MUV, one of the bike-hailing startups in Dhaka, has started doing on-demand delivery. The company has announced a partnership with BRTC and Shyamoli Paribahan Yesterday for ticket delivery.
Its CEO Mr. Fahad Ibna Wahab told Future Startup that the company aims to do more in the on-demand delivery space including exploring online ticketing in the near future.
MUV was launched in April this year. From our report on MUV:
“A new on-demand bike-hailing service MUV has launched in Dhaka today. The startup connects bikers and passengers and allows on-demand ride facility. The service, in its early beta, is only available in Dhaka city and is owned by a company call ZP Technologies Ltd, according to three people aware of the matter.
Like other mobility apps, you will have to install the MUV app to request a ride. Once you request for a ride, a nearby biker partner will come and pick you up. The startup promises to offer best possible service at the best price and also claims that it applies a proper verification process to onboard bikers in order to ensure the safety of the riders. “MUV provides a secure and reliable service at an affordable price that you will definitely love,” writes the company on its website. At the same time, it also says bikers can also earn handsomely by joining to MUV network as a partner biker.
According to our source, MUV is now a team of 11 people and has raised a small seed money from undisclosed investors. The company aims to get to 200 bikes in the next few weeks.”
As I said, MUV now does on-demand delivery for individuals and businesses, it is working on e-commerce logistics, it does food-delivery in partnership with restaurants in Dhaka.
See a screenshot of its app below that indicates the company offers three services: 1) bike-hailing 2) food-delivery 3) on-demand logistics
MUV’s CEO told us that the company aims to build an on-demand service platform on top of it adding new new services on a regular basis.
This is an important strategy because of the aggregator theory which means bikers will join the platform that offers the maximum number of rides for them and rider will use the app that can always serve a ride and vice versa.
With the new services in place, MUV will be able to ensure constant work for bikers thus attracting bikers join its platform because it potentially offers the maximum rides thus earning. Similarly, riders will use the app that has maximum up time meaning you get a ride whenever you request one.
This is no distinctive strategy. Many ride-hailing services have been trying this model globally, Indonesia’s Go-Jek being the most prominent one with more diverse services including payment.
Pathao has a logistics operation and it originally started as an on-demand logistics service before pivoting to the ride-hailing.
SAM also plans to get into ecommerce and other areas. It already has an e-wallet and plans to go big in payment in the near future.
I think adding more services or products to your core line when the core is not strong enough is always detrimental to the focus and it limits your ability to execute.
Having said that, MUV’s move into on-demand delivery is critical for its competitive positioning in the market and I think the result will depend on how well it can execute on the plan.
