How Helgg Scooters is enabling planet-friendly transport in Nigeria
Helgg scooters is a Nigerian micro-mobility start-up that provides commuters with a great way to move around while saving the planet and their wallets simultaneously. The company is driven by a vision to support the race for cleaner energy consumption and zero carbon emission during Human Transit.
“Helgg scooters provide the last-mile solution to customers. The Last-mile solution is for individuals that desire to cover distances that are too far to walk but too close to drive. We aim to bridge the gap and simultaneously reduce the environmental carbon footprint caused by non-electric automobiles” said Johnson Jaiyeola, CEO of Helgg Scooters.
Helgg was founded in 2019 after its 3 co-founders went on a trip to California and noticed the ease with which residents of the area commuted around their city with electric scooters. Beyond the comfort enjoyed, they were impressed by the efficiency and environmental friendliness of the transportation system. This inspired them to replicate the system back home in Nigeria, where environmentally friendly vehicles and last-mile transit systems are scarce.
On getting back to Nigeria, the cofounders who were students at the time started learning as much as they could about last-mile travel, electric scooters, and how they could establish this electric micro-mobility system here in Nigeria. While in school, they set up a team, created a business model, and secured investments to launch the business. These steps enabled them to import their first batch of electric scooters in 2022 and test out the system on their University campus- Covenant University.
Ore Oluwafemi one of the co-founders, said, “We have carried out feasibility studies to test the market’s interest in our micro-mobility service and the feedback has been very positive. People are willing to try something new, cool, and fun.”
Helgg’s target market consists of people living in estates and on university campuses, as these environments are safe and often have smooth roads for vehicles like scooters. This market is also attractive to Helgg as they do not need to operate under the jurisdiction of the government and they have a lesser chance of being taxed exorbitantly.
Currently, they are looking to expand to universities and estates where they have surveyed and gotten good feedback to set up. To operate in such a community their model involves them paying a percentage of each transaction to the community management.
Due to the fact that most Nigerian roads don’t accommodate micro-mobility vehicles, Helgg covers the cost of painting the lanes of roads and setting up informative and regulatory signs. The costs customers incur are the cost of the rides and their personal gear like helmets if they want to get customized ones.
In Ore’s words “There are existing companies which have proven that this model is feasible such as Lime, and Bird, billion-dollar micro-mobility companies in Europe. It would be nice to penetrate this market here in Africa finally. The reaction and excitement people get when they see us riding is also a form of validation that this business would thrive here.”
He also noted that they’re not the first in this carbon-neutral micro-mobility industry in Nigeria. Helgg has recognized and is learning from earlier market entrants and taking notes of the challenges these other companies are facing.
The Helgg scooter works via an app, where customers can order and pay to use it at any time. To start a ride, you scan the QR code at the top of the scooter and it prompts you to pay a 10 Naira fee to unlock the scooter for a ride at a rate of 10kobo per meter.
Although the company currently focuses on electric scooters, they have a much bigger picture in mind. Their end goal is to scale to electric bicycles and then focus on replicating the uber model for electric cars in Nigeria. They aim to one day disrupt the public transport sector with enough eco-friendly vehicles to replace gas-fueled ones.
