LULA, an enterprise ride sharing platform which was launched eight years ago, has acquired Zeelo’s operations in South Africa.
The operations will transition to LULA’s tech-enabled ride-sharing solution, which enables people to be collected from their homes and taken to work and back again safely and reliably.
Xabiso Nodada, co-founder and executive director of LULA, says that he and CEO Velani Mboweni started the business to connect people in emerging cities to economic opportunities, one shared ride at a time.
“Without access to transport, you cannot access economic opportunities and without those opportunities, you cannot address poverty, unemployment and inequality. We identified the gap to transport employees to and from businesses, especially for those who work outside of normal business hours. We knew that there was a more efficient, convenient and scalable way to reduce congestion, plus provide transportation for people where public transit doesn’t,” he says.
Over the last five years, LULA has consistently maintained a year-on-year growth of between 2,5x and 4x.
Zeelo launched operations in South Africa in 2018 driven by its overarching mission to connect the world to work and education through affordable, safe, and sustainable transportation. Zeelo’s exit from South Africa is part of its strategic realignment, directing its focus toward further expansion in the UK, Ireland and North America.
“It has been a remarkable journey and we are grateful to our team, clients and suppliers for giving us the opportunity to serve them. Whilst the decision to exit the region was a challenging one, we are excited to support the transition of our customers and suppliers to the LULA platform and look forward to witnessing LULA’s future successes in tackling the transportation challenges in South Africa,” says Sam Ryan, founder
and CEO of Zeelo.