Company attributes
Other attributes
Bykea is a motorcycle- focused ride-hailing and courier app local to Pakistan. The platform was founded and developed in 2016 by Muneeb Maayr, Abdul Mannan, Ishaq Kothwala and Rafiq Malik. Their aim is to solve the problem of transportation and delivery while providing an income opportunity for the lower income sector. As of 2019, they operated out of Karachi, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore.
Bykea competes against Uber and Careem in Pakistan by offering their app in Urdu; with lower fares, born out of the lower maintenance and fuel costs of their bikes; with their courier service, which allows small business to reach their customers faster; with their money transfer service; and, with their food delivery service, which uses local caterers and offers lower costs than a service like Food Panda.
In May, 2019, Bykea completed a $5.7 million Series A round of financing lead by Pakistan's first venture capital fund Sarmaycar. Jonas Eichhorst was involved in the Series A and joined Bykea's board afterwards. Initially preferring to be anonymous, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) announced in August 2019 they'd invested $2 million in the Series A.
In 2018, Bykea and Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation (MJSF) announced the MJSF Bikers Support Scheme. Through the program, Bykea bikers would be able to apply for interest free loans for the purchase of a smartphone, equipment and license facilitation with a cost range between 6,000 - 12,000 PKR.
In February, 2019 Jazz and Bykea announced a partnership which offered Bykea an Internet Payment Gateway for their app, rider payment collection at JazzCash agents and, for their employees, a mobile extension number; this meant drivers would no longer have to use personal numbers for customers to reach them.