Weekend 46_4

16 New startups | Pathao
Pathao:
Creating convenience and opportunity
Solving the crisis for Dhaka’s commuters
Tarek Musanna
It was 2:30pm and the clock was
running faster than ever. Abir, a
university student, had to be at
Banani by 3pm. Standing on the
side walks of Mirpur 12 bus stand, he
was cursing his fate as there wasn’t
any Banani bound buses coming
his way. Even if he found one, he
surely couldn’t be at his destination
on time. Within minutes, he was
rescued by a man on a motorbike
– Awlad Hossain. Awlad was on
his way to his day job, at a hotel in
Gulshan 1. Awlad dropped Abir at
Banani a few minutes before 3pm
and while he was on his way to work,
he made a few bucks for himself. The
name that brought these two people
together, delivering convenience
for one and creating opportunity for
another, is the brand-new startup in
Dhaka – Pathao.
Pathao started off as a delivery
company, picking up on the
e-commerce boom of the city. It was
one of the TOP100 startups of 2016,
to have attended Echelon, an event
specially focusing on the budding
startups of Asia Pacific and the
nearby regions. However, businesses
have delivery demands on a specific
period every day, and the rest of the
day, Pathao’s service is underutilised.
Looking at the opportunity, and the
potential of ride hailing services
in Dhaka, Pathao started its “On
Demand Rides” service a couple
of months back. In just a few days,
Pathao now boasts hundreds of
riders, serving thousands of people
every day.
While Pathao’s major selling
point might appear to be the cheap,
convenient on-demand motorbike
ride, the fact that all the drivers, or
as they say ‘riders’ are freelancers
adds a completely new dynamic
to it. “Here at Pathao, anyone
with a bike and a smartphone can
become a rider. We’re providing
the opportunity to earn more than
twenty thousand taka every month,
working as a freelancer, working as
an entrepreneur,” says Elius Hussain,
CEO of Pathao.
With Pathao, a student, a job
holder or anyone with a bike and a
smartphone can work as a rider and
earn money. They keep only 20% of
the total charge, giving 80% to the
rider. There are occasional incentives
for the riders as well, where they
can earn up to 120% of their total
fares. A rider can decide to switch
his status any time he wants, which
enables him to ride whenever he
wants, wherever he wants. With the
leniency of freelancing, some people
are actually taking it up as a hobby.
Potential riders can apply through
Pathao.com. Pathao representatives
call them in for vetting their official
IDs and papers. They also go through
a training session to be familiarised
with the app, customer etiquette and
driving safety. At this point, Pathao
is looking to scale up and enlist
more riders. Elius sees what Pathao
is doing as an innovation. He’s
expecting people to spontaneously
work with Pathao, and they are. In
fact, 20-30 new riders join Pathao
every day. Elius is expecting the
numbers will soon go up to 100.
He claims Pathao is capable of
scaling up and managing way more
riders than they have right now with
proper quality control. Elius is trying
to lower the barriers to entry for both
riders and customers.
“Pathao is solving one of the
biggest problems in the city, which
is transportation; beating traffic
jams. Anyone who is involved in the
process basically contributes to the
net gain of the society. Yesterday,
I took Pathao to go from Banani
to Dhanmondi and it was only a
Photos: Courtesy
30-minute ride. With other mediums
of transportations, it would have
taken me at least one and a half
hours, the bill being possibly twice
or thrice the amount. So, when
someone is providing the service,
the driver, he is making people’s lives
easier.” Elius shares his personal
view. “How can people be happy
when coming home or going to
office means fighting a battle on the
streets of Dhaka every time? If your
commute is easier, if it’s slightly
more convenient, it makes your life
better. And that’s what we do here at
Pathao.”
Pathao positions itself as a service
which connects two strangers,
benefiting one with convenience,
cheap and fast commute, slicing
through Dhaka traffic, and benefiting
another with an opportunity to
earn easy money and be involved
in an amazing process that makes
everyone happy. •
WEEKEND TRIBUNE | FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017