As Little Shuttle Increases its Fleet, other Firms are Joining the Bus-Sharing Market

A week after Little Shuttle commenced its operations in Nairobi; an Egypt-based startup may be soon joining the nascent bus-sharing market space.

Swvl, which received $38 million in funding last year, has cited Nairobi as one of its destinations to deploy its mass-transit bus-sharing service in 2019.

Swvl’s co-founder and CEO, Mustafa Kandil, told Almal News they are looking to invest in “10 cities outside Egypt in 2019, beginning with the Philippine capital of Manila and including Nairobi, Dakar, and Jakarta”.

Little Shuttle, a product by Craft Silicon’s and Safaricoms’ Little, intend to increase their fleet to ten vehicles, after successful piloting of 6 buses last week.

“We are on an upward trend. Commuters are really receptive of the new product,” says Maureen Chege, Little’s heads of sales and marketing.

Swvl has already 5 buses plying along Thika Road on a pilot basis, while Kenya’s Safiri Express is currently piloting a bus shuttle that mostly avoids Nairobi’s CBD.