premium financing partner that will allow the drivers to access our services on credit and pay through out the year. 

A close competitor we can name on the side Emergency response could be 

a) flair ; they are a fast emergency response platform that leverages on ambulance network in Nairobi the challenge is they are a premium service that low income earning sector may not rush to have.  

on the side of insurance

a) Riziki; a product of Equity Bank customers pay as little as $2  monthly and get a personal accident cover challenge you still have to use out of pocket cash to pay for care incase you are involved in an accident, while most of the Drivers will not have cash at the point of an accident since every cash they get has its daily use

RideSafe runs on a basic android app 

We provide profiles for both the two-wheel taxi drivers and first responders they both have to go through standard set KYC to signup. 

Drivers have an SOS page where they can send distress signal that is received by the nearest first responder the SOS comes with location of the sender and contacts for easy location and fast response. 

We also have a USSD platform and a dedicated emergency response contact number for users who may not be able to access online services. 

BASED ON THE PREVIOUSLY STATED PAIN POINTS : RideSafe seeks to create value for the rider by giving them access to  Quality first aid care that would save their lives, money and add value to their healthcare experience.

RideSafe enables a driver to distribute the cost of their care by enabling them to save small premiums of up to $ 0.38* a week, so they access first aid care of up to $ 30*  per visit conveniently without worrying about having cash to pay.  
Without insurance the driver would incur a minimum of $35-$45  as an out of pocket expense, with RideSafe cover they would access the pool fund & add only $ 5 onwards depending on the extent of injury.

The mobile application notifies the two-wheel taxi driver of nearby first responder that accepts the RideSafe cover reducing time it takes to decide where the driver should go.

The application also would be able to send a notification to the next of Kin about the accident enabling the casualty to have the care of a loved one who would take care of the drivers’s bike, personal effects, other expenses. (During accidents passersby helping sometimes rob the casualty- having a relative may reduce incidences of theft)

The Driver enjoys a higher quality of First Aid care from the first responders  selected to ensure that they recover quickly and can get back to their work. ( We en-roll first responders  that reach a certain minimum level of quality based on a quality assessment program called SafeCare as a means of ensuring quality care)- In phase 3 of our growth we would like to incentivise first responders  to maintain quality care by measuring basic performance metrics.
The service providers are able to attend to the rider’s immediately upon arrival since they will have all their basic information and receive their payment immediately.

The two wheel taxi drivers in Africa are not well regulated, this cuts across majority of the African countries not leaving out West Africa, 

from the data we collect from the drivers we are able to aline them to other services that could have been slightly harder to access in their different silos

a case in point is a joint product that we are currently working on with major insurance companies that will see us set up a partnership which will enable the drivers to have a health cover for them and their direct family, this is made possible because of the organised platform that we have built that enables accountability and transparency. 

RideSafe's platform in self explanatory, with a short signup process and and easy KYC process allowing the user to easily self onboard

for the case of users with no internet access or feature phones our USSD platform allows them to easily get onboarded and making payments through STK push features. 

Through our platform we have been able to match users within the same region and managed to encourage them to form organised groups which helps in not only empowering them to access other services but also building relationships and small self help groups that can support each other in times of destress.

RideSafe has been built as a basic android mobile app, API's can be shared to enable integration if need bees.

RideSafe runs on both Android smart phones and feature phones, this allows the users to have access to our services with or without internet. 

A user friendly UI has been our core focus while designing this application our SOS feature is a big RED button that is very visible to the user if at all there is need to use it. 

for contributions the user can either do it through their application or wait to receive the STK push to prompt their payment due thus limiting too much interaction with the application to make a payment.

Our emergency contact that comes in handy when the user cant access internet or has a feature phone also has allowed us to tackle the areas with low internet connectivity.

Education is key when dealing with illiteracy, as much as we have worked hard to make our solution simple and effective we still do a lot of eduction as most of the users from the informal sector will need to interact with the sales team more than once to understand the platform well thus we don't rule out the fact that education on use and benefits remains ongoing in these areas with high illiteracy levels.  

Since we launched our mobile application in February 2020 we have made some progress

- Currently we have 183 drivers on our mobile app platform and close to 1000 drivers on the offline database.

- In the next one year we are looking to expand county wide and as well start some national activities to reach 500,000 drivers 

- In the next 5years we want to have a Pan-African presence with reach to over 5,000,000 two wheel taxi drivers on our platform in more than 5 countries in the Africa. 

In the Next one year we want work on building our first responder base to over 1000 medical centres in Kenya, this is aimed towards reducing intervention time which has been the main cause of death and permanent damage in to the drivers involved in accidents.

Our other one year goal is to reach over 500,000 paying drivers on our platform that will see us collect revenues of up to $750,000 monthly and see us breaking even and allowing us to expand to other countries in the continent. 

In the same year we are working towards entering into partnerships that will see us provide more than emergency response and micro savings for the drivers, one which we are already pursuing is a partnership with a major insurer that will enable the drivers to make micro payments for theirs and their families health covers. 

