AL-Farouk Saleh was decided that there were other ways to learn, two years into his Computer Science program at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport. In fact, he was more certain that Tareeqi, a bus-tracking idea he had mulled about, would find growth if he poured some energy into it. And so, drawing up a plan on how to combine his studies with the new idea, AL-Farouk Saleh set out on a journey of no return.
“It was a series of a very intensive scheduling,” Saleh tells Afrikan Heroes, about his decision to start Tareeqi and the juggling between his studies and the startup that happened after.
But that intensive scheduling is only an understatement; Tareeqi was, by comparison to other startups of its likes, also chronically underfunded. The $60k seed investment it collected in May 2018, remained substantially its only breathing life to-date, until recently Oman’s eMushrif, which develops solutions to ensure students’ safety in school buses and which has $3.3m funding to its credit, set its prowling eyes on the 4-year-old startup and grabbed it into its growing list of acquired companies.
The acquisition is remarkable (life-changing) for Saleh, who just graduated last year, but even more overwhelming for him. Overwhelming because as the new country manager of eMushrif in Egypt (by virtue of the acquisition), he has a lot to do in the coming months. The company’s expansion into Egypt will be a long journey, and a tough game too. Egypt’s capital is almost synonymous with ride-hailing, with the likes of Careem, SWVL and Uber, fighting to consolidate their market shares, although Tareeqi (now eMushrif, in Egypt) is not competing directly with them.
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“The expansion of eMushrif in Egypt will help the company in increasing its technical capabilities through building a big tech team in Egypt which is famous for having strong and experienced technical talents,” Saleh says.
“The expansion will also enable eMushrif to access the major business opportunities found in the markets of North Africa. We like the dream of eMushrif of becoming the leader of the IoT sector in the MENA region, and we’ll do our best to help make this dream come true,” he adds.
Wondering what Tareeqi does, exactly? Its proposition is simple. Imagine that you can track your bus using your mobile phone. Tareeqi has pioneered apps in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to do that. The Cairo-based startup tracks schools, universities, and bus fleets for institutions in the MENA without the often expensive cost of GPS.
“Bus passengers or parents with children using school buses often waste a lot of their precious time waiting for buses, an average of 15 minutes daily. Bus supervisors also don’t know the location of the buses. Sometimes, they receive tons of calls from parents or riders complaining that the buses are late or that they had missed a bus,” Saleh notes.
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“When we saw that ride-hailing companies use drivers’ smartphones in order to track the car, and that they also share the car location to the passengers through the mobile App, we had the Idea!” He continues. “We made a survey on some entities, and discovered that more than 85% of the bus drivers own smartphones. Now, the Tareeqi passengers’ App allows them to know the current location and the exact arrival time of their buses, and also to get notified when the bus arrives. For drivers, the Tareeqi app allows them to see their fastest routes, which includes all the passengers that they would pick up. It also shares the location of the bus. And all of that without installing any expensive GPS devices; only by using the magic of the GPS in the smartphones.”
The startup was decorated as the best social impact startup at GITEX future Stars Awards, and got direct access to the Dubai EXPO 2020 live innovation impact grant programme which funds startups with grant of up to 100K USD.
For now, while Saleh is bent on delivering the startup in larger Egypt and elsewhere, he does not, however, forget the startup’s dark days in a hurry.
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“In your darkest days, you need a team with a common vision, who can stay together,” Saleh says, about what sustained the startup even with less funding.
And for founders like him, one thing is more important than a startup’s product: the team.
“Choose your team wisely, since the team is much more important than the idea. A good team can make anything happen,” he says.
AL-Farouk Saleh Tareeqi AL-Farouk Saleh Tareeqi
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer