Name: Abdur Rahman BYKEA

Submitted To: M. Tayyeb Javed

Startup report
by Abdur Rahman

Islamabad formally announced Digital Pakistan campaign in 2019 and a large growth in startups
is expected in 2020. To develop a good understanding of how startups are created and transformed
into successful businesses, it is important to study a existing success story. Following report is
presented on BYKEA, a mobile application platform for on-demand transport and related services.

BYKEA is a crowd sourced network of owners of motorcycles and mobiles; two most common
assets owned by Pakistanis. It enables people to supplement their income by transporting people
and parcels while doing their daily commute. It was founded in December 2016 and now operates
in three major cities of Pakistan, Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi[1]. It was seed funded by Ithaca
Capital and later on received a $5.7million in funding from Sarmayacar[2].

The company’s founder and CEO Muneeb Maayr was a serial entrepreneur and has been early
employee and cofounder at several startups including Daraz.pk. He started his career as investment
banker in United States. He joined SNL financial and was persuasive enough to convince them to
set up an office in Pakistan. He created an office of SNL Financial in Pakistan, a US based
company which sought to create and simplify jobs of financial analysts. By the time he left in
2012, he was already thinking of starting a e-commerce startup in Pakistan. He was hired by
RocketInternational to run Daraz.pk which turned out to be successful and was later purchased by
Alibaba. It was the same time the idea to form BYKEA came and in just two and a half years
BYKEA grew as one of the largest platforms, connecting 200,000 motorcyclists to 2 million users.

BYKEA not only plays role in advancing the nascent startup sector in Pakistan but also has the
potential to be the local champion. Maayr saw a market potential that others were late to see. He
took two of the most common assets of a average Pakistani and utilized them to create a solution
for thousands of Pakistanis. The core mission for Maayr is to solve significant problems. That is a
good example of entrepreneurial mindset. Maayr did not limit his application to tech-savvy people
only, instead he offered the application in Urdu as well and thus was able to gain deeper access in
market. In addition, BYKEA has done something that has not been done before. It is estimated
that there are 50 million smartphones in country and 100 million feature phones. To gain even
more access to customer base, BYKEA created a number for people to call and book their ride.
This idea comes from a deep insight into the customer base.

While a person would see other companies like Uber and Careem as existential threats, Maayr saw
this as a opportunity to raise awareness among the people about ride-hailing service. He says that
although Uber and Careem have spent millions, they have not been able to explore the market.
According to Maayr, the problem is awareness and majority of people in Pakistan are not tech-
savvy and do not feel comfortable in a service provided in English.

For Mayyr, it is extremely important to keep in check the supply side as well. The company does
not want people to leave their jobs and come to work for them but rather supplement their jobs
through the platform of BYKEA. The company also has plans to launch a logistics solution for
local business. The difference with other services will be that the delivery will be made the same
day. This is something that others in this sector do not have. Mayyr believes that the success of
BYKEA platform comes from “right product for right market” principal.

Overall, the success story of startup turned business called BYKEA is very informative. Using the
“best asset of people for people” is a good strategy. We also see the existential competition from
Uber and Careem and how BYKEA responded to it by introducing something they did not have.
Maayr believes that: “ultimately it is our nimbleness to solve and make it easier for people to use
our product which will allow us to preserve.”