Two ride-hailing company that emerged after the departure of Uber from Singapore has announced their plans to work together. Kardi, a local start-up that was introduced in June 2018, will be working with India-based ride-hailing company Jugnoo.
The Local Partner
Kardi is a local start-up that is started by a private-hire driver Ashwin Selambram. They have been actively recruiting drivers to sign-up with them since May 2018. Kardi went live officially on 1 August 2018.
The Tech Guys from India
Jugnoo, the ride-hailing company that specialises in auto rickshaw rides in India, will provide its technical expertise and engineering support to Kardi. They had initially planned to introduce a first-of-its-kind reverse bidding model to the Singapore market.
Jugnoo will shut down their operations in Singapore by end of August 2018 and will be assigning a team of 5 to support Kardi.
Why the partnership so soon
Both Kardi and Jugnoo faced difficulties in their foray into Singapore ride-hailing market.
Jugnoo operated out of India and had difficulty signing up drivers. Their lack of local knowledge and presence meant that they had no chance of taking off in Singapore. Jugnoo also failed to engage drivers locally and many doubted their reverse bidding model would work in Singapore.
Kardi had better success in wooing drivers to sign-up with them. They played the support local card and their experience as private-hire driver themselves enabled them to better engage other fellow drivers.
Their recruitment campaign focused on issues that private-hire drivers were concerned of. Kardi also held multiple driver registration sessions to help onboard drivers.
However, Kardi experienced problems with their map and app function that halted their progress. The issues with the app resulted in many unfulfilled trips.
The New Partnership
Both Jugnoo and Kardi will each bring something to the new partnership. Jugnoo will support Kardi with its technical expertise while Kardi will use its local knowledge to increase drivers and ridership on its platform.
Kardi currently charges a 12% commission, 8% lower than what Grab is charging its drivers.
Mr. Singla, the Chief Executive of Jugnoo, believes that equipping Kardi with similar tools as the big players will present a fighting chance against Grab. He also commented that Grab is charging drivers 20% commission as they have to pay back their investors whereas Kardi is only charging only 12%.
