Dubai-based shared mobility services provider Swvl has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire UK-based smart bus platform and technology start-up Zeelo, as it continues to expand globally.
The deal will expand Swvl's worldwide footprint to 146 cities across 21 countries, including immediate entry into two big markets, the US and South Africa, while boosting its sustainable business model, it said on Friday.
The terms of the deal, which is expected to be finalised in May, were not disclosed.
“Swvl and Zeelo share a vision and mission to provide reliable transportation that gets riders where they need to go in an affordable, safe and environmentally friendly manner,” said Mostafa Kandil, founder and chief executive of Swvl.
“Zeelo rapidly advances our leading market position as a provider of technology-enabled mass transit solutions on a global scale.”
Swvl's acquisition of Zeelo follows other agreements forged by the $1.5 billion company, which listed on the Nasdaq last month after merging with a special-purpose acquisition company (Spac).
Earlier this week, Swvl, which was incorporated in Cairo, agreed to acquire Turkish mass transit company Volt Lines to further expand its operations in Europe.
The company bought Berlin-based technology-enabled mass transit solutions provider door2door last month.
It also acquired a controlling stake in Shotl, an Uber-like service in Barcelona for bus and van operators, last August.
In November, it acquired a controlling interest in Argentina's Viapool to help its expansion within Latin America.
The mobility-as-a-service market was valued at about $12bn in 2020 and is projected to grow up to $60bn by 2026 at a compound annual rate of more than 30 per cent, according to Mordor Intelligence.
Zeelo offers daily bus commutes to frontline workers and students through contracts with organisations and family-run bus operator networks.
Its system is used by large businesses, staffing agencies, independent schools and universities across the UK, South Africa and the US.
The Zeelo acquisition is expected to help Swvl in supporting the shift from single-occupancy vehicles to zero-emission mass transit as it seeks to tap into opportunities in both the labour and education segments.
The deal would “firmly establish smart bus transport as the best-in-class shared mobility solution that takes account of all income levels and the needs of ordinary, every-day travellers”, said Sam Ryan, founder and chief executive of Zeelo.
“Bus transport done well with tech can take us beyond our dependency on cars and taxis, which are not suitable for commutes from non-urban areas … especially shift workers, professionals and students living in transport-poor areas in the developed markets.”
Swvl, which was founded in 2017, allows commuters to reserve seats on private buses operating on fixed routes and pay fares using its mobile app.
It has intercity and intra-city buses and offers transport services to business and governments.
The latest agreement will enable Swvl to offer business-to-business mobility solutions that reduce operational costs for its clients, the company said.
It also aims to tap into the light-delivery model by partnering with existing fleet partners, including more than 200 bus operators in the UK and the US.
Results:
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 (PA) | Group 1 US$75,000 (Dirt) | 2,200 metres
Winner: Goshawke, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer)
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas (TB) | Listed $250,000 (D) | 1,600m
Winner: Silva, Oisin Murphy, Pia Brendt
7.40pm: Meydan Classic Trial (TB) | Conditions $100,000 (Turf) | 1,400m
Winner: Golden Jaguar, Connor Beasley, Ahmad bin Harmash
8.15pm: Al Shindagha Sprint (TB) | Group 3 $200,000 (D) | 1,200m
Winner: Drafted, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (D) | 1,600m
Winner: Capezzano, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,000m
Winner: Oasis Charm, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
10pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m
Winner: Escalator, Christopher Hayes, Charlie Fellowes
Meydan racecard:
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 (PA) Group 1 | US$75,000 (Dirt) | 2,200 metres
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas (TB) Listed | $250,000 (D) | 1,600m
7.40pm: Meydan Classic Trial (TB) Conditions | $100,000 (Turf) | 1,400m
8.15pm: Al Shindagha Sprint (TB) Group 3 | $200,000 (D) | 1,200m
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (D) | 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,000m
10pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
