Ever had that moment where your journey is just that bit too long to walk comfortably but too short to justify calling a cab? Well, Egyptian startup Slyd has the solution.
An electric scooter (e-scooter) sharing platform, Slyd has developed an app that allows users to rent e-scooters for short trips. The scooters are placed around communities, and can be accessed via the app. Users locate a scooter and start a trip by scanning a QR code, with payment made upon completion.
In some areas, it has also launched a service whereby users can order an e-scooter to be delivered to their doorstep for a number of days.
Slyd co-founder Aladdin Shalaby knows a thing or two about mobility, having previously worked for ride-hailing giant Careem. It was there that he realised the huge gap in solutions for the first and last mile problem, if people would park their cars and adopt alternative mobility. He partnered Mohamed Hamza to launch Slyd, which became available in April.
“Forty per cent of ride-hailing trips are for distances below four kilometres. With very little alternatives to ride-hailing, we believe that if people find available a personal mobility vehicle for use to get around, they change their current mode of transport to adopt it,” Shalaby told Disrupt Africa.
Slyd, which is currently only available in parts of Cairo, claims to have seen “amazing adoption”, with Shalaby saying it had seen over 600 bookings so far. The startup hopes to expand to other parts of the Middle East and Africa. Bootstrapped thus far, it is in talks over closing a funding round over the course of this year with that in mind.
