Peter Mutei, a ride-hailing driver in Nairobi, gets his gigs through Uber and Little, a Kenyan ride-hailing platform. Uber gives him more business overall, but he still prefers Little, as it helps him make more money and offers better convenience.
“Little stands out for me because the rates are much better than those other apps, and the clients are mostly mature because they consider and respect the waiting time,” Mutei told Rest of World. Mutei makes about 3,000 to 5,000 Kenyan shillings ($23–$38) for five trips on Little. “You would need about eight trips on Uber to get the same,” he said.
Mutei is one of more than 200,000 Kenyan gig drivers on the Little app. The app is emerging as a strong contender to Uber and Bolt, which currently dominate Kenya’s ride-hailing market. Little has 2 million users and an annual gross merchandise value of about $30 million. The company has also expanded into Uganda, Tanzania, and Ghana.
Kamal Budhabhatti, who launched Little in 2017, knew that he could not beat Uber and Bolt at offering discounts, so he found an alternative route to success: corporate transport. Experts believe this strategy gives Little an advantage, as Uber and Bolt haven’t prioritized it.
“Little has managed to outperform Uber and Bolt in the ride-hailing market because it focuses on the corporate sector,” Ali Hussein Kassim, CEO of Nairobi-based business consulting firm AHK Corp., told Rest of World. “It offers a dedicated transport management portal for companies. This specialized approach caters to the specific needs of businesses, giving them more control and oversight of their employees’ transportation.”
Prior to Little, Budhabhatti founded Craft Silicon, a company that builds core banking software for financial institutions. Leaning on that experience, he shifted Little’s target customers from individuals to businesses. “We found out very quickly that the retail customers on ride-hailing applications are not loyal and would jump into the next app giving them promotions and discounts,” Budhabhatti told Rest of World. “And we definitely cannot survive and scale the company by rolling out discounts. Focusing on businesses was an act of survival.”
Little offers companies a management tool with which they can coordinate their commuting workforce: add users, make a monthly budget, book rides, and track usage. Employees use the service throughout the month on a single company account.
In Nairobi, Little currently trails behind Uber and Bolt by daily rides and number of drivers. “But when it comes to corporate ride-hailing, Little is bigger than Uber and Bolt combined,” Budhabhatti told Rest of World. He said the company has more than 5,000 corporate customers, including Safaricom, Equity Bank, Unilever, and Kenya Commercial Bank.
Uber and Bolt have been trying to scale their corporate ride-hailing product in Kenya for years. Uber — which first introduced the vertical in Kenya in 2017 — has used promotional discounts to acquire customers, but its strategy didn’t pick up. Budhabhatti said Bolt has recently started offering promotional discounts to lure corporate users. Uber and Bolt did not respond to Rest of World’s request for comment.
According to Karen Kanana Mworia, assistant manager of contracts, projects, and services at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, Little’s platform provides a seamless and comfortable commuting experience for hospital employees. It also helps the hospital efficiently track transportation spending. “The reporting system with Little has made us able to project future spend and also hold my team accountable, as the reports provide clear guidelines in usage,” Mworia told Rest of World. “The aspect of in-app budget creations per department and approvals makes it easier for the team.” The hospital has about 350 employees signed on to the Little platform, for costs ranging from 1.8 million to 2 million Kenyan shillings per month ($13,800 to $15,000).
We found out very quickly that the retail customers on ride-hailing applications are not loyal.”
Elizabeth Wachira, a program lead at the World University Service of Canada, a Canadian global development organization that supports education and economic empowerment for young people, told Rest of World that Little stands out because of its quality of drivers and cars. “Though the prices on Little are a bit higher than Uber, we prefer using them,” Wachira said. “It’s mostly because we have not had a single conflict with their drivers all these years.”
At the same time, Little’s business model limits how fast and how far the company can grow, Budhabhatti said. “You can’t onboard companies as easily as you can onboard individual users, so the growth pace is slower.”
Kassim, of AHK Corp., thinks the company’s current rate of growth may not last. Kenya’s corporate ride-hailing market will eventually reach saturation as more platforms venture into the space, he told Rest of World. And its model may not work as well outside of Kenya.
“Little’s strong local partnerships and understanding may not translate as effectively when expanding to new markets, potentially limiting their growth beyond their current regions,” Kassim said. “Uber and Bolt have significant resources and global experience. They may adapt their strategies to better compete in the corporate sector, potentially eroding Little’s advantage.”
Budhabhatti said his company is well aware of these threats. Little has responded by continuing to innovate and increase its offerings. Recently, it has positioned itself as a sort of super-app. Users can purchase tickets for movies and events directly through the Little app. They can also pay their utility and phone bills on the app. Little also offers lending, letting drivers borrow up to 3,000 Kenyan shillings ($23). Thanks to its partnership with Safaricom, users without smartphones can book a ride by dialing a USSD code. Its payment options include direct bank payments and M-Pesa, a feature Uber introduced only last year. “That gave us more local penetration and usage than other platforms,” Budhabhatti said.
“You can see that Little is not just ride-hailing. We offer so much value that it will be difficult to leave us,” he said.
