Egypt’s transport tech start-up Swvl sets to commence service in Lagos

Kenneth Afor with agency report

Swvl, Egyptian transport tech start-up has announced that it will commence its transport hailing service in Lagos, Nigeria before the end of the year.

This was revealed by Mostafa Kandil, chief executive officer, Swvl in Cairo, Egypt.

Swvl conveys passengers along fixed routes and allows its passengers to reserve and pay for transport fares via its app.

Kandil added that the company plans to expand to other countries in Africa, South East Asia and Manila.

“We will enter Lagos before the end of the year, and our eyes are on Dar es Salam and Abidjan,” he said.

However, he added that the company is seeking to secure more than $100 million in the first half of 2020 with the target of generating $1 billion in the next five years.

Similarly, since its launch in April 2017, in Egypt it has been able to secure the biggest fund so far in the country’s tech start-up industry.

Kandil added, “We were a company worth about $2 million two years ago and our paid-up capital is more than $80 million.”

He, however, revealed that Swvl hopes to go public and a long term plan is in place for a buy out offer from the world’s leading transport hailing giant, Uber.

“This year, we have entered about seven new cities and next year, we are targeting another 10 to 20 new big cities,” Kandil revealed.

Also, the company projects of moving its headquarters to Dubai by November with an already established operation base in East Africa’s economic power house, Kenya.

In increasing its number of customers, Kandil said it “aims to reach one million trips a day in Egypt over the next five years.”