The Story of SWVL’s $1.5 Billion Merger

Before the Uber era, transportation had first seemed like a pretty set and straightforward market: The government issued buses and taxis, and people used those means of transport. The notion of penetrating this set-in-stone market was unfathomable for large corporations- let alone small startups.

Larger corporations, then limited themselves to niche markets of renting luxury vehicles, and cars equipped with chauffeurs. However, there was an underlying trend that UBER, and then SWVL were aware of that no one else had foreseen. 

SWVL Founder Mostafa Kandil noticed several issues in the Egyptian transportation system. First, was the unreliability of public transport. People would either use government-issued buses that had a fluctuating level of quality and often arrived late, or take a seat in private mini and micro-buses whose quality, and timeliness were hardly guaranteed.

Another underlying issue in that market was the lack of safety, especially experienced by the female passengers of those routes. All of this coupled with the need for guaranteed and trackable transport led Kandil to found SWVL, Egypt’s first parallel mass transit system that is affordable, and available to the masses. A gap that even UBER and Careem did not fill after having penetrated the market with on-demand cars for years before SWVL. Only after SWVL had spearheaded the market with their bus approach did UBER and Careem introduce similar services.

In July 2021, SWVL announced its merger with Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital that won them roughly 440 million dollars, and a listing on NASDAQ. This would allow SWVL to replicate its successful business model in more countries around the world starting with Europe.

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