Safaricom’s Little Cab app goes head to head with Uber In Kenya

Even as a deal is imminent between Uber and its closest competitor Didi Chuxing in the immense Chinese market, competition in ride-sharing continues to intensify around the globe.

Africa is one region where entrants continue to pile in. In Kenya’s tech transit market, which already includes Uber and several other startups, Safaricom, the country’s largest telecom and fintech firm, has recently launched its first ride-hailing app called Little Cab.

The product comes via a partnership with Craft Silicon, a Nairobi based software company.

Little Cab runs on iOS, Android, and Windows devices and will soon be available for USSD (non-smartphone) users. The new app accepts cash, card, and Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money for payment. It provides live GPS enabled maps for pickups and offers free Safaricom Wi-Fi to passengers.

In addition to its unique features, Little Cab could become a homegrown competitor in Kenya’s burgeoning ride-booking market. Uber launched in country in 2015. Other outside transit apps include Dubai owned MondoRide and recent Estonian entrant, Taxify.

Locally there’s Dandia and Maramoja, a social media based transit startup. The market has already seen some attrition, with Jumia Group (formerly AIG) backed Easy Taxi Kenya shutting down this spring.

What significantly differentiates Little Cab as a ride-hail app is its connection to Safaricom, which has one of Kenya’s most powerful brands and extensive product networks. Little Cab’s media release indicates the Safaricom/Craft Silicon venture has come out swinging against Uber and other competitors. On price it touts itself as “the most affordable option in the market” at 55 Kenyan Schillings (KES) per kilometer (about .50 cents) compared to Uber’s KES 60.

Safaricom also zeros in on driver wages, a sensitive aspect of Kenya’s online taxi market. “Little Cab will take no more than 15 percent off driver’s earnings, compared to other players in the market; Uber’s 25 percent…,” states the release. While Uber has been relatively well received in Kenya, its entry has brought some protests and even violence connected to disruption of local taxi operators.

On goals, “Little Cab aims to achieve one million rides in the next six months by entrenching and differentiating ourselves as a homegrown taxi app,” said Craft Silicon CEO Kamal Budhabhatti.

Led by Little Cab and Uber, the race for market share in Kenya’s ride-hailing space is set. While formal data on the country’s online transit market is sparse, broader factors offer a compelling backdrop. Kenya is Sub-Saharan Africa’s eighth largest economy ($63bn GDP), sixth most populous country (46 million), and one of the continent’s more tech savvy nations—dubbed Silicon Savannah for its IT achievements.

In the innovation space, Kenya is perhaps best known for the success of Safaricom’s M-Pesa fintech app. Launched in 2007, the mobile phone based payments product is used by 20 million customers, has a network of 85,000 agents, and generated $309 million of Safaricom’s $1.5 billion 2015 revenues.

As ride-hail apps compete for Kenyan clients, much will come down to what each can offer around cost and features. On price, Little Cab may have already sparked a war.