Improving connectivity in UAE, Saudi Arabia, ekar’s mobility solutions find many takers
UAE-based ekar is a self-drive personal mobility startup that offers on-demand access to car-sharing and rental subscription leasing through its super app.
With increasing urbanisation, demand for better connectivity and smart mobility has been on the rise in cities across the world. One solution is car-sharing, which has come as a lifesaver for young travellers not looking to buy a car.
Vilhelm Hedberg wanted to bridge the car-sharing gap in the Middle East when he started in 2016. The startup first plucked a low-hanging fruit with mobility solutions for cabin crew at Emirates and Etihad Airways.
“I wanted to provide them with an affordable car-share option because they are mostly flying and cannot afford to purchase cars,” founder of ekar tells YourStory Gulf Edition.
A year later, Hedberg decided to jump on the opportunity to take ekar citywide as the UAE’s Road Transport Authority (RTA) had floated a tender for a city-wide car-sharing programme to serve as a last-mile solution for Dubai Metro.
“I visited all 45 stations at that time and crafted a 150-page tender submission, showcasing why ekar was the optimal choice,” he shares.
His efforts bore fruit; ekar was one of the only two companies selected for the project’s execution.
Began as a 15-vehicle pilot setup with Etihad Airways, ekar today has a team of 120 members and has grown to become one of the largest mobility companies in the Middle East. It offers on-demand access to services such as car-sharing and subscription leasing through its super app.
The Dubai-headquartered company, with offices in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh as well, boasts of over 350,000 registered members and over two million bookings.
Its app—available in both Android and iOS—has registered over a million downloads, with a 4.3 rating on Google Play Store.
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Product offerings
The super app offers three products: car-share, subscription, and a peer-to-peer option.
Car-sharing can be availed in the urban settlements of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh using the app to locate, book and unlock a car. Users are charged on a pay per day, per minute, or even per week basis.
“The cars are free-floating, which means that they can be picked up and dropped off anywhere within a geofence,” Hedberg says.
Users can also opt for the subscription of longer-term rentals lasting between one to nine months. Once an individual books a car, the startup claims to deliver within a two-hour window anywhere across the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
“We have the largest menu of subscription cars in the entire region. So, you can get anything—from high-end Range Rovers to more economy cars like Nissan Sunny,” he adds.
The startup also offers a peer-to-peer option in Saudi Arabia, enabling individuals to make an earning by hosting their vehicles on the app.
ekar’s mobility tech stack—called ‘ekar mobility OS’—is built in-house. “Our artificial intelligence (AI) runs analysis on availability and hotspot locations, predicting latent demand within cities. It does all the decision-making and can generate between 40% and 150% more revenue per shifted car,” Hedberg says.
ekar pushes for an asset-light approach with its ‘ekar fleet’ programme, sourcing half of its vehicles from third parties including Avis, National Car Rental, and Shift Car Rental. “They take 70% and we take 30% (revenue share), but we run all the operations. They log in remotely to our backend system where they can track and trace their vehicles,” says Hedberg.
The other half of the vehicles are sourced through partnerships with leasing companies.
The startup also enables businesses to purchase staff packages through its ‘ekar business’ offering. The staff can choose to pay per minute, hour, day, week, or month. The pricing structure was undisclosed.
Learning on the go
The road to ekar becoming one of the leading names in mobility services in the region has been a winding one. From delays in receiving government approval, launching, understanding the B2C landscape, to navigating the COVID-19 pandemic—Hedberg has been through it all.
The pandemic disrupted its Series C fundraising and gave its investors pause, however, since its business doesn’t rely on the affected travel and tourism sectors, it otherwise remained largely unscathed. So far, ekar has raised $50 million and may go again for a Series C funding round later this year. Polymath Ventures is one of its key investors.
Hedberg comes with a decade-long experience in quality management and logistics. The serial entrepreneur moved to Dubai in 2009 to pursue his creative business and logistics concepts, and looked after the shipment of over a million automobiles across the Middle East.
In 2011, he co-founded QMS Global FZ LLC—an ISO-certified company specialised in management systems and sector-specific assessment, registration, and certification—which he exited a year later, only to bet on ekar.
The ekar team
Growth so far and future roadmap
The mobility-as-a-service market in Middle East and Africa (MEA) is growing thanks to the presence of platforms like Udrive, Invygo, Swapp, Telgani, and Hire. The market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.5% between 2021 and 2028, as per a report by Data Bridge Market Research, reaching nearly $66 billion in size by 2028.
“On a unit economic basis, we're operating upwards of 20%-30% gross margins, depending on the area, city, and the kind of vehicles we operate,” Hedberg notes.
About 95% of its cars have internal combustion engines, and the rest are electric. “We aim to improve this [EV] percentage over the next few years,” he promises.
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Currently, the team is building ‘ekar connect' that will offer services such as auto fuelling, parking, and cleaning, along with a driver scoring system.
“We have already done connectivity with a few OEMs (original equipment manufacturer). There are about 100,000 connected cars operating (in the Gulf) already. This is an interesting way for owners of those vehicles to update their software and have this stack already available,” Hedberg says.
ekar's vehicles come with full insurance and telematics unit, however, the startup is in talks with OEMs to replace the latter with API connectivity.
Disclaimer: This story has been updated to correct some factual errors.
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Edited by Kanishk Singh