KaGoo E-ride Hailing

KaGoo introduces the future of net-zero mobility in Zimbabwe, through the provision of an SMS-based electric-scooter ride-hailing service.

KaGoo is an SMS-based electric-scooter ride-hailing service. The solution introduces eco-friendly technology to off-set harmful GHG emissions in the Zimbabwean public transport sector, while inspiring change towards a more climate aware industry. A customer orders an electric scooter from our SMS chatbot. The chatbot sends their location and request to a nearby driver who can decide if they want to accept the ride. If they accept the ride, the customer can track the electric scooter and the time it will take for it to arrive through notifications from the chatbot as the scooter rides towards them. Electric-scooter drivers recharge the scooters from our centralized solar charging station hubs, by the battery swap method to ensure minimum waiting time and efficient service.

We are solving the Zimbabwean transport crisis and security challenges, while addressing the lack of climate-awareness. Previously, private omnibuses were the preferred intracity transport mode, for their efficiency and convenience. Due to Covid-19, authorities barred omnibus operation. 

To supplement, buses were introduced under the government transport utility, ZUPCO. These buses are inadequate. Now, omnibuses can operate, if registered under ZUPCO. Private omnibus owners are resisting, preferring illegal operation. Pre-Covid-19, there were 50,000 omnibuses in Zimbabwe. Currently, there are 1,500–a 97% decline. Of the 900 operating in Harare, only 100 are ZUPCO-registered. 

Due to bus-inadequacy, commuters wait for a standard 30 Zimbabwean-dollar ($0.21) ride for hours. Alternatively, they board illegal omnibuses or hitchhike private trucks. Alternatives cost roughly 80 Zimbabwean-dollars ($0.57), often crashing during police-pursuits, risking public safety. Taxis are not an option–they cost USD$20+ on average.

 Being lawful and means waiting on ZUPCO-buses for hours, getting home late, occasionally being rejected from buses, and risking security. The Zimbabwean Passengers Association petitioned parliament to end the worsening public transport situation as commuters constantly fall victim to injury, mugging, and sexual harrassment after disembarking from buses late at night and fighting to claim spots on full buses.

Zimbabwe has an approximated population of 15 million. Our initial target-area, Harare, has 1,542 million people. 7,9 million are below the extreme-poverty line. This is the minimum number affected by the transport crisis.

Our solution is designed for the average Zimbabwean, with primary focus on Harare citizens for the pilot stage. Owing to the current transport crisis, commuters are faced with unsustainable transport options that are either illegal, risky, unsafe, and expensive or affordable but inadequate, slow, overcrowded, and inconvenient.

Our goal is simple: providing an affordable, convenient, and eco-friendly electric-scooter ride-hailing service for Zimbabweans. The SMS chatbot would allow commuters to hail rides easily since SMS is easily accessible for all cellular phone owners in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the scooters would provide a doorstep delivery service, aiding with the mugging and assault problems commonly experienced by users when they are dropped off at bus-stops late at night. The three-wheeled scooters are designed in an open-plan manner, allowing the social distancing and aeration that govern daily life in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As there is no fuel cost associated with electric vehicles, it will be affordable for commuters to use our vehicles, while enjoying the private taxi service they provide. Simultaneously, the increase in use of electric vehicles and the marketing associated with it will also help raise awareness on climate issues, setting a new standard for industry and helping Zimbabwe look towards smart cities and supporting the global fight against climate change.

This solution will also empower unemployed youths, who we envision to mostly be young women in marginalized communities, with skills and jobs through the driving training and service as well as the solar hub maintenance we will require.

Prior to ideation, we conducted extensive study, understanding the needs and challenges of public mobility in Harare, Zimbabwe, referring to the Passengers Association of Zimbabwe. Africa is rapidly transforming into a predominantly urban continent whose population is set to grow from 40% to 60% by 2050, the fastest global increase. Numerous African cities, Harare included, are set to double in population by 2050. If properly harnessed, such urban proliferation can drive significant socio-economic growth in Africa.

From data obtained from surveys, public transport is the primary travel choice in Zimbabwe and a driver of economic growth. However, there is a need for a reliable, affordable, accessible,  flexible, and safe ride-hailing service.

According to “Africa Electric Three-Wheeler Market By Vehicle Type, By Battery Capacity, By Battery Type, By Country, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013-2023”, the electric three-wheeler market is forecast to grow to $16.8 million by 2023, backed by government initiatives and subsidies aimed at encouraging the use of environment-friendly transportation, owing to rising pollution levels across Africa.

We have interviewed 27 Zimbabweans, considering and engaging potential-user challenges and opinions in our model development. We have also worked with Everlasting Technology, a social enterprise that aims to create green communities by innovative renewable energy solution provision and introduction of clean technologies, to navigate how best we can solve the transport crisis while ensuring nationwide access to modern energy services and engagement towards a net-zero transport industry.

We have framed our business model from evidence based research and officially registered the business in Zimbabwe. We are actively engaging with potential suppliers of our electric scooters and solar hub charging station materials. We have also launched a campaign to engage with social impact investors, to build a market, using a social enterprise model that provides a package of services from skills to low income financing.

Electric scooters

KaGoo uses electric powered scooters to provide ride hailing services. The small but powerful electrical motor enables lightning fast acceleration and ensures that KaGoo scooters emit neither noise nor GHG gasses. The tiny form factor makes it agile in traffic and easy to park. Up to three KaGoo scooters can fit in a single parking space.

