Vaya seems to be the most popular ride-hailing app if registration of drivers is anything to go by, In 7 months the ride-hailing application has managed to see over 10 000 partner applications.
That’s a significant number and Cassava Smartech CEO expressed his joy at the progress they’ve made thus far:
Following our commercial launch back in October last year, we have been driving Vaya mobility business growth, starting with the launch of our hail riding services, which have done phenomenally well and are now in every city and town in the country
Eddie Chibi – Cassava Smartech CEO
It will be interesting to see whether this number of drivers also means that Vaya is making money. You would assume it is but the most popular ride-hailing platform Uber, which has a similar business model to Vaya has failed to turn a profit for a very long time.
Couple that with Zimbabwe’s interesting economy, I’ll be waiting for Cassava Smartech’s financial results with bated breath to determine what “phenomenally well” means to Cassava Smartech.
Another interesting metric that would better indicate where Vaya is right now, would be an active drivers metric, as that would determine just how many drivers are actually on the roads. As with any service, I’m pretty sure some drivers who signed up may have stopped being partners for one reason or the other and thus a number which takes into account exactly how many left the platform would also be useful.
It was also disclosed that Vaya is providing over 100 000 urban rides across the country but it’s not clear whether this just applies to the ride-hailing application or it extends to Vaya’s other services (i.e delivery, tractor-hailing, ambulance-hailing, refuse collection). Either way that’s a significant number indicative of how much traction they’ve gotten in over just half a year.