Why We Invested in Feenix — Democratizing Vehicle Ownership for Ride-Hailing Entrepreneurs
Feenix is a Ghanaian mobility platform that aims to make vehicle ownership more accessible, improve driver welfare and road safety through smart insurance. The platform includes a ride-hailing service that enables gig economy drivers to pay off their vehicles as they earn.
Feenix’s smart pay-as-you-go and connected car technology ensures timely payments and incentivizes safe driving by offering safe drivers flexible and affordable insurance packages.
A majority of ride-hailing drivers across Africa lack access to traditional financing. According to an article by Mondanto, “Bank car loans are often out of reach for ride-hailing drivers and often include requirements that drivers can’t provide, like an active bank account, credit history, guarantors, and collateral.”
Feenix’s drive-to-own system provides a path to independent vehicle ownership. Feenix works with financing companies to offer revenue-based loans to underserved drivers, who use its cashless payment app to repay their loans over time. A maximum of a ten percent down payment is required of the drivers, opening up the possibility of ownership to a broader pool of potential entrepreneurs.
Feenix applies a data-driven approach to financing using IoT technology fitted in each vehicle to track its physical location, revenue generated by the drivers, repayment history, and outstanding debt. They also leverage this technology to collect data on drivers’ road safety habits, assigning a risk score to each driver. Insurance companies then use this data to reward safer drivers with cheaper insurance premiums. This ensures drivers are incentivized to contribute to safer roads for passengers and the community.
Impact
Feenix aims to be West Africa’s leading tech-backed vehicle leasing company, providing affordable, accessible, and flexible options for vehicle ownership.
Since its inception in 2021, the company has signed 10,000 drivers to its platform and supported more than 200 drivers with flexible vehicle financing.
“We started our journey as a traditional ride-hailing company, but soon realized that the main problem in the market was lack of access to finance for drivers, and road safety,” explains Prince Adjapong, Founder of Feenix. “We observed drivers’ difficulties when accessing vehicles to earn a living, avoid preventable accidents, and secure adequate insurance. We knew that we needed to approach this differently. After analyzing our market positioning and technology, we discovered that we had inadvertently developed a smart pay-as-you-go technology platform that automatically managed vehicles while reducing the risk of driver defaults commonly experienced across Africa.”
Prince Adjapong notes that they can collaborate with their insurance partners to introduce monthly insurance with smart pricing by leveraging fleet and driving profile data captured by their technology. This will enable drivers to receive cheaper insurance based on their driving score, effectively encouraging them to drive safely and reducing accidents and insurance claims.
By providing drivers with financial incentives to drive safely (in the form of cheaper insurance), Feenix fosters a culture of careful driving, making roads safer for their drivers, passengers, and others in the cities where they operate.
Smart Asset Financing™ with Feenix
Untapped has partnered with Feenix to finance its fleet in Ghana. “We are confident in the company’s ability to scale and attract new drivers. At the same time, Feenix’s platform and IOT technology promise to provide mutually beneficial linkages between drivers, insurers, and vehicle financing companies,” says David Kleiterp, Untapped’s Head of Investments — Africa, “We are also drawn to the positive impact that Feenix is having on gig economy workers in Ghana and are confident in the team’s ability to deliver value to them.
David notes that Untapped Global aims to expand alongside Feenix to reach more drivers across Ghana and beyond, providing employment opportunities while improving their quality of life.
About Untapped Global
Untapped Global creates shared prosperity by unlocking economic opportunity where it’s needed most.
We play a catalytic role in financing tech-enabled companies in emerging markets. Our financing approach delivers competitive returns, and measurable impact for global investors.
For more information, reach out to our team at info@untapped-global.com
