The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Nowadays, we have apps for sharing bikes, cars, and buses. There is even talk of an app for sharing tuk-tuks! Naturally, the next big thing would be an app for sharing the only remaining mode of transportation, scooters. And that’s exactly what our latest Egyptian innovators and co-founders, Mohamed Hamza and Alaa Shalabi, came up with when they introduced the newest e-scooter platform in the Middle East, Slyd. The website states, “We promise to ease that pesky last mile ride. Facing a 15 min walk that is too far to walk comfortably and too close for a cab ride, we are here to fix that problem.”

How did the idea of this application come to be? Shalabi, CEO of Slyd and former employee at Careem, answers this inquiry, “From my previous experience working at Careem, we always had this hypothesis that mass transportation is a big gap in the region that needs to be fulfilled. As I was working on ‘Careem Bus’ project I found a gap: if people wanted to leave their cars at home and use mass transportation private or public, they are extremely hindered because there are no first and last stop solutions.”

To give you a more elaborative understanding of this application, we’ve combined Slyd’s descriptions from Crunchbase Pro and Google Play, which reads as follows: Our electric scooters will take you where you need to go. Slyd gives you the freedom to ride personal electric scooters without the hassle of parking it. Pick it up and drop it off in the designated areas and the scooter will lock and unlock using our app. It can be used to go around campus, get to and from work or just for a fun ride. Here is how it works:

1- Download the Slyd app (available on iOS and Android)
2- Log in or create your account
3- Input your preferred payment method(s)
4- Find a close by Slyd ride
5- Ride responsibly to your destination
6- Take a picture of your Slyd scooter after you lock it

We have to stress on a few final quick points before we wrap up. Firstly, the service is environmentally friendly as the scooters run on electricity. Secondly, the startup is working on a cash system instead of the not fully accessible credit card system, as well as an anti-theft system for those who decide to keep the scooters for themselves.  Thirdly, they are planning to expand to districts across Greater Cairo. Finally, the team is quite intimidating as their combined resume includes companies, such as IBM, Torino Coffee, Lava mobile phones, and Careem.    

So far, the app has gained an average rating of 5 stars based on 14 reviews with some positive reviews, such as “Excellent and extremely flawless” and “It is a really great idea, and it was a great experience”. At this rate, we can definitely expect amazing surprises from them in the near future. Who knows, we may find them featured on TV for revolutionising the economic principle of shared economy in the Middle East. Be sure to check out their website, as well as their Facebook page, and LinkedIn account.     

Who knew that a simple two-wheeled invention, founded almost two centuries ago in Germany, would come back stronger than ever to serve the Egyptian community?!