South African startup Respo is building innovative, efficient and cost-effective solutions that help deliver emergency response services such as ambulance, roadside assistance and security services to low-income communities.
Founded in 2018 by Blessing Nzuza after he witnessed a stabbing at the Durban beachfront and no medical attention could be obtained, Respo has developed the Respo Ambulance Application, which allows users to easily access ambulance services from their smartphones.
South Africa’s public health care system continues to face a critical shortage of ambulances due to funding constraints, inadequate maintenance and high frequency of ambulance accidents. Waiting times for public ambulances are up to eight hours, compared to 30-45 minutes for private ambulances, and Respo’s app is designed to help people more easily and affordably access the latter.
The startup has secured a partnership with Philamed Ambulances in KwaZulu-Natal, providing it with access to up to 150 private ambulances, and enabling it to offer comprehensive emergency medical services to over 1.5 million citizens in the region, starting with funeral parlour clients. The startup has explicitly targeted funeral parlours as a means of on-selling its ambulance services to their policyholders.
“This created a new B2B opportunity to address administration challenges faced by funeral parlours, presenting a new pathway to earn sustainable income,” Nzuza said.
Through its Respo Administration System (RAS), the startup can streamline administrative processes by digitising a funeral parlour’s policy management, payment processing, and document organisation.
“This innovative approach reduces manual labour, minimises errors, and enhances overall efficiency within funeral parlours,” Nzuza said. “RAS also makes it easier to tap into funeral policy members who may need easy access to private ambulance services in the future, opening a new commercial opportunity.”
Uptake of this system has been immediate, and Respo has already secured 12 clients, with an average of 2,300 members each, on 24-month subscription agreements. Currently, Respo has access to around 23,000 policy members and over 100,000 extended family members.
Currently based in KwaZulu-Natal, with the majority of its clients located in the province, the startup is focused on enhancing and expanding its software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings for funeral parlours, while fully validating its B2B2C business model to include the provision of ambulance services to low-income communities. Through these efforts, Respo aims to onboard an additional 20 funeral parlours, reaching up to 69,000 policy members and approximately 300,000 extended family members over the next two years.