In the next five years we want to have a continental emergency response platform with the shortest intervention time. Build a diverse platform that will enable other insurance and financial services to plug in to and distribute their services to this sector seamlessly, 

-Financial barrier we are currently planning to scale growing our operations will need us to increase staff in the field and meet other growth expenses as we work on breaking even with the growing numbers of paying drivers thus not having enough capital to fuel the expansion is a barrier we face..  

-Legal when it comes to growth and expansion knowing the legal frame work of different countries and with issues pertaining trademark and Intellectual property. having knowledge in this will give us an edge as we expand our operations regionally and continentally.  

Financial barrier: We are currently raising $200,000 to enable us meet our expansion expenses 

expansion activities will involve

a) Getting new team members to join our onboarding team

b) Add on our dev team

c) Grow our operation scope from Nairobi to National level reach and start planning for reach to other countries where we have already received interest. 

N/A

Full time staff;  4

part-time staff; 2

contractor;       2

Asiimwe Benson, CEO/Co-Founder: http://linkedin.com/in/asiimwe...

Jassy Elina, COO/Co-founder: http://linkedin.com/in/asiimwe...

Peter Chencha, CTO : http://linkedin.com/in/asiimwe...

Liesbeth Bakker, Board member Advisor:http://linkedin.com/in/lkbakker

Manasseh Shechem, manager Medic/EMT: http://linkedin.com/in/manasseh-shechem-41492716b

George Kaboi, Rider Relations manager:

George is a Two-wheel taxi drivers who we employed to manage the relations with our drivers on our platform, he has a passion for the sector and is a leader. He is a member in various rider associations and has started different welfare groups that look into the well being of two-wheel taxi drivers and their families. George has over 5 years experience as a two-wheel taxi driver and which made him a perfect conduit between us and the sector that we are serving.  

We are in early stages of entering into a partnership with IFA (Insurance For All) an insurance Agent underwritten by SANLAM a well known insurer in the region.

We are together working on having their covers added on to our platform to give the driver a wide range of services that they can pay for in small instalments these covers will range from Last expense, Out patient, Inpatient, Personal Accident and comprehensive covers to mention but a few.

This partnership enables us to give more have greater impact and yet still allow it to be affordable with micro payments and premium financing. 

BASED ON THE PAIN POINTS EXPERIENCED BY THE TWO-WHEEL TAXI DRIVERS WHEN INVOLVED IN ACCIDENTS : RideSafe seeks to create value for the rider by giving them access to  Quality first aid care that would save their lives or evade fatalities.

This is how we are doing it.

1. RideSafe enables a rider to distribute the cost of their care by enabling them to save small premiums of up to $0.38 a week, so they access first aid care of up to $30 per visit conveniently without worrying about having cash to pay.  

Without insurance the rider would incur a minimum of $35-$45 as an out of pocket expense, with RideSafe cover they would access the pool fund & add only $5 onwards depending on the extent of injury.

1. It also increases their options of facilities to access care from. (State coverage of govt facilities vs Coverage of both govt & Private nurse practitioner’s facilities) since those who have the National Hospital Cover would have to go to a preselected outpatient facility or a government facility  (with its host of problems highlighted in the previous chapter)

2. The mobile application notifies a rider of nearby facilities that accept the RideSafe cover, reducing time it takes to decide where the rider should go. (How much time would it help to save?).

3. The application also would be able to send a notification to the next of Kin about the accident enabling the casualty to have the care of a loved one who would take care of the rider’s bike, personal effects and other expenses.

4. The rider will enjoy a higher quality of First Aid care from the facilities selected to ensure that they recover quickly and can get back to their work. 

Growing our user base is our at most focus to get us to self sustainability

We break even at 10,000 users on the platform we are working hard to get to this number sooner rather than later and still without compromising our delivery of service. 

Though currently to reach to these numbers we are raising funds that we will use to grow the team and our operations to a nation wide campaign.   

We raised $100,000 in 2018 in convertible debt from an incubator we participated in organised by Aeternity Ventures a Bulgarian based VC. 

https://disrupt-africa.com/2018/07/kenyan-startups-raise-funding-from-blockchain-accelerator/

This helped us to do further research and test out first USSD pilot that got us to validate our solution and build awareness in the Region. 

Currently we are seeking to raise $200,000 in either convertible debt or equity we are open to grants as well.

We are hopping to have raised the total figure by January 2021 so as to enable us meet our second quoter 2021 target milestone and hopefully break even. 

We currently have a burn rate of $6500 monthly 

This has been resourceful as we operate lean to manage expenses, we are now raising funds to allow us increase our operations and team to get us doing more, growing our numbers on the platform and seeing us head towards self sustainability and optimum operation not only regionally but continentally. 

We are applying for the Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa to be able to win the grant and get the cash price that will come along with awareness and our vision of having a Pan-African presence with impact on millions. 

Our primary partners are two

A) Emergency response services and medical centres ; these are first responders on our platform partnering with well distributed clinics and ambulance services allows our service to be seamless and have tangible results in reducing intervention time. 

B) Insurance companies; who deliver other complimentary services that can be sold to our existing users to add more value and array of services that they can benefit from which have been made hard for them to access because of their costs or hardships to access. 

We are keen to work closely with Insurance companies that offer health covers. These enable our service to give more to the drivers and their families providing a 360 degree solution.