SMS and WhatsApp Chatbots

Users will be able to request their rides using our SMS and WhatsApp automated chat bots. The WhatsApp chatbot platform is designed in such a way that it is integrable with our CRM and enables seamless experience to customers. Some of the WhatsApp features include using the WhatsApp location feature, allowing Airport bookings so as to capture flight ETA’s and luggage and allowing users to recall, edit or cancel a ride request. 

For our target customers without access to the internet, there is the option to request a ride through our SMS chatbot. This effectively eliminates the need for riders to download a mobile app, which some cannot do based on the types of cellular phones they own.

Solar Charging Hub

This is a centralized solar powered charging hub where the KaGoo drivers can swap batteries for their electric scooters throughout the day. Powered through community based off-grid energy supply, e-scooters will provide the incentive for increased mobility opportunities, creating new local markets, advancing the smart city status of Harare and enhancing livelihoods.

Our solution is still in its prototype stage, hence, it has currently not served any people. However, we plan to serve specific routes in Harare, with an intended user number of 50,000 people within the first year (assuming 15 scooters for an estimated number of 5 rides per day for the entire year). We will then evaluate the impact of our pilot and service delivery within the selected routes, to better inform our business model as we scale up in the next several years. We also intend to train and empower 15 drivers and 2 solar hub maintenance managers within the first year.

Over the next year, we aim to launch KaGoo in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, serving more than 20 000 people in the year.  With the zero-emission fleet, KaGoo’s broad impact goals for 2022:

• To make mobility accessible, safe, reliable, and sustainable to more than 20 000 people with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations; women, children, persons with disabilities, and older persons.
• To contribute to expanding renewable energy for transport in Africa, contributing to longer-term sustainability and mitigating climate change by introducing a fleet of 20 electric scooters in the public transport sector of Zimbabwe.
• To create at least 50 jobs for employed youths and women through our driver and technician training programs.
• To raise climate-awareness in the youth and general public through marketing and social corporate responsibility programs.

To achieve these, we will:

• Partner with relevant stakeholders
• Develop and implement a mature financial model
• Raise funds

Beyond solving the mobility challenges in Africa, we are driven by a dedication to heal our planet and make our environment greener by reducing carbon emission that goes into the earth’s atmosphere. To this effect, we are pioneering electric public transportation in Zimbabwe and Africa as an eco-friendly and more effective means of mobility.

KaGoo will measure progress towards its impact goals by examining a few key indicators and making necessary adjustments. First, we will constantly track our user adaptation and engagement, ensuring equal access among all citizens to our services in the target areas. We will also continue monitoring our growth metrics, ensuring that we reach the target number of people to be impacted.

Besides quantitative data, we will establish and work with focus groups, design surveys, and interview stakeholders to obtain qualitative feedback regarding customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

We will also examine the feasibility of our financial model, ensuring that our cost structures remain affordable to our target users and monitoring the adaptation to our technology services.

Because KaGoo is in its prototype phase, our most significant barrier is raising the pre-seed capital for the pilot phase. We intend to onboard 25 drivers and two technicians after undergoing a training program. We want to start with a fleet of 20 e-scooters for our e-ride pilot and one solar hub for the battery exchange and charging center.

Lastly, with piloting any new technology, there is a trust barrier. We have to invest significant time in developing trust between ourselves and our users who may be skeptical of unfamiliar technology and service. There are currently no similar scooter-based e-ride haling services in Zimbabwe. Overall, fostering this trust will require significant time, transparency, and relationship-building.

Our team is representative of those we serve. We were both born and raised in Zimbabwe. We were there to witness the transport crisis heighten, and we have been exposed to the problem and its impact. We acknowledge that the problem has evolved over the past 6 months (as we started college studies in the United States), therefore, we value and incorporate the struggles, opinions, ideas, and input of those we serve, as they are in a better position to help direct us as to how best we can provide a viable solution for them. 

Macdonald Chirara is a renewable energy enthusiast, an innovator, and a strategic maverick. For the past months, he has been working on the business model of this solution and linkages with strategic partners. He has previous experience in working with renewable energy startups in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Macdonald has received several science awards from different science fairs and expos around the world. He is currently a student at Colgate University.

Vivian Chinoda is a passion-driven, curious, goal-oriented lady from Harare, Zimbabwe set to major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has a deep love for entrepreneurship, science education, electric vehicle technology and engineering solutions to basic needs and sustainability problems, especially around renewable energy, water sanitation, and climate change. Vivian has conducted research on the impact of low-temperature pyrolysis of biomass on emissions, prototyped wastewater heavy metal extraction solutions by plasma technology and the sol-gel method and been awarded the Community Innovation, Science Champion and Sustainable Development awards from different international science fairs and organisations for her research in the renewable energy and climate space. Vivian values and lives by the “unhu ubuntu” mantra, which means  “I am because we are.”

Everlasting Technology on solar hub technology development and a broader feasible model research partnership.

The Zimbabwe Science Fair on mentorship and feasibility analysis.

Though our team leader is female, she is not within the eligible age range as she is 20 years old.

Our organization aims to improve the quality of life for women in marginalized communities through training them to perform driver and solar hub maintenance services, providing a leeway for them to acquire drivers' licenses, other technical licenses and skills, and job provision in a country where there is a general stereotype against women in any industry that runs on technical skill, with no women serving in the transport sector. Furthermore, we hope to conduct workshops that raise climate awareness for students and the youth, and eventually fund an annual prize for the most demonstrative science project in this category at the Zimbabwe Science Fair as part of our social corporate responsibility.

If awarded this prize, we would use it to help fund our training programs and the prestige associated with it to persuade the public to turn towards more climate-conscious decisions in their transportation and other daily decisions.